On Target: a dramatic turnaround for a tawdry part of downtown
With the opening of City Target on Second Avenue, we have a clear sign of how retailers are shaping strategies for the new urban residents. Seattle and Chicago mark the first two City Target stores, just opened.
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Last week, the Target Corporation’s rolled out new, small-format, urban stores in both Chicago and Seattle. (A third City Target will open in Los Angeles in a few months.) The hoopla and fanfare were more subdued here than in the Windy City. But perhaps Chicago’s higher-profile celebration was due in part to their City Target finally occupying the long-vacant building that had once been the well-loved and architecturally-celebrated Carson Pirie Scott Department Store.
A supremely elegant confection designed by Louis Sullivan and built in 1899, the building has been gracefully converted to a 21st century business model. The renewed appearance is not unlike the re-purposed “City of Paris” department store in San Francisco, which is now the home of Neiman Marcus. We really knew how to build those old flagship stores. Solid structures, adorned with dramatic theatricality of whimsical details, all intended to attract of the growing numbers of middle class American shoppers that were flocking to cities at the end of the Victorian era. Seattle's best example was the old Frederick & Nelson store, now a Nordstrom.
Chicago was fortunate. The City Target here in Seattle was thrust into the lower floors of an apartment tower possesing a style most charitably described as “not one of the better buildings by Skidmore Owings and Merrill.” My review of the Newmark tower when it first opened commented that the shiny white rectangular tiles on the exterior of the ground floor were "reminiscent of the men’s room of an old bus station.” The tiles are still there, so the new owners evidently don’t hold the same view.
Not to question the wisdom of corporate executives, but I do wonder if they were fully aware of the area’s rather dodgy history. For years, it has been on the periphery of what is referred to by the Seattle Police Department as “The Blade” — a several-block area of drug dealing, public inebriation, random shootings, gang fights, and other sketchy behaviors. Indeed, the stretch along Second Avenue seems to have been hexed.
In 1997, news programs carried live coverage of a crazy person wildly swinging a sword on Second Avenue, surrounded by a large and heavily armed contingent of police officers who eventually captured the perpetrator after an 11-hour stand-off. As recently as last year, a taxi cab crashed into the branch of Chase bank, coming to a halt completely inside the space — a sort of life-imitates-art version of the cars sailing through the lobby of the Seattle Art Museum, which shares the opposite corner of the block.
The wonderfully quirky Maximus/Minimus pork sandwich truck which has holding down Second and Pike for the last couple of years has been a good omen for the future of the area, long plagued by social miscreants and careening cars. Now instead of — or maybe in addition to — unpredictable people and events, we have hundreds of shoppers scurrying about, toting the brown paper bags emblazoned with red targets. I myself was one of those recently, purchasing a pack of razors at a significantly lower price than anywhere else downtown.
And since this City Target also carries groceries, its going to give the IGA a block away a run for its money and customers. The IGA, occupying the old Kress Drugs building, has been convenient, if not inexpensive. In the full exposure of daylight coming though the big windows on Second, the meat and produce in Target looked really good. I am very grateful that the new store owners did not wall up the windows and place phony displays behind the glass, as has been the case with some other downtown retailers like Walgreens. The store feels light, airy, and open.
Of course, this Target offers only a fraction of the stock that its big-box brother carries. But it is terrific that such a store has found a new niche that works in dense downtowns. Not long ago it was conventional wisdom in real estate circles that retailers were fast decamping to the suburbs where land was cheaper and there was plenty of space for big parking lots. Well, it’s a new economy and a new set of demographics. And to survive in the face of these massive shifts, many retailers are rapidly reinventing themselves.
Last week, The New York Times business section carried an article about the new City Target model. The reporter, Stephanie Clifford (who grew up in Seattle, by the way), cited recent findings by the Brookings Institute about the dramatic shift toward people living in denser urban centers, and the implications of this shift for retail. "Retailers are now willing to come into cities on the cities' terms — with all the zoning headaches, high rents, and odd architecture — because that's where the growth is," the article reported. "Most large American cities are growing faster than their suburbs for the first time in almost a century." It continued: "Young adults are choosing urban apartment life. That population shift, along with Internet competition, have made the car-focused, big-box model less relevant."
An old adage in real estate is that "retail follows rooftops." Retail stores like Target are seeing a new future, one quite different from the past 50 years. The rooftops in this new era may be flat, rather than peaked, but the residents are there nonetheless. This should be good news for cities, many of which have endured a long, slow erosion of retail tax base to outlying areas.
It's not that Target is turning off the tap in the hinterlands. Rather, it is simply hedging its bets by realigning itself to a rapidly growing part of the population, the one that prefers city life.
One irony in Seattle is that, up until the early 1980s, another department store occupied almost the same location. J.C. Penny had a downtown store in the next block to the south, now filled by the Russell Investments tower. Penny's display racks also contained less expensive clothing and consumer goods. Unlike Penny's, Target has no refrigerators or washing machines; instead, it sells Apple products and urban bicycles. (I noted it carries the American classic Schwinn brand, updated in styling.)
