Downtown Davis: Better Windows, Better Shopping?

[Phillip]

Tomorrow evening the Davis City Council will consider whether the owner of the Anderson Building at 2nd and G should be allowed to lower his windows. The owner claims the high windows make it difficult for him to rent the ground floor for retail. (Although the space is now occupied by a futon store.) The Davis Historical Resources Management Commission disagrees, maintaining the high windows are an integral feature of an historically significant building.



Here are the two south facing windows. There are two similar windows on the east facing side of this corner building.







And here's the story from the Davis Enterprise:

Anderson debate gives window into Davis retail

By Claire St. John/Enterprise staff writer
Davis Enterprise, May 13, 2007

Jim Kidd, co-owner of Davis' historic Anderson Bank building at 203 G St., has said for years the building's high windows are a detriment to retail business.

But the building's windows are integral to the building's historical status, and to change them significantly would “cause a substantial adverse change in the building's significance,” according to an environmental report commissioned by the city.

The City Council will make a final decision on whether the windows can be altered at its meeting Tuesday night, but a staff report advises the council against making any changes. The city's Historical Resources Management Commission agreed.

Kidd said if the City Council won't allow the changes, he'll go to the voters by putting a measure on the ballot.

“It'll cost me something like $75,000, but that's what I'm willing to do,” he said.

Kidd has been lobbying the council to approve bigger windows, planting signs around the downtown area that read “Better Windows/Better Retail/Better Downtown. Lower the Anderson Building Windows. KEEP OUR DOWNTOWN VITAL.”

Signed “Citizens and Merchants who Care About Davis,” the sign is to let the City Council know that the high windows not only hurts retail inside the Anderson Bank building, but the downtown as a whole, Kidd said.

“An empty storefront or a lack of display windows discourages shoppers and has a negative ripple effect on surrounding merchants,” Kidd wrote.

Twenty-nine downtown business owners signed a petition to alter the windows, and Kidd forwarded the City Council a string of letters from retailers who expressed interest in locating at the bank building if it wasn't for the high windows.

“The current building is not suitable to ‘typical' retail, as it does not provide enough window display...” wrote GT Retail Services President Jason Gallelli in 2002. “However, the location is excellent.”

The Naturalist, Cold Stone Creamery, Baja Fresh Mexican Grill, Birkenstock Plus and Mother and Baby Source have all considered occupying 203 G St. in the past, but turned it down because of the windows.

“It's time that (the City Council) realize in the downtown we have to be business oriented and less concerned about the history or we'll drive all our customers to Target,” Kidd said.

Kidd said he wants the four existing arched windows - two on the east side and two on the south side of the building - to allow passers-by to better see inside by cutting below the windows' five-foot high sill.

The council will consider three options: One, leave the windows as they are; two, cut away the sills to enlarge the windows; or three, cut separate window panels below the existing windows, creating four new, lower windows below the high arched windows.

If the council does approve a change, staff recommends cutting separate openings below the existing windows and preserving the sills and ornamental panels which are “character-defining features,” according to the staff report.

Cutting away the panels and sills could disqualify the building for historic status, staff wrote, and the building “could be demolished and replaced with another building and one of the 16 city landmark buildings will be lost.”

Changing the windows, staff wrote, could lose the city one of its few remaining historic resources, which isn't worth the potential economic gain from a more successful retailer.

The City Council will wrangle with another historic structure in upcoming months when it considers whether to move a historic tank house on Second Street to make way for a three-story building that would house a coffee shop on the ground floor and offices and living units on the second and third floors.

[friedpez]

I hate to break it to the business owner, but I don't think it's the windows that are to blame for his shaky business... How many people want to buy a futon every day? How many people would buy anything but a futon every day?

But, to be honest, I've walked past that building hundreds of times and never really looked inside. So maybe a window lowering could help whoever is in there.

[innov8]

There was a record shop in that store from the 70's into the 90's and did just
fine till Tower Records opened up a store around the block offering more variety
drawing away it’s customers causing it to go out of business.

[brandon12]

I say lower the windows. They're too high.

[TowerDistrict]

seems like a weird retail space anyway... and i'm sure that building will be there long after futons go the way of murphy beds.

but i do agree the windows are too high for their application, and i've seen a lot of historic/old buildings in the midtown areas open up their wallls and windows very tastefully - think Lucca restaurant, the new Fins restaurant on 19th, and Mikuni / PF Changs too.

i dunno?

[Phillip]

Lowering the windows will help. It's hard to sell a futon where you can't display a futon. Lowering the windows doesn't guarantee success though. Some of Davis' most high profile retail vacancies are at locations with large display windows that almost go down to the sidewalk. Downtown retail is just tough now, whatever the windows.

Interesting about the record store, innov8. I picture Davis in the 1970's with a record store on almost every block.

