How''s your downtown business district doing?

[jhc68]

Over many years, I've found the number of empty store fronts in my city's downtown area measures the state of the economy pretty accurately. I live in a worldwide tourist destination which is also an enclave of great wealth.

My 55 year old, 1200 sq. ft. stucco house is still holding at a market price of about $875k... nonetheless, today I counted 26 vacant retail spaces in a 10 block stretch of the main retail street downtown.

How's your city's downtown commercial vacancy rate?

[Mighty Favog]

Downtown Toledo OH...like a neutron bomb detonated, except for the areas near the ball park & basketball/hockey arena. This has been the case for at least 30 years.

Downtown Sylvania OH (long ago a farm town, now suburbia)...only one empty storefront in its 3-block area. Not a high-rent area by suburban standards, but very stable.

[dukehjsteve]

Indianapolis is doing just fine.

[26mi235]

Madison is holding up pretty well. The assessed tax revenue is down 2% from the year before (with probably about 0.5% more assessable properties, but there was a court case that resulted in a substantially lower assessment due to a sale/leaseback arrangement by some companies).

The main malls I have been to (West Towne and Hilldale) have not had too high a vacancy rate, but the street mall next to my building has been dropping business for the last 5 years and my antiquated 14-story round tower is going empty over that same period -- we move to a new building a mile even further toward downtown/university in January. My tax assessment has stayed flat for a couple of years.

[lonewolf]

After WWII, downtown Oklahoma City retail started moving to the city fringe, first to stripmalls then to regional malls. In the 60s, much of historic downtown and nearly every building with interesting/distinctive architecture was demolished in the name of Urban Renewal with the grand plan to build a 16 block downtown mall with four manor anchor stores. Never happened but we did end up with a very nice central park with a small lake, bridges, cylindrical botanical garden , concert stage, waterfalls/foountains, lounging berms. Downtown is now fairly compact and well occupied with mainly hotels, financial and government offices and a few daytime restuarants.
Two of our five large regional malls are now in severe decline.
There has been a resurgence the last twenty years in development of a former commercial warehouse/manufacturing across the tracks on the edge of downtown into a thriving entertainment area of clubs and restuarants called "Bricktown", centered on the "new" AAA baseball park. Kinda neat and quaint with brick streets, appropriate street lamps, etc..
In my wandering, the biggest, most depressing/alarming big city "ghost town" I can remember was Benton Harbor, MI in the late 1980s. Blocks of boarded up office buildings and retail stores. In marked contrast, St. Joseph, the county seat just across the river, was a well maintained, apparently viable community.

[tandfman]

There has been a resurgence the last twenty years in development of a former commercial warehouse/manufacturing across the tracks on the edge of downtown into a thriving entertainment area of clubs and restuarants called "Bricktown", centered on the "new" AAA baseball park. Kinda neat and quaint with brick streets, appropriate street lamps, etc..

I'm glad to hear that. The only times I was ever in Okla City was just a little over 20 years ago, when the NCAA indoor meet was there. I was astonished by how utterly deserted the downtown area seemed to be.

[lonewolf]

tandfman, you would be pleasantly surprised if you visited OKC again. Some new hotels downtown and in Bricktown. Surface streets are still pretty empty. Everyone uses the underground Conncourse, that connects most downtown businesses, to avoid summer heat and winter cold.
Damn the Depression. Devon Energy is full speed ahead with a 53 story office tower adjacent to the Crystal Garden (or whatever it is called) to be completed in 2011.
The old board 10 lap track at the Myriad was pretty bad but I loved wearing a tux while working the two or three national meets held there.