The Dream of Downtown Retail: Focus on Main Street

The new Dallas Mercantile Coffee House is open on Main Street on the first floor of the Element building, part of Mercantile Place. http://www.mercantileplace.com/ The new cafe has both coffee to caffeinate you, and yogurt to cool you down. Down the block, in Main Street Garden, "The Lily Pad" has officially opened. This new cafe in the park offers a nice place to grab a snack or light meal in Dallas' newest downtown park.

Both of these additions to Main Street are beneficial to improving downtown's "livability." Sure, great steakhouses are nice, but places to grab an inexpensive meal and/or a cup of coffee are appealing to a greater number of downtown residents, workers, and guests. The real question, is when downtown, Main Street in particular, will finally attract additional retail outside of eating and drinking establishments?

Dallas is proud to be home to the original Neiman Marcus on Main, without whom, downtown would surely have taken even more of a hit during the 1980's and 1990's. However, even with Neimans in place, and after the City announced its "Main Street Retail Initiative" in 2008, retail downtown continues to struggle. http://dallascityhall.com/committee_briefings/briefings0609/ECO_Main_Street_Retail_Program_060809.pdf The City has acknowledged the uphill battle downtown retail faces in overcoming the perceptions of public safety concerns and "there's nothing to do downtown." In reality, most national chains will wait to make a move downtown until local businesses establish downtown's retail viability.

Wins for downtown street level retail include Jos. A. Banks, Dr. Bell's BBQ, Jason's Deli, and Chase Bank. The City endorsed DowntownDallas, Inc. to manage the Retail Initiative in conjunction with Neimans in an effort to attract complementary retail, particularly in the Main Street corridor spaces adjacent to NM. Funds from the downtown Tax Increment Funding (TIF) City Center TIF are available for these efforts. The recent Downtown360 study further focused the efforts on the 1) private and 2) public realms of retail activation. http://www.downtowndallas360.com/docManager/1000000044/MtgWdo7_FINALpresentation.pdf In this context, private is defined as the spaces themselves, and public as the sidewalks, right-of-way, etc.

Downtown has made strides in recent years in revamping office space, opening new parks, and vastly expanding residential options in the City's core. Retail remains the elusive element missing in the downtown landscape. The Main Street district's retail revitalization is the most likely manner in which to encourage downtown retail. As the economy recovers, its time for the City to put all the planning done in the Main Street District FOCUS Retail Program and Downtown360 into action. The following three spaces are arguably the TOP THREE VACANT RETAIL SPACES DOWNTOWN:

1. Mercantile Place: directly across Ervay from Neiman Marcus, this large space could theoretically play host to retail the likes of a national bookseller or well-known clothiers such as H&M or GAP brands. The City invested so much in this project, literally. Additionally, so much effort went into Mercantile Place, that to see this space come alive would do wonders for downtown.

2. 1615 Main Street: smaller space (20,000 sq. ft; 5,000 sq. ft floorplate) sits directly across Main from NM. The manageable size of this space means a higher likelihood of finding a visionary tenant to take a chance on downtown. Would love to see a local or national clothing retailer make this space home.

3. 1900 Elm: formerly home to the Titche-Goettinger Department Store, this space sits up the block from NM on a continually improving block of Main. Across from Dallas Chop House and Main Street Garden, next to the Universities Center at Dallas, and catty-corner from Mercantile Place, this larger ground floor space represents an opportunity for a larger retailer to establish a landmark presence in downtown.
Feel free to share your thoughts on what retail you'd like to see downtown!