Quote:
Originally Posted by ericm2031
I think you should just let Westfield do what they want to do. The mall needs renovation first before it can bring in destination retail that you want. You can't just sit here and criticise everything that Westfield wants to do. They aren't just sitting there wanting a bad mall. They can only invest the amount of money into it that they think can be balanced by sales. They can't just pour a ton of money into it and not get anything out of it. It will take multiple renovations of the mall and then a bigger expansion and destination stores will come later. Also, there needs to be more residential downtown, especially upscale residential, before the destination stores will come as well. They will not come to downtown without them. Believe me, Westfield has investors and they will not hold onto properties if they didn't see a future with it. If they don't want it anymore, they will sell it just like they just sold them last year. The latest is that they have hired an outside firm to help them out with the project, so you might see something newer coming from them soon.
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while that is a lovely defense of Westfield and some of the points are valid. DTP has spiraled into the abyss with a miserable mix of shops only since Westfield took over. There is no way to spin that. Westfield demands subsidies for Targets while it pours millions into Roseville. While Targets provide needed neighborhood services - they are hardly unique, there is nothing "destination" about them.
Until Sacramento attracts a developer with the right vision, DTP will continue its downward slide - make that plummet - into a mall for punks and thugs. Any developer needs the city's help and I'll agree that Sacramento needs to make a real commitment to making people feel safe there. But until Westfield is gone, we will see no effort to make downtown Sacramento anything more than just another neighborhood.
That may be perfectly acceptable to some, but others have higher aspirations for downtown. Too bad Westfield doesn't.