The Market Flats | 7 fl | Completed

[taylortbb]

This is a super challenging location, any retail would almost certainly be a failure. Food/drink on the other hand creates a destination, and has good odds of surviving. I couldn't be happier to have another restaurant in DTK.

What makes you think it would be a challenging location? There are loads of existing businesses around there already: lots of clothing stores, pharmacies, an architecture firm, 2 grocery stores and general goods stores (an African and I believe South American one), various offices, a tobacco shop, computer repair, printing, a driving school, 2 record stores and countless more. There are a million restaurants downtown already...it just feels like there should be a greater variety of things opening downtown with all the new people flocking to move and spend time there.

Almost none of the businesses you list would be able to afford the rent of a newly built building. A list like "tobacco shop, computer repair, printing, a driving school" is kind of the definition of a list of low rent businesses, which have located there not because the location is good but because they're destination businesses and the rent is cheap. Most of them are, IMO, also way less interesting to the average person than a restaurant is. Some of your list is also on the other side of Cedar St, which IMO is a totally different retail environment. Anecdotally, foot traffic appears to drop off sharply at Cedar St (for now, the completion of Drewlo + the property across from Market Flats will probably change that). Some, like B&T, also survive by basically operating as a suburban retailer (large parking lot) that just happens to be near DTK.

I'm curious, what sort of retail would you like to see open there?

I think food/drink establishments are always the first to move in when a place gains new residents, as they're one of the businesses where people most desire variety and have the lowest loyalty. If you're retailing artisan products you're competing against the big brands, and if you're selling the big brands you're competing against Amazon. To win against big brands/Amazon you need a much more ideal location than this is.