Sunday, October 21, 2007
Yo Joe
As readers of UtWT comments know, quirky grocer Trader Joe's is coming to the Metropolitan development in Midtown. What does that mean for Grubb's Elizabeth Avenue project? Does the nearby presence of Target, Home Depot and Trader Joe's mean lesser tenants for us? Metropolitan has a jump on Elizabeth Avenue, and it appears Grubb is having trouble luring big names. But does a dominant Metropolitan hurt Elizabeth Avenue's chances? I don't necessarily think so, although it does seem to imply that Grubb needs to get busy. There's still lots of buying power around here and the area is under-served from a retail standpoint. Let's see what happens.
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6 comments:
Sure seems like Grubb is floundering....vacant lots...loss of tenants.....what a disappointment.
Yes, anon. I haven't given up hope yet, but progress sure seems hard to measure over there.
Metropolitan will help Grubb's site because it brings a whole new retail awareness to the area. In addition Metropolitan is more of an urban power center while Grubb's deal is more mixed use. They will get it together it has just taken a whole lot of extra time.
It seems all of Grubb's projects have this problem. Morrison had problems getting off the ground, The TH development on 10th is overgrown with very little activity. Even his website is saying the url is expired.
I agree very disappointing.
Didn't the city give Grubb money for an Elizabeth Ave parking deck that still has not been built?
Unfortunately Grubb has a tendency to overpromise and underperform. Not necessarily a great business platform. They are a great residential development company but have a lot of trouble understanding the complexities of retail development ie timing, parking, store layout, trash and service layout, merchandising. Therefore his developments continue to suffer scrutiny, and retailers continue to complain and/or choose not to participate in his developments ie Whole Foods at Elizabeth Avenue and Flemings at Morrison.
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