Block 23

[Jjs5056]

Unfortunately, the site plan is pretty literal in what makes up the ground floor. 3/4 of 1st Street is grocery and while a 2-story glass storefront looks beautiful in renderings, the reality is that no grocer can afford to lose that amount of wall space. The only retail planned is the corners of Wasshington/1st and Washington/2nd St. Even Colliers and TSA will face residential amenities and not retail.

I realize I am obsessed with retail. But, this block is surrounded by 4 of the most important rows of businesses in all of downtown. If you don't think retail is appropriate in that case, when is it? We've lost the WD, so this would have been perfect for a House of Blues, iPic, Pool Hall... hell, a Dave&Buster's even.

The grocer is "like no other" because of the very good adjustments RED made them make to their business model: underground loading, adding a 2nd floor, etc. The shitty ground level does not take away from the good of the project, and I think RED had the right idea in mind like they did for CityScape. But, the space saved by underground loading should not have been used to add windows for Fry's...

It's great that residential seems like a 'go' and as I said the rendering looks gorgeous. I hope it isn't value-engineered to shit like CS was.