New tower retail is almost never designed well for most retailers.
This is true in most cities. The best retail bays are those that already exist in some of the older buildings, so hopefully they will be preserved through time so that quality retail can go into those. Most towers have awkward bays/features that are designed well for banks or chain restaurants at best, but are typically horrible for soft goods or neighborhood services (who often won't pay freight on asking rents for these spaces anyway). Plus most resi tower developers would prefer banks (higher rent, longer term, better credit) and restaurants (higher rent and longer term often with certain tenant guarantees, but buildouts that pigeonhole the space) than mom and pops and soft goods retailers. They are more focused on the residential portion and there are underwriting conflicts when there is too much complex retail involved (especially when they go to sell...do they parcel out and create an association, more limited pool of buyers, etc).
Therefore, I have more hope for the stretch around 4th-6th and for larger master-planned developments that actually focus on a retail component (98 14th and Tivoli's deal on the old Mandarin site). Getting a critical mass of retail space under one roof in a market like Atlanta, providing sufficient parking for customers, and actually focusing on the design of the retail, layering in flexibility for a wide range of uses and spectrum of tenant types/credit ratings is key. Unfortunately, while I have a lot of faith in Ashkenazi overall given their history of buying/operating high street retail in major markets, I think their proposed Atl project itself is way too big/bold for the market, and I don't have a lot of faith in Tivoli's project taking shape as it is envisioned or in a timeframe that is convenient to all of us who enjoy watching buildings rise.
Thus I like the idea of requiring commercial uses in all of these buildings fronting Peachtree, though I hardly find it necessary on every block or on side streets. Midtown has a master plan, if I recall. There should be designated commercial corridors in that plan, and other corridors that accept a variety of higher density single uses to round out the neighborhood and make the neighborhood more attractive to more developers who don't all have the pocket or expertise to raise capital for and develop mixed-use projects.
http://www.midtownatl.com/_files/docs/blueprint-ii_ex_sum.pdf
Not sure this really gives detail on what I was thinking, but it's a plan and is a start. SF is building out a high-rise neighborhood now between Rincon Hill and the Transbay redevelopment area. There is a lot of structure where certain corners/street are required to have commercial space that fits a specific criteria designed to enforce uses that round out and complement the neighborhood, and there are other sites/streets where no commercial space is necessary, well, because it's not necessary to have retail in these areas! However, by SF standards it will likely always be very sterile (so hopefully Midtown Atlanta keeps all the character it can and sacrifices nothing for lower quality high-rise design!!!!).
Prev
Linear Mode