So you could say we have come full circle. A staid and stodgy, bargain-packed department store is replaced with a hip and cheery, bargain-packed department store.
Better, the impact on this part of downtown is likely to be nothing less than stunning. Flanked by the venerable Pike Place Market with its 10 million annual visitors, the Seattle Art Museum, Benaroya Hall, and one of the most successful retail cores in the country, this formerly tawdry part of town will likely see massive changes.
Some years ago, an architect working late one night was viciously attacked by a group of people hanging around the area and was pelted with rocks for merely intruding on their turf. Such was the risk one took passing through the district then.
Now, you are more likely to be jostled aside by someone pushing a stroller, rushing to a sale of iPads at "Tarjay."
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Comments:
Posted Tue, Jul 31, 6:42 a.m. Inappropriate
Of course the Target does occupy the old JC Penny's location whose old building was torn down to make way for this "improvement". The equally unfortunate Russell Investments building replaced the Rhodes Department Store building.
Posted Tue, Jul 31, 7:37 a.m. Inappropriate
And the parking lot on the Southeast corner of 2nd and Pike was the home of another downtown department store, McDougall & Southwick, until it was razed in the late 1960's.
Posted Tue, Jul 31, 8:34 a.m. Inappropriate
Without Metro in the conversation you ignore the 900 pound gorilla. Metro changed 2nd Avenue forever when it began in the 70's as an all King County operation by sending all its outlying district busses down 2nd Avenue. The incredible amount of non-stop weight pulled the street away from the sidewalk creating a very unsafe situation. Metro took it's time repairing the streets, blocking pedestrian access for a couple years. it was too much for Penny's and they folded. With Penny's gone Woolworth's tried to stay on at 3rd and Pike but they too eventually pulled out. This once vibrant entrance to the Public Market was turned over to chicken-hawks, dealers, drunks and worse. A misguided LID put in concrete street furniture which only made the situation worse. In the 80's the Newmark located at this corner with it's high-rise residential condos and a giant pharmacy at 2nd and Union and a 5 plex cinema, the expectations were high. But Metro went ahead and turned the entire block into a massive bus zone that was impenetrable for the average shopper. The pharmacy moved, the 5 plex folded, retail became sketchy, the chicken hawks and drug dealers returned. A series of make-shift businesses moved in but the block was lost. Indeed since then all of 2nd Avenue has become a stop and shop for drug dealers who hang in the bus zones from Belltown to Pioneer Square.
No successful attempt to revitalize an urban neighborhood can be achieved without a comprehensive look at bus stops and transit construction projects and their impact on neighboring business. 2nd Avenue is not alone. 3rd avenue has become a perilous pedestrian zone as well, the bus stops seemingly teeming with dealers and derelicts. Big digs like the Metro Tunnel on 3rd displaced so many mom and pop businesses that the street has never recovered. Indeed when subsidized/medicated housing is added to the mix you get a scene like that near the King County Courthouse on 3rd Avenue which has become a no-go zone day and night.
I fear that the agencies responsible for the new Waterfront Tunnel have no comprehension of the impact that these massive projects have on a given neighborhood like Pioneer square. If the 5 years of state planning to alleviate negative commercial impacts on Seattle's Waterfront is any indication we are due for another Penny's Newmark Target 25 year cycle with a lot of urban decay in between attempted commercial and civic solutions. As a downtown resident I hope for the best. But I know that without Metro/regional transit at the table as both the problem and the solution we most likely will see a repeat of past failures.
Posted Tue, Jul 31, 9:34 a.m. Inappropriate
Would this article be equally celebratory if the space had been filled by a "City Wal-Mart?" Is there a meaningful moral distinction (Target's quasi-hipness notwithstanding) between the two corporations?
Posted Tue, Jul 31, 1:19 p.m. Inappropriate
Very different pay levels, the prevalence of offshoring, etc.
Posted Wed, Aug 1, 7:37 a.m. Inappropriate
Maybe you're right, but it's not apparent from my admittedly limited research. From a quick survey Target looks marginally, but not necessarily meaningfully, better (except at marketing, where they've done a great job convincing progressive cities they're OK while their slightly lower brow competition is not).
See http://reclaimdemocracy.org/walmart/2005/target_better.php, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703960004575427143390869962.html
Posted Tue, Jul 31, 9:39 a.m. Inappropriate
Agree with chapala21.
Would only add that this location seems to be one of those sites where nothing works. The old Penney's was pretty glum; it was Rhodes that was inviting. Nothing they've tried in that ugly building has worked. This reminds me of those locations we've all seen where one restaurant after another opens with great fanfare and closes quietly not too long after.
Second thing I'd add is that the writer quotes Stephanie Clifford as saying in part "Young adults are choosing urban apartment life." Well, they may be doing that at the moment, but as they mature and start families, my bet is that they will begin looking to relocate. A downtown core just isn't ideal for raising young children that need room to run and play in the fresh air, and not all young parents have the time to travel to such places what with demanding two job careers. A 700 or 800 square foot cube in a high rise just isn't great for young children.
