Bridge Street shutting down (Huntsville, Madison: power lines, promotional, university)

[ReggaeBusRider]

Originally Posted by raj kapoor

That may be part of the problem. When the original developers were starting this project they did not promise a nice shopping center, they promised a major tourist attraction the likes of which we had not seen in the southeast.

You nailed it Raj. I think all of us in Huntsville want Bridge Street to succeed but it is not turning out as expected. I think the visionaries expected people to travel from Florence, middle TN, Scottsboro, Cullman, and beyond for the experience. As you can see from responses on this thread, most common people view Bridge Street as a success without understanding the impact to the city. A good case and point is the Heritage Club. BS cannibalized a successful 30 year downtown business and shut it down.

They have pulled off a classic "bait n switch" and most people think it is the best thing going in Huntsville. Bring in a babies r us, sports authority, etc. and view it as Bridge Street growth? This saddens me to think we gave up considerable acreage in one of the best research parks in the country to shop for baby clothes. What a shame IMHO.

[BHarrison84]

Originally Posted by ReggaeBusRider

You nailed it Raj. I think all of us in Huntsville want Bridge Street to succeed but it is not turning out as expected. I think the visionaries expected people to travel from Florence, middle TN, Scottsboro, Cullman, and beyond for the experience. As you can see from responses on this thread, most common people view Bridge Street as a success without understanding the impact to the city. A good case and point is the Heritage Club. BS cannibalized a successful 30 year downtown business and shut it down.

They have pulled off a classic "bait n switch" and most people think it is the best thing going in Huntsville. Bring in a babies r us, sports authority, etc. and view it as Bridge Street growth? This saddens me to think we gave up considerable acreage in one of the best research parks in the country to shop for baby clothes. What a shame IMHO.

I'm pretty sure people come from the cities that you mentioned do go to Bridgestreet. I thought the idea was to pull people from cities like B'ham, Nashville, etc, with the talk about it being a tourist attraction.

What was the Heritage Club? How could Bridgestreet shut it down if it was truly successful? I would say BridgeStreet hurt the Madison Square Mall but that is it.

I don't see how Sports Authority hurts Bridgestreet, probably most popular store there with males.

Some of you guys are on a much different wavelength regarding shopping centers than your average person, I think.

The research park thing is really just a marketing gimmick by the city. Pretty much every city tries it now, Huntsville just happened to be a bit more succesfful with theirs probably b/c of the NASA and military stuff in town.

[ReggaeBusRider]

Originally Posted by BHarrison84

I don't see how Sports Authority hurts Bridgestreet, probably most popular store there with males.

Some of you guys are on a much different wavelength regarding shopping centers than your average person, I think.

The research park thing is really just a marketing gimmick by the city. Pretty much every city tries it now, Huntsville just happened to be a bit more succesfful with theirs probably b/c of the NASA and military stuff in town.

You could not have made my point any clearer. If you think a place for males to shop is better for the city than continuing the expansion of research park, we are certainly on a different wavelength. I prefer this type of expansion:

CRP Biotech Campus | HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology

[BHarrison84]

Bridgestreet received a 4.4 rating out 5 on Google reviews. One person even cities Babies R Us as one thing she liked about it. Sorry, Reggae. LOL These people loved BridgeStreet and apparently it is no. 1 attraction for Hunsville on Tripadvisor.

So it def. isn't hurting Huntsville and probably a bigger draw than some on here want to admit b/c they wanted more "upscale" places. LOL

[BHarrison84]

Originally Posted by ReggaeBusRider

You could not have made my point any clearer. If you think a place for males to shop is better for the city than continuing the expansion of research park, we are certainly on a different wavelength. I prefer this type of expansion:

CRP Biotech Campus | HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology

Well if I am not working at one of these companies, I don't care too much about the expansion of the research park (outside of more jobs for people), but there seemed to be a ton of undeveloped land out there last time I drove around there. Bridge Street doesn't seem to be taking up too much space, they even built a parking garage to limit the size of the parking lots.

They could always buy more land in the city and call it the research park. Huntsville seems to have a ton of land.

