Perhaps this future Downtown market could take some cues from the departed "Rosebud"... and do the complete opposite.

Really, other than a few basic staples (milk, toilet paper, etc...), what can't you really easily get in the Strip District when it comes to a typical supermarket? Certainly plenty of produce, plenty of meats/fish/deli, lots of pantry items like pasta, tomatoes, condiments, rice, beans, etc...

Honestly, while obviously it would require visits to several of the shops in the area, you can pretty much get everything you need at better prices and better quality than in your normal supermarket.

Aaron (Glowrock)

The strip isn't downtown. Most people living downtown don't want to walk all the way to the strip to do grocery shopping and have to walk all the way back with a bunch of bags, its just not very convenient. The strip is great and has some amazing food outlets, but it doesn't provide instant access for a downtown resident. One of the most attractive aspects of living in a dense "downtown" area is the easy accessibility to services. Walkability to things like grocery stores, laundry, restaurants, gyms, etc, is a key element to vibrant urban living. A simple grocery store downtown would greatly enhance the lives of its residents and would certainly help to draw more. I'm sure as more rental units are created and filled this will become an inevitability.

The old Saks building is so perfectly centered in the CBD that it would make a great spot for a downtown grocer.

Hmm, suppose they get that LRT/commuter rail line out through the Strip. I guess you could have people hop on the T somewhere Downtown and then transfer to the commuter rail line at Steel Plaza. They could even just hop on the commuter rail line at Steel Plaza as well if they happen to live closer to Steel Plaza...

Or... maybe nobody would consider doing that either.

The abandoned Saks 5th Ave is a good location for a grocer. That, with yet another 16-plus story residential building on top of it.

Wasn't an Xfinity Live Playground planned, but aborted for somewhere in Pittsburgh. Anyways, here's what it would resemble. You can easily determine the environment it creates from these slides from the Philadelphia opening.

http://www.philly.com/philly/enterta...nity_Live.html

Honestly, The Strip isn't more than 6 blocks from the edge of downtown, though. I'm with you about carrying a bunch of bags, but that's what some sort of small wheeled carrier is for! :) As for the rest, I think you're preaching to the freaking choir here.

Aaron (Glowrock)

Usually a CBD grocer also offers fresh prepared foods for the lunch crowd in order to pay the rent. Even so, they typically need a bit more of a residential population base than Downtown has right now--it is maybe only a few thousand residents off, though, so this is something that could become viable relatively soon if the pace of new residential units Downtown keeps up.

Or they could try the subsidized route again, but that can't be more than a short-term solution.

Edit: By the way, the intensity of land-use bothers me, but I know why many Oakland incumbents would welcome a drive-through pharmacy (to serve all the people coming out of the hospitals).

Funny you guys mention Saks too. My coworkers and I have been talking about how it'd be the perfect spot. Kind of strange that Giant Eagle hasn't taken a crack at it. They've been known to test out new concepts. Put a Market District in there that is heavily slanted towards prepared foods and a cafe setting with comfortable spaces to eat. Build a large roof deck where people can have lunch, maybe make it easy to cover for the winter. Something like that would absolutely crush it during lunch. I'd think it would at least do enough business during lunch hours that they could afford to keep a portion of it for regular grocery and household items.

I think there is no grocer in downtown because none of them think it will work. There simply aren't enough people living there - or parking spaces. I talked to one grocer who the city wanted to move downtown and he said they had no interest, despite the URA's best efforts.

Lot 24

3/22/12
http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6031/6...e4bb17b8_b.jpg

3/29/12
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7262/6...627a6dd3_b.jpg


Civic Arena Demo - not much left

3/29/12
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7260/6...7a395d14_b.jpg

Yes Exactly my point. A grocer needs to draw from a larger customer base. And no one would travel into town to do their grocery shopping. LRT to Strip would be awesome. But now it only goes to the south hills and recently North Shore. Super Market there could work I think.

Burns & Scalo has three finalists for their proposed building design. http://campaign.r20.constantcontact....8kO3GPseZEL081

I would vote for the first one - GGBN.

I would too.. The third one isn't half bad either. #2 is ugly.

I gather the as-yet hypothetical anchor tenant could choose any (or none) of the designs submitted, but among the finalists I like the IKM design best (edit: aka, the ugly one). Any would be cool though.

http://f.cl.ly/items/2f081s2a3Z1w0B0..._Rendering.jpg
http://f.cl.ly/items/3T1V3p043x2n2z3..._Rendering.jpg
http://f.cl.ly/items/3o0U34092T3R2h1..._Rendering.jpg

The Desmone design looks like it's from the 1980's...
GBBN is the best out of the three. I'm not sure why IKM included parking at the edge of the Mon Wharf in its rendering, a linear park and trail has been there for over two years!

Perhaps a smaller Giant Eagle would be sufficient for town. I don't think that town warrants a Market District. There's a Giant Eagle Express in Harmarville that seems to offer a nice selection of items but is not a Get Go and is not a full size GE. The GE Express has a pharmacy, deli, prepared foods (including a sushi bar), fruits, veggies, and day to day staple items.

The first design would mesh nicely with the soon to be nearby Tower & PNC. The 2nd design is pretty good to for the location and orientation towards Station Square. But what's up with the 3rd one? Did they find out about the design competition like 2 hours before deadline and throw that together with Minecraft of MS Paint? I don't get it. Very little detail on that render.

Hope one of these things gets built though.

I like the first design, too, and I also think it would mesh quite nicely with the future Tower at PNC Plaza. I looked at their website, and it looks very well in line with some of their other projects unlike the much talked-about Gardens project and its creating design team...

Of course, renderings don't do any building justice, so I guess we'll just have to wait and see once they're built to really feel/decide how well they fit in with their surrounding landscape/neighborhood...

I thought this was the spot that a 7 story (scaled down from 12) boutique hotel was going to be built. Where's that gonna end up?