Finally, I think the expectations for dense downtown living will not necessarily be met, and even if met in numbers will not turn around barren areas like this corner and sunless 3rd Ave. They just are not inviting and adding a store will not change that. None of the stores on those corner leading to the Market for the last several years are places I'd want to enter or buy anything. They're overrun with cheap junk made abroad and their displays are always disheveled because low wage workers passing time until their bus comes don't take the time to replace items neatly after looking for the bargains they seek. Even if I wanted to live in a cramped little cube, I surely would not be shopping in the area.
Posted Tue, Jul 31, 5:08 p.m. Inappropriate
One has to very old to remember Rhodes as "inviting," but long ago it did indeed present a welcoming elegance to all those who rode the 1st Avenue buses into town for an exhausting day of comparing the wares in Seattle's FIVE department stores. MacDougalls had most of the required goods, but it had no escalators and its make-shift elevators were raw material for nightmares. The other two at the low end of the large retail district shared MacDougalls inability to stay up with the times. A problem that still exists, Pike Place Market or not.
At any rate, the photo here is uninviting, hope the inside is not as bad
Posted Wed, Aug 1, 9:09 a.m. Inappropriate
60 is the new 40, afreeman, so kick up your heels and celebrate now in your prime!
Posted Wed, Aug 1, 10:02 p.m. Inappropriate
I doubt if afreeman was asking you to reassure them about their age.
Posted Tue, Jul 31, 12:42 p.m. Inappropriate
"Would only add that this location seems to be one of those sites where nothing works ... reminds me of those locations we've all seen where one restaurant after another opens with great fanfare and closes quietly not too long after."
There are several places in the city that my family refers to as 'salted earth' -- in general, the best solutions seem to be when a retailer or other tenant makes a change in the use of the location. I have hopes for this new iteration of Target, but am holding my breath.
Posted Tue, Jul 31, 3:40 p.m. Inappropriate
Maybe Costco could do a tiny version of themselves in the old Federal Reserve Building at Second and Spring.
Posted Wed, Aug 1, 8:20 a.m. Inappropriate
Hmmm..that's an en excellent suggestion.
Posted Thu, Aug 2, 8:57 p.m. Inappropriate
The big question here is the number of downtown residents. The surveys showing high worker spending seem inaccurate.
The Target may work, what with all the new units in the Belltown and South Lake Union, and the nearest existing Target being Northgate. The latter is not exactly a great destination. But other writers are correct to note that the core is not a great environment to live in. The center city can attract more residential, but my guess is that new building will go in and around the places that have a better balance of public and private space, places like the International District and Pioneer Square. We may also see more residential along the waterfront after the viaduct comes down, since this has open space, proximity to jobs in the core, the Market nearby, and restaurants up and down First Avenue. In fact, for downtown living, First Avenue may be the new spine of the city, pulling downtown life towards the water, if not down over the bluff. Overall, if I were betting on real estate, I would put money on First Avenue, and not Pike or the area leading up to Westgate or the convention center. Like so many 80's developments, that area now seems stale.
Posted Mon, Aug 6, 5 p.m. Inappropriate
Your post reminds me of Seattle's failure to create a great urban park at Westlake. http://crosscut.com/2011/10/14/seattle-city-hall/21424/Westlake-where-Seattle-goes-fight-with-itself/
How many opportunities can one city blow so badly?
Posted Fri, Aug 10, 8:18 a.m. Inappropriate
We're getting just what that project promised anyway--blocks and blocks of sun-killing high rises.
Posted Tue, Aug 7, 7:46 a.m. Inappropriate
The Downtown Seattle Association is claiming 66,000 Downtown residents by extending Downtown boundaries up to Broadway on Capitol Hill, all of First Hill over to Jackson Street, and Queen Anne over to Mercer. Maybe Penny's actually realized how few people really do live downtown and what the social climate is like; maybe that's why they pulled out of their plans to take the former Kress Building space at 3rd and Pike.
Posted Wed, Aug 8, 12:59 p.m. Inappropriate
Or maybe they got a new CEO who cancelled their entire urban concept nationwide.
Posted Sun, Aug 5, 10:53 a.m. Inappropriate
Sounds like good old Seattle is drifting downward towards being the New York City of the 1970s...full of street level discount department stores. Starbucks will become the Chock Full O' Nuts. I'm surprised someone hasn't built an Automat...we have Paypass now...don't even have to save your quarters.
Posted Sun, Aug 5, 6:55 p.m. Inappropriate
Couple of things. First of all, the block between Union and Pike along 2nd Avenue isn't "tawdry." Inhospitable, perhaps, but anything less than 500 feet from the city's leading tourist attraction can't be "tawdry."
But let's look instead at what's inside the three-level, block-long space. Lower level: groceries. Small sizes, hence kinda pricy, but not as pricy as Kress IGA, a block away. Level 2: cosmetics and college dorm furniture. Level 3: electronics & menswear. Buy a discounted cellphone or buy a bundle of underpants. A mashup of Bed Bath & Beyond and Ross Dress for Less, with its own parking garage.
What's that? Something called department stores" Gimbel's? Macy's? The Bon Marché? Don't be ridiculous. No one would ever dedicate an 8-level full block building in the middle of downtown to selling laundry baskets!
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