Tell me this, why is it better for a company to locate at the "research park" than somewhere else. Let's say Decatur. It seems like many of the companies at the "research park" are not conducting research and probably have little or no interaction with UAH. I wouldn't be surprised to see an insurance company located out there, for example.

I laugh every time I hear or see "research park". Just seems like a bit of hype.

It is similar to how colleges will claim they are "research universities" but the undergrad students are not involved in research, and not even most of the professors.

[bmrisko]

Originally Posted by ReggaeBusRider

A good case and point is the Heritage Club. BS cannibalized a successful 30 year downtown business and shut it down.

The Heritage Clubs's failure lies 100% on the owners who made the decision to move to Bridgestreet and not pay their debts. No one forced them to uproot from Downtown Huntsville.

[ReggaeBusRider]

Originally Posted by BHarrison84

Well if I am not working at one of these companies, I don't care too much about the expansion of the research park (outside of more jobs for people), but there seemed to be a ton of undeveloped land out there last time I drove around there. Bridge Street doesn't seem to be taking up too much space, they even built a parking garage to limit the size of the parking lots.

They could always buy more land in the city and call it the research park. Huntsville seems to have a ton of land.

Tell me this, why is it better for a company to locate at the "research park" than somewhere else. Let's say Decatur. It seems like many of the companies at the "research park" are not conducting research and probably have little or no interaction with UAH. I wouldn't be surprised to see an insurance company located out there, for example.

I laugh every time I hear or see "research park". Just seems like a bit of hype.

That's funny!!

[BHarrison84]

Originally Posted by ReggaeBusRider

That's funny!!

Well explain it to me, I don't understand what the big deal is about a research park. I think people just take it for granted that it is a big deal. Outside of being a marketing tool for a city and maybe some beneficial parternships with a university nearby (but why couldn't corporations not at the research park still have some parternships with a local university?), I don't see what all the fuss is over. Research park makes it sound like the corporations are all working on different elements of the same type of research and they interact with each other but I think most if not all of them are independent of each other. I think some of the companies are more design engineering firms than research firms but maybe I take "research park" too literally. LOL

I will admit that I am ignorant as to what the big advantage is. I could care less if my employer is located at a research park or not, as long as I get paid.

http://www.huntsvillealabamausa.com/...139&Itemid=324 Here is Huntsville website talking up the research park. They don't seem to describe in specifics of why it is better to locate there than not there. I don't see how being located near other high tech companies in a designated "research park" is an advantage for a high tech company. If a company locates across the street from the research park but not actually in it, could it not still benefit from whatever is good about the research park? The website even touts the successes of the individual companies at the park but never tells us why they couldn't be successful not located at the park.

[ReggaeBusRider]

You are minimizing a major part of it. Marketing and identity for the city is significant. Collectively bringing in the best research companies in the world through tax incentives in a designated "contiguous park" is huge. Proximity to RSA, UAH, NASA, and the Monaco ranks 3rd in my mind.

It seems we will just have to agree to disagree on this one. When a cure for cancer comes out of this little city within a little city I will not care if you call it a marketing ploy or amusement park. It will be a great day for society.

[BHarrison84]

Originally Posted by ReggaeBusRider

You are minimizing a major part of it. Marketing and identity for the city is significant. Collectively bringing in the best research companies in the world through tax incentives in a designated "contiguous park" is huge. Proximity to RSA, UAH, NASA, and the Monaco ranks 3rd in my mind.

It seems we will just have to agree to disagree on this one. When a cure for cancer comes out of this little city within a little city I will not care if you call it a marketing ploy or amusement park. It will be a great day for society.

The cure will come from people at a company, not Huntsville, not the "research park". I think these people could come up with a cure for cancer at other locations in this country so this seems like a weak argument. The location seems irrelevant, it is their expertise and knowledge that is key.

I am going to assume I "won" this debate until I see some of the advantages of the park other than a marketing thing and just a concentration of high tech firms in a small area, which might help the individual companies pitch living in Huntsville more easily to people who do not live in the area already.