Urban Wal-Marts considered in New York and DC

[NYC4Life]

A long debated issue in New York City: whether to bring the world's biggest retailer into town. While the city has recently opened its first Costco and Ikea stores, with J.C. Penny and Target also opening their first stores in Manhattan, the idea of having a Walmart still worries many. The retail giant and the city council are once again exploring the possibility of opening a Walmart in the city. NYC residents who shop at Walmart currently have to travel to the suburbs on Long Island, New Jersey and Westchester county where Walmart locations exists. The Bentonville, Arkansas based retailer has also proposed setting up shop at several locations in the Washington D.C. area.

Here's an article from DNAinfo.com

City Council to Debate Merits of Bringing Walmart to the City

By dnainfo – Tue Nov 30, 3:11 pm ET
Ben Fractenberg, DNAinfo Reporter/Produce

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_dnainf...pphu-container

MANHATTAN — As rumors continued to swirl about Walmart moving to the Big Apple, the City Council has scheduled a hearing for next month to debate the merits of bringing the retailer to New York, according to the council's website.

The event, titled "When Wal-Mart Comes to Town: The Effect on Small Businesses and Communities: A Historical and Prospective View," is a joint hearing by the Committee on Small Business and committees on community and economic development.

"We're excited to have this hearing and get all the information out in the open so it can be debated," Bennett Baruch, deputy chief of staff to Councilwoman Diana Reyna, told Crain's New York Monday. Reyna chairs the Small Business Committee.

The Big Box retailer, which is the country's largest private employer, has tried several times to break into the New York market — most recently in 2005.
Walmart spokesman Steven Restivo said earlier this month that the company is once again looking at the possibility of opening a New York City store. Restivo would not confirm, though, whether they are looking at locations in Manhattan.

Public support for the store entering the city seems uncertain at best.
City Council Speaker Christine Quinn joined a labor protest against the retailer last June, the Daily News reported.

"You know, it isn't that we don't want Walmart," Quinn said at the rally, according to the News. "It's that we don't want companies that have led the nation in law suits being brought against them by workers. We don't want companies that have the largest class-action in history brought against them. We don't want companies where women are, over and over, paid less than men and not promoted. You can be very clear that I don't want that."

The hearing will take place Dec. 14 at 1 p.m. in City Hall.

[photoLith]

NYC will not be a true world city until they have a Walmart.

[MolsonExport]

^a bit of Arkansas in the Apple.

[photoLith]

^
Arkansas has made the world a better place... its given jobs to China, while at the same time allowing people to save 10 cents when buying a box of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. Sure, its killed our main streets, but thats the price we were willing to pay to allow corporate CEOs to make money.

[Cirrus]

Wal-Mart has announced plans for 4 stores in DC, and it's been big news here as well. I hear they are close to or have already made similar announcements in several cities.

I was thinking about creating a thread focused on the DC stores, so instead I'm going to edit this one to be about urban Wal-Marts nation-wide.

[Cirrus]

Washington, DC

Last week Wal-Mart broke the news that they plan four stores in DC. I've been researching the proposals and have been writing a series of articles about their urban design. Here are the first three of those articles (the 4th is yet to come):
Will Wal-Mart be urban? Part 1: Brightwood
Will Wal-Mart be urban? Part 2: New York Avenue
Will Wal-Mart be urban? Part 3: H Street

The most interesting of the 4 is the one on H Street, which I think may be the most well-designed new urban big box in America. Here is a rendering:


Click here for a much larger version

This will be a new building. It will be mixed-use, with 315 apartments above the retail. Parking is underground, and small-format retail lines H Street, which is an important retail street. The Wal-Mart has a big entrance at the corner, but is otherwise tucked behind into the interior of the building.

The location is, frankly, fantastic. It's in the middle of a small dead zone along H Street between Chinatown, Union Station, and the Near Northeast. By adding a big destination on this block, several disparate retail districts will come together as a single, larger, whole.

[Steely Dan]

^ holy shit! THAT'S a walmart?

they have only built their standard shitacular suburban big box model with a galaxy of surface parking out front here in the far flung fringe neighborhoods of chicago. if they can actually prove to make a real deal effort to embrace how real cities operate, that could be a game-changer for them. i'm pleased and terrified at the same time.

