- San Francisco Redevelopment Agency
- A downtown Target, just not ours.
A couple of months ago, Mayor Sam Adams’ office confirmed it was in preliminary discussions with Target about finding a place for the big-box retailer to set up shop downtown. According to the Oregonian, which broke the news, the vacant Galleria—with 87,000 square feet of vacant space—is a leading contender for Target.
“The mayor has been looking at how to revitalize the retail district in the central city,” Adams’ spokesman, Roy Kaufmann, told me at the time, offering a list of questions that remained to be hashed out:
“How would an anchor retail tenant like target or another store fill that role? How would that store contribute to and complement existing retail? And how would it meet the city’s objectives in creating greater residential density in the city?”
It’s not clear where the process in Portland stands; Kaufmann didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment. But this report out of San Francisco, where Target may take up 80,000 square feet in an under-utilized downtown mall, hints at what a store in Portland might look like.
More details after the jump.
The planning memos in San Francisco touch on many of the same issues that likely would be faced in Portland. For example:
Target’s 80,000-square-foot main sales floor will be located on the second floor. Although this Target is smaller than the average 135,000-square-foot suburban store, it will carry most of the same merchandise found in the larger stores.
Target will use a cart containment system at the lobby to prevent shopping carts from exiting the store. A guest-assisted merchandise pick-up along Howard Street will be available for Target shoppers who park in nearby garages. Also, to facilitate Metreon and Target customer drop-off and pick-up, a new curbside passenger zone will be built on Fourth Street.
Also eye-poppingly interesting:
Target is projecting $120,000 in annual payroll taxes, a minimum of $5.4 million in annual sales taxes, and about $1 million in additional parking revenue for the Fifth and Mission Street Garage.
As much as big box retail doesn’t excite me, filling 87,000 sq ft of empty retail space downtown does. What really needs to happen is for the city to agree, but leverage building and block improvements out of the company like rain gardens, additional affordable housing in the area, etc. Then everybody wins.
Right, right… Because Big Box stores have such a laudable track record of “vitalizing” local jobs and communities.
It’s kind of interesting to me that either by choice or by chance, there’s a growing number of Target stores close to MAX.
Mall 205 and Cascade Station are very close, while Clackamas is a bit of a stroll, but doable. Glisan/122nd is not too far from MAX, and of course its right on a bus line, too. Add this potential downtown location to the mix. And if MAX ever goes to Vancouver (not debating the merits, here), the Hayden Island stop would land right next to that Target as well.
Now if they could just get the airport post office to be accessible to transit users/pedestrians in some reasonable kind of way.
Aren’t we a city overflowing with creatives? 87,000 sq ft of empty space and the best we can do is a Target? I’m miffed.
It’s simple: the creatives that are overflowing the city lack the entreprenuerial spirit or financial backing to undertake a venture that would fill up completely empty 87,000 sq. ft. I like this idea, personally for my own benefit since I live relatively close to where this would be and I don’t own a car to go out to the burbs.
Although Target might want to look at a feasibility study focusing on how well the downtown Borders (another primarily suburban big box store for all intents and purposes) fared with shoplifting and transients, or how the Safeway on 11th and Jefferson is handling it.
@el cubano
Your statement that Creatives “lack the entrepreneurial spirit” doesn’t ring true in Portland, a city with such a wide base of small businesses, carts and restaurants, shops, designers, manufacturers, etc. Any other American city would envy our diverse breadth of locally motivated doers.
However, I totally agree with you that Creatives “lack the financial backing” of a multinational corporation like Target. A corporation that pays a lower proportion of taxes, supports politicians who campaign against gays, and exists through heavy use of sweatshop slaves and a short-term reliance on shipping American jobs overseas.
It’s in our own self-interest to live a strong local economy. And the U.S. has seen time and again what happens when a big box store hurts local business. We only benefit ourselves when we ignore Target and continue to keep the majority of our dollars in our own economy.