While I was taking those photos a man in his 50's approached me and asked what my opinion was about lowering the windows. I asked him if he was the owner of the building and he told me no, he was a member of the Davis City Council and he'd come to the store to have a closer look at the building before he has to vote tonite. He was a nice guy and seemed sincerely interested in my opinion.

[Phillip]

On a 3-2 vote the winner was the small high windows.

City opts for history over commerce: Council rejects bigger windows for Anderson Bank Building

By Beth Curda/Enterprise staff writer
Published May 16, 2007 - 19:35:40 CDT.

The city again has turned down Jim Kidd's request to lower the windows on the building he owns at Second and G streets.

The Anderson Bank Building, built in 1914, is a nod to the era when 90-year-old Davis was young and its downtown had been home to hog yards, grain and hay warehouses, a few stores and saloons and a windmill manufacturer.

When part of the two-story building housed a bank years ago, its high windows suited that. Today, though, Kidd prefers to lease the space to retail stores, and with the window sills at 5 feet above the ground, displaying merchandise for window shoppers is virtually impossible.

Kidd says that is a detriment to business and to the health of the downtown area, and he has been asking for years for permission to lower the windows or add panes of glass below the window sills so passers-by could see into the business, which today is a futon and mattress store.

On Tuesday, he told the City Council that, with the pressure of large chain stores in cities all around Davis, it is important that the city do what it could to enable the downtown area to compete.

“The big boxes are at the gates of Davis,” he said, “and they continue to pull our shoppers and our sales dollars outside of the city.”

Kidd spent more than $1 million restoring and upgrading the building's interior following a Christmas fire in 2002, he said, and he believed the lower windows would be another positive change.

The council's vote against Kidd's project was 3-2 with Mayor Pro Tem Ruth Asmundson and Councilman Don Saylor dissenting.

Asmundson said she enjoys window shopping and impulse buying, and other shoppers may do the same, but Councilman Lamar Heystek said he never window shops in downtown Davis. Instead, “I go downtown because I believe that the products and services (there) are superior.”

Heystek said he opposed Target because it didn't fit the character of the city and the same was true with Kidd's project. If the city put economics above all else, he said, Davis would look different. The city has to draw the line.

Saylor said a bank no longer is feasible in the space and he would like the building to stay vibrant.

“It's not going to make or break the downtown,” he said, “but it's going to contribute or it's going to ... draw it down.”

Councilman Stephen Souza wasn't sold on the idea that a business other than a retail store - a spa, restaurant, salon or saloon - couldn't succeed there.

Some who spoke during the meeting suggested that Kidd be more creative with marketing.

The building is one of 16 local landmarks in Davis, said city planner Ike Njoku. Others are the train depot, Richards Boulevard tunnel under the railroad tracks, Hunt-Boyer Mansion, Davis Community Church, the Varsity Theatre, Davis Cemetery, City Hall and a few homes.

Njoku said the Anderson Bank Building is one of two or three commercial landmarks that are closest to their original appearances. Some are concerned that if the Anderson building and Varsity Theatre are changed, he said, “you no longer have any single commercial landmark building left in Davis.”

Gale Sosnick, who spoke during the public comment portion of the hearing, said other features of the building - the width of the windows, arches and brick - define it and give it character, and she would like to see the space more viable.

“I don't like seeing empty stores downtown,” she said Tuesday. “I don't like seeing ‘for rent' signs. (That) says something about the town: It's not healthy.”

Jim Becket disputed an implication he didn't support the downtown area because he opposed Kidd's project. He said in 2000, when he received a Chamber of Commerce award, that he couldn't imagine living in a city without a strong downtown.

He added Tuesday: “I also cannot imagine living in a (city) that didn't honor its heritage.”

Speaker Tim Allis said he collected 98 signatures against Kidd's project in a last-minute petition drive during the weekend.

On the other hand, the boards of directors of the Davis Downtown Business Association and the Davis Chamber of Commerce both supported lowering the windows.

Kidd declined comment following the vote.

- Reach Beth Curda at bcurda@davisenterprise.net or 747-8045.

[dcox20]

Maybe I'll just go drive my truck into the wall where the windows are - then he can save the $75k and buy me a new truck and put in his new windows... everyone wins.

[snfenoc]

So let me get this straight: Mr. Kidd co-owns the building in question; however, he had to ask the Davis Shitty Council if he could lower the windows. After much debate, the Davis Shitty Council rejected Mr. Kidd's request to lower the windows on a building he co-owns. Is that a decent summary of what happened?


You know what? This beautiful example of liberty-infringement does not bother me one bit. The more government diminishes our freedom, the closer we are to revolution. Go on government, keep doing your worst. Pretty soon, the citizens will do theirs.

[Fusey]

I can definitely see where the owner was coming from--with those windows so high his business looks like a crappy liquor store.

[TheDerek]

Originally Posted by Fusey

I can definitely see where the owner was coming from--with those windows so high his business looks like a crappy liquor store.

either that or a hole-in-the wall restaurant