Home Depots and Home and Hearth Niches

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Conventional WisdomConventional wisdom holds that when “category killer” retailers, such as Home Depot , enter a market area, they decimate many independent retailers in nearby downtown and neighborhood commercial centers. Local hardware stores, lumber yards and paint shops are supposedly doomed, while shops featuring lighting, window treatments, flooring, home decorations, etc., are seen to be in increased danger. The urban Metropolitan Avenue shopping district in the Forest Hills neighborhood of New York City and the …

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Downtown Friendly Store Designs 2 – Subway

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What happened a few years ago when a Subway opened in the Bayonne Town Center demonstrates an important point — it isn’t always the retail chain that causes problems with a new store’s façade or signage.The franchisee opened his shop and mounted a back-lit sign without getting necessary approvals from the city. City approvals require a letter from the Bayonne Town …

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Downtown Friendly Store Designs 1 – Wal-Mart

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This is the first in a long series of planned postings intended to demonstrate that a whole slew of major retail chains can — when they want to or are “induced” to — come up with attractive designs for their downtown stores that encourage pedestrian traffic and cross-shopping, while not visually violating the urban fabric. My goals in these postings are to:

  • Encourage downtown leaders to demand downtown friendly store designs from retailers, no matter …
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    Political Leadership and Downtown Redevelopment

    The Clear and Eminent Danger.As we all know, the Kelo vs New London decision by the US Supreme Court, although narrowly affirming the use of eminent domain, has thrown a wet blanket over downtown redevelopment projects. Many downtown activists are wondering about how they can proceed and if significant urban renewals will still be viable?

    Kelo has certainly made downtown revitalization much more difficult, but significant improvements are …

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