Monday, October 15, 2007
Too Much Retail
According to the Urban Land Institute, there is an over-supply of retail space in Downtown Pittsburgh in relation to current demand from customers. That’s not too amazing given the fact that the City just wound up years of trying to make the Golden Triangle a shopping mecca, including the construction of two new department stores, one of which is now being transformed into residential units but will include space for retail. As will the PNC tower and the rehab of the G.C. Murphy Building.
Some observers characterize it simply as “too much space” while others give it a “not too much, just the wrong kind” slant. This latter group would like to see some of the existing retail replaced with higher-end and unique to Downtown shopping.
Sound familiar? It should, because this echoes the late 1990s plan to create a Marketplace at Fifth and Forbes by leveling a swath of buildings to create a Downtown mall. While it might have been unique, it would have also contained, among other features, a Downtown movie theatre that would have been in competition with suburban locales.
Guess we can breathe a collective sigh of relief knowing that one did not go through—who knows what type of over-supply—and at what cost to the taxpayers—the City would now have on its hands. It is also interesting to note that one of ULI’s current “so-called leading experts” is the former Mayor of Pittsburgh who put together plans for the Marketplace. One must wonder if he had any input into this study. It is clear that the laws of supply and demand were not part of the thinking when that path was nearly taken.
Some observers characterize it simply as “too much space” while others give it a “not too much, just the wrong kind” slant. This latter group would like to see some of the existing retail replaced with higher-end and unique to Downtown shopping.
Sound familiar? It should, because this echoes the late 1990s plan to create a Marketplace at Fifth and Forbes by leveling a swath of buildings to create a Downtown mall. While it might have been unique, it would have also contained, among other features, a Downtown movie theatre that would have been in competition with suburban locales.
Guess we can breathe a collective sigh of relief knowing that one did not go through—who knows what type of over-supply—and at what cost to the taxpayers—the City would now have on its hands. It is also interesting to note that one of ULI’s current “so-called leading experts” is the former Mayor of Pittsburgh who put together plans for the Marketplace. One must wonder if he had any input into this study. It is clear that the laws of supply and demand were not part of the thinking when that path was nearly taken.
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Over here on the North Side we have another glowing example of government-led redevelopment that we'd ALL like to forget about/level to the ground: Allegheny Center. This atrocity did as much to destroy the North Side as anything and sadly, will likely be here for the rest of my years.
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