What Retail Would You Bring to Huntsville? (Decatur, Madison: live, Whole Foods)

[Huntsville_secede]

Originally Posted by A&M Bulldawg

Let's say that Constellation, Waterstone, Sweetwater, Harris Hill, and The Peaks at Southchase are all built. Will they most likely cause stores to leave exisiting structures, multiply in the market, or cause new stores to come?

They won't all ever be built.. No way this market can support all of it..especially Waterstone and the Peaks.. I hope Sweetwater with its proximity to the interstate becomes a regional outlet type mall that way it can draw from the travelers on the road there just aren't a enough people in this market alone to support such massive shopping places. THe peaks as a major shopping place forget aobut it. I hope Harris Hill gets built too mainly as a place with restaraunts that can offer local shopping for deprived NE Huntsville because there is nothing down there. Constellation should be part of making Huntsville have a real downtown so it should be more enterainment oriented. I can only see three out of the five being built and thats with Sweetwater being outlet oriented. Waterstone is not happening anytime soon the population near county road is scarce and lets see if we can even support bridgestreet before another massive upscale shopping center is built. But to answer your question the most likely result is stores relocated to the newer centers, there just isn't enough people right now is this market to support such stuff which is probably why most of it won't get built anytime soon at least not to the scale originally planned.

[Charles]

Originally Posted by Huntsville_secede

They won't all ever be built.. No way this market can support all of it..especially Waterstone and the Peaks..

What about under the most extreme optimistic circumstances with 1) all the BRAC jobs moving here and 2) the national economy straightening out?

[pennquaker09]

Originally Posted by Pirat_cat

The Gap not doing well makes sense to me when I look at it on Bridge Street compared to all the other stores around it. There are stores full of trendy things for teenage girls and the Gap looks boring compared to them. Then there's Bebe and Anthropologie for girls like me who aren't teenagers anymore. And for work clothes, I go to J. Jill or Ann Taylor. For cheap clothes, it's Old Navy. The last time I went to the Gap it was filled with clothes that were very basic and a little expensive for a pair of khakis that I already had 3 pairs just like it. The Gap just doesn't have anything I can't find somewhere else easily.

I think the Gap does women's and kid/baby clothing very well. And in the last year, the men's clothing has gotten much better, because I will admit there was a period of time when everything was horrible. The new guy realizes that a polo shouldn't fit like a box.

The fact that Gap has a lot of basic things doesn't really bother me because I think, a good wardrobe is built around a great set of basics. My only criticism involves the jeans. They don't fit like they used to. However, I was informed that they've spent the last 2 years redesigning all the denim, and it goes on sale in like 2 weeks. Maybe they'll have something for me? And it's supposed to be premium denim, so I won't have to spend $150+ on jeans anymore.

I get nearly all of my kids clothing from BabyGap. There really isn't another store that makes kid and baby clothing like Gap does. If I don't get them stuff from Gap, I buy Ralph Lauren.

When I worked at Gap, the company was starting to tank. I don't remember who the designer was at the time (this was in 2004), but they started trying to do "trendy" and it alienated the core Gap base. And they started all the woeful advertising with the celebrities. I got so tired of looked at posters of Sarah Jessica Parker.

About the Florence/Hville thing. One thing I think is important to mention is that the Bridge Street store does have to make more money in order to pay for that new store. Any time you get a new store or a remodel, your budget pretty much doubles. I don't know if the Florence store would be out performing them if they were still located at Parkway.

My mom is originally from Florence, and I will totally agree that it's completely dreadful there.

[Huntsville_secede]

Originally Posted by Charles

What about under the most extreme optimistic circumstances with 1) all the BRAC jobs moving here and 2) the national economy straightening out?

Have u seen all the plans for those places, Waterstone had like 4 million square feet plus of office space and retail. Both WaterStone and Sweetwater are Billion dollar projects..even with the economy and BRAC with the highest estimates Huntsville can't support all that crap. Even if you count all the surrounding areas Decatur, Guntersville, souther TN etc.. there no more than 600 thousand or so people in this region. Not saying all of them can't get built at some point but not the ridiculous agressive plans they originally had.

[wls2624]

The natural beauty, the trees, etc. the climate...in the winter how laid back it is, and that good old Southern hospitality.

[wls2624]

Originally Posted by wls2624

The natural beauty, the trees, etc. the climate...in the winter how laid back it is, and that good old Southern hospitality.

oops, misread, you meant retail. thought you were just asking what would bring you to huntsville. sorry bout that.

[Charles]

Originally Posted by wls2624

The natural beauty, the trees, etc. the climate...in the winter how laid back it is, and that good old Southern hospitality.

So you'd bring these things to Huntsville?

[shaken8]

Originally Posted by Charles

So you'd bring these things to Huntsville?

Originally Posted by wls2624

...what would bring you to huntsville...

[Charles]

Originally Posted by shaken8

Oops.

[wls2624]

Boy, we're really screwing this one up!