New Southside shopping center deserves an A for style points (San Antonio: tenants, income)

[no cigar]

Large shopping center coming to Corpus Christi's Southside» Corpus Christi Caller-Times

For some reason this is actually semi appealing to me. I dunno if it's because they are targeting the South Side or what... Certainly does nothing to excite me about Corpus, but kudos to them for tapping into the more professional higher end crowd.

[lemonfresh]

Not to be the rain on a parade but CC does not have near enough people in the right demographics to duplicate the Quarry Market shopping center, even more so if you include Quarry Crossing and Quarry Village into the equation. But best of luck.

[bb54321]

The median household income in San Antonio is not much more than that in Corpus Christi. And I wouldn't consider Quarry Market all that upscale. No, CC probably couldn't support a lot of stores you see in La Cantera, but Quarry Market? Give me a break. There's plenty of money in CC to be spent at nicer retailers. This is an untapped market and retailers know it from online shopping numbers and those driving out of market to shop. That's why there are so many out of town companies looking to build retail developments here. They see the need and so do the retailers. The retailers have just lacked a quality development to place their stores, so developers are trying to fill that void.

[kittykat13]

This is great news for the city of Corpus Christi. I hope it works out.

[lemonfresh]

Originally Posted by bb54321

The median household income in San Antonio is not much more than that in Corpus Christi.

The difference is that the city of Corpus is just over 200,000. The city of San Antonio is 1.4 million. Almost 7 times bigger.

The metro of Corpus is at just a little over 400,000 thousand while metro SA is 2.1 million. 5 times bigger.

And I wouldn't consider Quarry Market all that upscale.

I never said it was upscale but it is for Corpus Christi standards.

No, CC probably couldn't support a lot of stores you see in La Cantera, but Quarry Market? Give me a break. There's plenty of money in CC to be spent at nicer retailers.

Yes Corpus could support some of the stores at Quarry Market but not two locations of some of the tenants and seeing as how La Palmera is trying to be that "high end" destination for Corpus ie PF Changs (which Quarry Market has) I don't see some random 300,000 square foot shopping center attracting La Palmera like tenants, the demographics don't support it.

I mean, look at the Quarry Market, it's right next to Olmos Park, Terrell Hills, and Alamo Heights.

That represents 6,500 households that average a median household income of $80,000 and 4,000 families that averag a median family income of nearly $100,000.

Those three small bedroom communities produce a sizable demographic I doubt Corpus Christi could find within itself.

This is an untapped market and retailers know it from online shopping numbers and those driving out of market to shop.

Again, the demographics aren't enticing people. That's the bottom line.

That's why there are so many out of town companies looking to build retail developments here. They see the need and so do the retailers. The retailers have just lacked a quality development to place their stores, so developers are trying to fill that void.

bb, how can you state this when Crosstown Commons and the outlet center were basically scrapped because they couldn't get retailers to sign and because the ones they thought they'd get stayed at La Palmera.

[DesertEagle62]

Hmmm...Whole Foods?

I've read that Panera Bread will not enter an area unless it can put up 3 shops. Downtown, here, and...?

This is certainly better than a Wal*mart Suprecenter originally planned for that land!

[changeofpace]

You underestimate the professionals n CC that have little choice but to drive to San Antonio to shop. Military Officers, all the medical profession and those living on Ocean Drive, Lamar Park and the ranchers on Flour Bluff not to mention the upper scale on the island and Portland also have nowhere to shop if they want up scale shopping choices.

[lemonfresh]

Originally Posted by changeofpace

You underestimate the professionals n CC that have little choice but to drive to San Antonio to shop. Military Officers, all the medical profession and those living on Ocean Drive, Lamar Park and the ranchers on Flour Bluff not to mention the upper scale on the island and Portland also have nowhere to shop if they want up scale shopping choices.

Which is who La Palmera is trying to cater to. Again, a second "upscale" shopping center just wouldn't work in Corpus.

But even if you include all the people you listed, it's not many, a couple of thousand at most. That's not enough to bring in the big names, the high end names.

For instance, according to BLS data for May 2008, there were a little over 19,000 people making a mean annual salary of $70,000 or more in the Corpus Christi MSA.

Compare that to similarly sized metro areas, Lexington, Kentucky and Durham, North Carolina.

Lexington has a metro population of 455,000.

The MSA of Lexington in May 2008 had a little over 31,000 people who made a mean annual salary of $70,000 or more.

Durham, a metro of 490,000 in May 2008 had just a tad over 100,000 people earning a mean annual salary of $70,000 or more.

Let's up the mean annual salary to $100,000 or more.

Corpus: 2,700
Lexington: 2,000
Durham: 35,000

So of the two metros, Corpus is most similar to Lexington.

Lexington has a PF Changs as Corpus is getting one. It also doesn't have many upscale shopping areas of big name chains.

However, since 2000, Lexington has grown nearly 4 times faster than Corpus, 3 percent vs. 11 percent.

In all honesty, Corpus Christi is also very similar to Springfield, Missouri.

[tgannaway89]

I like it. It will be a great addition to the area. I hope it attracts some good tenants.