[photoLith]

Ok, theres no way that will be a new walmart box store. That is amazing, and if all the walmarts were similar to that, Id be a big supporter of it.

[Cirrus]

None of the four DC proposals have any surface parking. They're all pretty different though. It seems like Wal-Mart may be intentionally experimenting.

The Brightwood location is supposed to be a single-story, single-use building with the Wal-Mart up against the sidewalk in an urban fashion, with parking underground. Not mixed-use or anything, but a basically urban version of the typical suburban store.

The New York Avenue location is basically a vertical power center. It will be sort of like a suburban shopping mall, with a Wal-Mart and another big box store (yet to be named) stacked on top of each other, with a parking garage off to the side.

The fourth location is still mostly a mystery.

[ChiTownCity]

^Wow now that is just beautiful!! I'm guessing its a little too late to try and get them to change their design over here huh? I know they're planning to build one extremely suburban store with a giant park/parking lot on the far southside. And they have a few other ones that I'm not familiar with the locations so maybe there's still hope for us to renegotiate a design change over here....

[M II A II R II K]

Maybe they'll be more like ASDA in terms of size and within urban settings.

[ametz]

There's a pretty lively debate about this in Chicago (I think there are 2 here now, in bombed out areas). Aesthetically, I'm anti, 1000%. I really don't know what to think about the economic argument. In Chicago, Walmart is arguing that it's creating jobs in neighborhoods that have nothing. However, Loyola University did a study that, I think, focused on the Walmart we have on the west side, and I believe that study concluded that the Walmart killed a lot of the small businesses in the area (the small businesses weren't on the exact spot that Walmart now occupies, but the area wasn't devoid of stores, and the study measured those closest to the Walmart site).

[Cirrus]

Maybe they'll be more like ASDA in terms of size

The one pictured is going to be 80,000 square feet, which is about 2/3 the normal size of a suburban store.

[Minato Ku]

It remind me the urban hypermarkets in Paris area built since the end of the 1980's.
These buildings are mostly mixed use.
Not only an hypermarket (In France we don't have Walmart but the equivalent like Carrefour Auchan, Cora, Leclerc...) a little mall with an hypermarket and office spaces, hotel.
While impossible in inner Paris, these are quite common in inner suburbs.


Picture by steph35

[badassusername]

Originally Posted by Cirrus

Washington, DC

Last week Wal-Mart broke the news that they plan four stores in DC. I've been researching the proposals and have been writing a series of articles about their urban design. Here are the first three of those articles (the 4th is yet to come):
Will Wal-Mart be urban? Part 1: Brightwood
Will Wal-Mart be urban? Part 2: New York Avenue
Will Wal-Mart be urban? Part 3: H Street

The most interesting of the 4 is the one on H Street, which I think may be the most well-designed new urban big box in America. Here is a rendering:


Click here for a much larger version

This will be a new building. It will be mixed-use, with 315 apartments above the retail. Parking is underground, and small-format retail lines H Street, which is an important retail street. The Wal-Mart has a big entrance at the corner, but is otherwise tucked behind into the interior of the building.

The location is, frankly, fantastic. It's in the middle of a small dead zone along H Street between Chinatown, Union Station, and the Near Northeast. By adding a big destination on this block, several disparate retail districts will come together as a single, larger, whole.

That's the coolest Wal Mart I've ever seen

[Buckeye Native 001]

If that's what they're committed to building, how could any urbanist not want that in his or her neighborhood (the company's ethical issues aside)?

[mhays]

I still would shop there, due to ethical issues and general patriotism. But the building looks ok.

[pesto]

Not to state the obvious, but urban stores are going to be multi-story and without surface parking whether you are Walmart, Macy's or Neiman. That's just economics. Similarly, why spend the money on engineering and building high rise when you are putting up a store in a former cornfield, 3 miles from the nearest development and with no mass transit?

[Rail>Auto]

That building looks awesome... Although I'm a person who wants to improve (change) but not sacrifice too much of what I'm use to (not change).

I personally would prefer to build these or the current walmart building design but WITH multiple levels on the building and WITHOUT the 5 billion surface parking stalls.

[vid]

Walmart has basically dominated the suburban and small town market in all of Canada and the US and without entering urban areas, they can't really grow anymore, and when a company can't grow, it starts to die. They're not really doing this because they want to, they're doing it because the company has no choice. Its growth options have become very limited.