Underground Atlanta redevelopment could hit $400M (Decatur: wages, taxes, cost)

[Iconographer]

Originally Posted by demonta4

If it's a neighborhood mart it's ok, but we don't need a full Supercenter downtown.

No one said so, including myself. But a decent food retailer in that part of town would surely be appreciated.

[tikigod311]

Originally Posted by SLIMMACKEY

Why the GENTRIFICATION cycle?? Why not revitalize with an emphasis on mixed use/mixed income.....who needs another luxury apartment building ? There are luxury condo's in the area (Centenial Hills, Fairlie Poplar) which have a problem selling. Its not all about UPSCALE or LUXURY......

Amen. The last thing I want to see here is a Whole Foods. This everything luxury BS needs to stop.

[wasel]

Funny how everyone loathes Walmart, yet the Walmart development in Chamblee came before all the other development that has followed. Now a Whole Foods is going up near there, lofts have been selling like hotcakes and a long-time car dealership sold to a developer whose turning the lot into mixed-use.

Walmart is not the worst thing that can happen to downtown.

[honobob]

Originally Posted by wasel

Walmart is not the worst thing that can happen to downtown.

Exactly! That would be two Walmarts.

[honobob]

Originally Posted by AnsleyPark

Those are pretty funny! We shop at Walmart all of the time, and I don't see what is wrong with having one downtown.

It is a matter of placement. San Francisco allowed a Costco but it went into an area that consisted of low rise body shop, muffler shop, lite industrial use properties. You don't want your first floor retail in your central business district to be massage parlors, nail salons, and pawn shops. Honolulu sold out by allowing a Walmart to move into a Macys space. They may have been the highest bidder and will probably provide more sales tax revenue from the property but it will drag down the surrounding neighborhood.

There's a reason that those Outlet Malls are on the edges of towns.

[tikigod311]

Also, there is room for different grocery stores in the area. IMO, a Kroger at Underground and a TJs down by Turner Field would be optimal.

I will be honest, a Walmart at the center of downtown just seems a bit meh. Why? It does everything bare bones with little regard for design. They can spruce up the outside a bit, but the inside is always the same be it regular, super or neighborhood Walmart. At the center of the city, it's reasonable to expect more.

[Clayton white guy]

No, Downtown/ Underground needs a "for real though" grocery store (Kroger, Publix, even a Food Depot or Wayfield). In her single days, my wife lived at the William-Oliver Building right at Five Points (On the Marietta Street and Peachtree Street side) She told me that she would go to Midtown (usually the Ansley Mall where there are two grocery stores) and come back to her building's parking deck (the really ugly green one on the southeast corner of Five Points (Peachtree and Decatur Street side) She had a collapsible buggy that would fold into her trunk. Yes the "midget" fake Kroger that used to be across from City Hall was there at the time, but a "real" shopping trip there was impossible AND it was many blocks further east. In order to get a week's worth of groceries: my wife would have to get into her car, drive to Midtown, park , get her groceries, drive back to the "green monster deck", park again, unfold and pack her collapsible buggy, go down the elevator to street level, navigating crossing the Five Points intersection. A full size, "for-real-though" Kroger or Publix at Underground Atlanta would have cut more than half of the steps (especially the parking/ driving ones, not the collapsible buggy crossing Five Points, though) ;0) A "mini-mart" or overpriced, under-selectioned Whole Foods is NOT what Downtown Atlanta needs to inspire lots or normal, middle income, tax paying people to live there. I know, I am one of them!

[JMatl]

I'm thinking a nice Publix along with a mid-sized CityTarget would be a good start...

[cqholt]

Originally Posted by honobob

It is a matter of placement. San Francisco allowed a Costco but it went into an area that consisted of low rise body shop, muffler shop, lite industrial use properties. You don't want your first floor retail in your central business district to be massage parlors, nail salons, and pawn shops. Honolulu sold out by allowing a Walmart to move into a Macys space. They may have been the highest bidder and will probably provide more sales tax revenue from the property but it will drag down the surrounding neighborhood.

There's a reason that those Outlet Malls are on the edges of towns.

They need low rent and large parcels to make the margins work.

[cqholt]

Originally Posted by JMatl

I'm thinking a nice Publix along with a mid-sized CityTarget would be a good start...

I love the CityTarget idea, but I'll take a Kroger over Publix. Kroger has always invested in urban Atlanta. Publix needed a subside from East Lake Foundation to build the East Lake store.
PS. I worked for Publix. They will not move into an area unless the avg income meets their qualification and this area does not.