Here’s why big box stores, while popular for a time with consumers, are bad for urban neighborhoods in the long term. The new Metropolitan development in Midtown, just over the creek from Uptown, is losing a whopper of a retailer. The Home Depot Expo is closing.
I don’t know yet (though I’m doing some research soon as I file another blog item and write an editorial) who the official property owner is — whether it’s Home Depot, developer Peter A. Pappas or other development partners — but I know there is probably going to be a very big, very empty floorplate at Kings Drive and Charlottetowne Avenue.
That’s one of many reasons big boxes aren’t good for the urban environment — although here I tip my hat to the fact that yes, Big Boxes do bring in Big Sales Tax Revenues (until they close) and, for a time, Big Property Tax Revenues. But all it takes is one big retailer going bankrupt (Circuit City anyone?) or closing stores, and there’s now a giant retail vacancy in a not-very-adaptable building.
Smaller buildings with smaller businesses also see vacancies and businesses failing. But one store closing shop doesn’t affect a space as vast as that Home Depot EXPO Design Center.
A more traditional building can evolve relatively easily into something else. A Big Box needs a Big Tenant. Plus the buildings are usually so shoddily built they look like junk within a decade. Compare the aging boxes on Freedom Drive, Albemarle Road or Independence and Wilkinson boulevards to the aging old stores on North Davidson Street or along Central Avenue near the Plaza.
For now, whaddaya do with the space? Here are my ideas:
Break it into apartments for the homeless?
Cubicles for the job-seekers?
Break it into 1,000 very small offices for bloggers and other entrepreneurs in need of very small spaces at very small rents?
Workshop space for artists? (Not much natural light, unfortunately).
Workshop space for artists? (Not much natural light, unfortunately).
Rehearsal space for local theater, opera and performing groups?
A gigantic indoor farmers and food market, like the one in Florence with cheeses and sausages and plenty of food stands in addition to fruits, vegetables, fish, bakeries, etc. ?