Why can't COS support a real mall? (Colorado Springs, Westminster: apartments, lease)

[otowi]

Originally Posted by orngkat

Just made my first trip to the Powers corridor. Yuck!!!

Your first? Wow! It seems a lot of people must like it though - they choose to live right along it, north end of it is like the hottest real estate in town for several years now....

[Sonic_Spork]

Hey Mike, you are from "back East"... I grew up going to high school right across the street from Potomac Mills Mall in northern Virginia. That is one heck of a mall. A 2 mile walk from one end to the other. I guess a lot of changes have happened since I moved away, though. I read that IKEA moved out in 2001, and opened a new location nearby that is twice the size. Lordy.

I used to hang out there a lot as a young hoodlum though. Questionable choice having a huge mall right by a high school if you ask me. Sure, the kids will go there and spend money. They'll also loiter, shoplift, and cause a lot of general shenanigans. I dated the manager of the Sbarros for a while, solely because he would give me free pizza, and I'd feed myself and all my friends...

I went to Chapel Hills mall last week though. I was going to a convention and wanted some cool new clothes. I guess. I felt like shopping a bit. I went to Hot Topic. God help me. I'm just too old. I was a 90's goth, and the stuff the spooky kids wear these days...*sigh*...*grumble*... And of course the bubbly gal with the lip piercing, "Ma'am? Did you find everything?" I guess. I found what was there, I just didn't want any of it.

Speaking of the 90's. I resorted to a strip mall store trip then. Plato's Closet. Never know what you'll find at the second hand shop. Like three teenage girls working there who all do that thing where every sentence sounds like a question for some reason. And bad lighting so that you look pasty and gross in the changing room. And a rack of "90's clothes" that includes Skynyrd and Iron Maiden t-shirts, as if those bands were really 90's bands? Well. If it was before these kids were born, it's all the same to them I guess.

I give up.

[Jobster]

Originally Posted by Mike from back east

I've said it for years, on here and other sites, that America just has too many stores. The consumer economy is said to be about 70% of our national economy but who can buy with wages that have been stagnant for decades. Last year, worldwide, 82% of the wealth created went to the top 1% which leaves precious little for the average person to spread around on discretionary purchases and that ends up as vacant retail space.

I've seen this coming for a long time, every drugstore and supermarket stock each others items. My Walgreens is the size of the Acme market my Mom shopped in 60 years ago.

Not only that, but all the environmental degradation that we are responsible for, including exterminating so many different species that helped with balance of the ecosystem. We have no idea what affects the annihilation of these species will have on the welfare of the planet because there is simply not enough data, plus the things that we don't know we need to account for.

Thank you for seeing this. Many people are blind to this. They call people that point this out to be whiners, but in reality, we want children. We care about the welfare of this planet because we will be alive to see it, which is at least one of the reasons many people today choose not to have children.

The bottom line is that we can do better. Today, they teach us something called the triple bottom line in business schools; however, until shareholders are no longer responsible for the expectations of a company, that business philosophy will never be implemented.

Ideally, at least in my opinion, we would create a society that takes care of the weak, the old, and the young without thinking twice. We are but flesh and blood. An auto accident could render us incompetent for this world and potentially ruin in your lives catastrophically because we are ever so self dependent.

We in the US have it much better than foreigners, but part of this is because the cards were decked in our favor, and secondly, that doesn't mean we shouldn't strive to live comfortable, but sustainable lifestyles globally. Anyway, this is my speech for the day.

Ban incoming...

3...2...

[Thoreau424]

Should Fort Collins shame COS, for being a much smaller city, and yet redeveloping the mall there (Foothills Mall) recently into a tasteful and even classy updated mall? It's not huge, but it serves a purpose, and includes good restaurants and the nicest movie theater in town. Most of the stores are new-ish and medium-sized, so no big, old dinosaurs to throw stones at.

Or Loveland's Centerra, which is even larger and nicer than the aforementioned mall, in a city of about 77k (16% the size of COS)?

[Mike from back east]

Originally Posted by Sonic_Spork

Hey Mike, you are from "back East"... I grew up going to high school right across the street from Potomac Mills Mall in northern Virginia. That is one heck of a mall. A 2 mile walk from one end to the other. I guess a lot of changes have happened since I moved away, though. I read that IKEA moved out in 2001, and opened a new location nearby that is twice the size. Lordy.

I used to hang out there a lot as a young hoodlum though. Questionable choice having a huge mall right by a high school if you ask me. Sure, the kids will go there and spend money. They'll also loiter, shoplift, and cause a lot of general shenanigans. I dated the manager of the Sbarros for a while, solely because he would give me free pizza, and I'd feed myself and all my friends...

