Retail task force results (Houston, Dallas: real estate, 2013, mall)

[Truth713]

Houston's Downtown Retail Task Force reveals results - Houston Business Journal

I found the last part the most interesting
*Enhance engagement of the tunnel with street level retail.

I wonder what they mean by that, does it mean they are planing on opening the tunnels up, to street level ?

[crone]

Why in the world did Houston and Dallas and the commercial real estate people go to such great lengths to create the tunnels and then bit-h because downtown looks empty?

[Cbink]

Originally Posted by crone

Why in the world did Houston and Dallas and the commercial real estate people go to such great lengths to create the tunnels and then bit-h because downtown looks empty?

I have no idea
It's a shame they're all shut at the weekends. I actually think it would help downtown out if they were open and there was more retail down there. It would have to be managed/patrolled though. Even if it was only open the same hours as the weekdays, I think it would help.

[jeremy2788]

Originally Posted by Cbink

I have no idea
It's a shame they're all shut at the weekends. I actually think it would help downtown out if they were open and there was more retail down there. It would have to be managed/patrolled though. Even if it was only open the same hours as the weekdays, I think it would help.

I think they should try to get as much retail out of the tunnels as possible! IMO, above ground will always suffer with the tunnels.

[Truth713]

See I just dont by that, there are plenty of cities with both..

The most common sense soultion seems to be to create access points from the surface to the tunnels on the street level.. out side office buildings.

this would create a easy flow for people to enter and exit the tunnels at various points DT without having to enter buildings

look Houston will never be NY so lets stop thinking retail at every groundlevel.. just not going to happen, what we can do is create acesss points tot he areas we want people to see..

Personally I think main st is turining into a nice bar/restraunt area .. stop tryng to mold it into something else.. areas are like people in time they tend to develop into their own thing.

What we can do is focus on creating a heavy retail district along the convention center. since most of the residtenal areas are concentrated there it just seems smarter than trying to force main st to be come retail heavy

[jeremy2788]

I don't see how wanting to get rid of the tunnels is comparable to wanting to be like NYC?

Sure, you can't force things to happen, but you can certainly help things along... which the tunnel is not doing.

[Truth713]

Originally Posted by jeremy2788

I don't see how wanting to get rid of the tunnels is comparable to wanting to be like NYC?

Sure, you can't force things to happen, but you can certainly help things along... which the tunnel is not doing.

that was a seperate point not tied to the tunnels. hence why I said we will not see groundlevel retail at every building ... like NY that had nothing to do with the tunnels

Second its a fanasty to talk about shutting down the tunnels, So why even entertin something we know is not going to happen, energy would be better spent working on something that could actully be done

[jeremy2788]

I guess I can agree with you that unfortunately, shutting down the tunnels is quite the pipe-dream..

I think there just has to be more appealing places above ground then below ground, and maybe your access points will work, but they can't be all over the places.

If we can't get rid of the tunnel, we can at least make it more of a hassle to get into as opposed to just staying street level.

[houstonfan]

In some cities, they treat the areas under ground as a mall. Their hours of operation is like any other mall. THey hire their own securities. Think like the Galleria mall and its office towers. THe mall has itsown operations and the offices in the highrise above has business hours. I think the tunnels, if given more access points to the street level and hours like a mall, will help increase, not decrease downtown population.

[theSUBlime]

The issue is a perception problem. There is the perception that there are few if any people downtown. The tunnels facilitate this view whether one sees them as helpful or not, because many people use the ground level and there are host of people underground. It splits the traffic and not only that, many people miss retail and other areas that are only available on the ground level. Remember, only certain types of places can operate at the tunnel level. So yes, I think it's what houstonfan is saying. Connection to retail areas will probably help.