Think Bigger San Jose has a great post about creating a continuous retail district in central Downtown San Jose. Commercial vacancy is below 10% and several high-density housing projects are about to come online... is now the time to turn Downtown into a retail destination? Mark proposes creating a retail paseo in the area outlined below where parking spaces could be turned into unique retail parklets, perhaps using shipping containers. It's a must-read for visitors of this blog, so please check out the post over here.
On a slightly related note, we may soon have drawings for a temporary retail project consisting of multiple shipping containers that is being proposed for Downtown.
Retail will be great but please no big chain stores!
ReplyDeleteHey Josh, you can see San Jose and City Hall and SF in the 1st episode of Geracao Brasil soap opera when it was filmed last spring in San Jose. http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1tmk8m#user_search=1
ReplyDeleteCheck out what they did in Las Vegas http://downtowncontainerpark.com/
ReplyDeleteThe first time the city tried putting retail there, it all fell apart, Paseo de San Antonio was only occupied for a few years, some of the vacated retail was converted to offices after the stores departed. The United Artists Theater would still be vacant today if Camera Cinemas had not moved into there. Safeway only opened downtown after being bribed basically to open there.
ReplyDeleteDowntown lost out on it's chance to be a destination again with the rise of Valley Fair, Santana Row and now what's planned for the Century Domes in that area. That area more or less is "Downtown"