I went to Chapel Hills mall last week though. I was going to a convention and wanted some cool new clothes. I guess. I felt like shopping a bit. I went to Hot Topic. God help me. I'm just too old. I was a 90's goth, and the stuff the spooky kids wear these days...*sigh*...*grumble*... And of course the bubbly gal with the lip piercing, "Ma'am? Did you find everything?" I guess. I found what was there, I just didn't want any of it.

Speaking of the 90's. I resorted to a strip mall store trip then. Plato's Closet. Never know what you'll find at the second hand shop. Like three teenage girls working there who all do that thing where every sentence sounds like a question for some reason. And bad lighting so that you look pasty and gross in the changing room. And a rack of "90's clothes" that includes Skynyrd and Iron Maiden t-shirts, as if those bands were really 90's bands? Well. If it was before these kids were born, it's all the same to them I guess.

I give up.

Ah yes, Potomac Mills, been there a few times but it was a hike from Chantilly, VA where we tended to hang out at Fair Oaks Mall (FOM). Friday's after work we'd catch a movie and get a dinner omelet at Tanglewood's Grill but the leveraged buyout craze and recession of the late 1980s killed that place and some great clothing stores. Amazing changes in that area too. I used to drive golf balls there before FOM was built, always tried to hit the ball at the jeep that gathered up the golf balls. Hit it once, clunk. Went to Springfield Mall a lot too, especially the Taco Bueno that was in there. There was a Sears there with a repair shop where you could drop off your lawn mower and they'd fix it up for you, or you could order parts for anything Sears made ...gone with the wind...

Been to Chapel Hills a few times since we lived up near Pine Creek HS, place was nothing to brag about but it had a few places we shopped.

For some time now I've heard the dreaded "S" word from store clerks .... Sir ... No need to call me sir, I worked for a living....

Chapel Hills will survive. The revitalized movie theater will bring in a lot of foot traffic. Surprised a bit at the turnover in eateries along that upper stretch of N. Academy. Been gone a couple of years now but wonder if they ever found a new tenant for that huge flop called "My Big Fat Greek Restaurant."

[BornintheSprings]

Originally Posted by orngkat

Just made my first trip to the Powers corridor. Yuck!!!

HAHA I almost never go on powers its like a foreign city.

[willc86]

Originally Posted by Vision67

I think the problem is that jobs in Colorado Springs pay too little. That creates Dollar store and Wal-Mart shoppers, not mall shoppers.

Consider how many jobs pay $100K+ in Denver vs Colorado Springs.

though you might be right, I am from Miami FL and we stillll had huge malls. i mean awesome malls. I do miss them. And in Miami, FL the average salary is less; not mention taxes and rent is a lot higher

but population was much higher as well. But Yeah, I wish we had a nice 3 floor huge mall....kind of like aventura mall in Miami.

[TCHP]

Originally Posted by BornintheSprings

HAHA I almost never go on powers its like a foreign city.

Powers is like Academy Blvd of the 1980s, only with fewer curb cuts. I surmise growth will eventually prop up something else further east that will make Powers look and feel old.

[DrDog]

Originally Posted by Jobster

Not only that, but all the environmental degradation that we are responsible for, including exterminating so many different species that helped with balance of the ecosystem. We have no idea what affects the annihilation of these species will have on the welfare of the planet because there is simply not enough data, plus the things that we don't know we need to account for.

Thank you for seeing this. Many people are blind to this. They call people that point this out to be whiners, but in reality, we want children. We care about the welfare of this planet because we will be alive to see it, which is at least one of the reasons many people today choose not to have children.

The bottom line is that we can do better. Today, they teach us something called the triple bottom line in business schools; however, until shareholders are no longer responsible for the expectations of a company, that business philosophy will never be implemented.

Ideally, at least in my opinion, we would create a society that takes care of the weak, the old, and the young without thinking twice. We are but flesh and blood. An auto accident could render us incompetent for this world and potentially ruin in your lives catastrophically because we are ever so self dependent.

We in the US have it much better than foreigners, but part of this is because the cards were decked in our favor, and secondly, that doesn't mean we shouldn't strive to live comfortable, but sustainable lifestyles globally. Anyway, this is my speech for the day.

Ban incoming...

3...2...

The only way I can relate your post to the topic is that if we became a socialist country, there would be no malls lol.

[phetaroi]

Originally Posted by orngkat

Just made my first trip to the Powers corridor. Yuck!!!

Yes! And the problem is that after a decade or two, strip malls always get run down looking, and as TCHP points out, the vibrant business will move elsewhere and Powers will be another Academy...or even Nevada.