DMD threw down and asked for suggestions on the Park Lane Mall site - including outlining a few different kinds of developments to draw from. This was a great impetus for me to toss out an actual back-of-the-napkin sketch of what I think Park Lane Mall could become. It reinforces a few things I've said here before - so there's some background.
To bring everyone up to speed, I have often thought that what was missing from Park Lane was a Park and a Lane. I pulled up the site imagery on the internet and was astounded by the amount of room these guys have to work with. A screengrab later, and I'm in Paint, marking it up.
Park Lane District Plan Map
This draft plan takes into account what this blog has long called for - planning neighborhoods instead of "projects". This Park Lane is a district not a mall, it makes suggestions for integrating even at an arterial street level with the giant project going in across the street. It provides office and retail space, providing essential flow-through traffic and clientele for the retail offerings. It has parking all around it. It reaches out to the neighborhood around it and offers a plan to move that neighborhood forward.
I'm also calling for a hotel as part of this project. The "quad" in the middle of the project might be more of a plaza - I also envision the plaza having a detachable roof which would go up just after Halloween and of course Santa Claus would show up in there.
Out on the Virginia Street side, a toss back to the past for all those who remember the old Sierra Pacific headquarters and its fountains. Pains were taken to integrate Heidi's restaurant into this new neighborhood including making sure there's parking available and rounding out restaurant on that corner with another restaurant which could cover dinner hours.
The office building at the south end has some new possibilities. It gets a hotel to share the skyline with it, so maybe it would want to do an extension of the park and take advantage of the garage next door.
This rough sketch could easily be filled in a little more to make a more conventional project, but with the strategies and principles outlined here, Reno would be growing an entire new urban neighborhood.
1 | New Gottschalk's Building |
2 | Large Retail |
3 | Heidi's Restaurant |
4 | Restaurant |
5 | Multi-story Mixed Commercial/Retail |
6 | Multi-story Mixed Commercial/Retail |
7 | Multi-story Mixed Commercial/Retail |
8 | Large Retail |
9 | Large Retail |
10 | Restaurant Space |
11 | Hotel-Retail |
12 | Multi-story Mixed Commercial/Retail |
13 | Mixed Retail Suites |
14 | Mixed Retail Suites |
15 | Mixed Retail Suites |
16 | Movie Theater |
17 | Mixed Retail Suites |
18 | Restaurant |
19 - 23 | NW, NE, E, S, SW Parking |
Park Lane District Plan Building Use Designations
See the evolution of this plan (including 3d renderings) here
I love your plan! I can only hope that that the developers are listening and develop this parcel of land to it's full potential. This is an opportunity to create something special. Reno is in need of a retail center/plaza that encourages people to get out of their cars and walk around, socialize, people watch, etc. Something akin to The Grove, which Mike mentioned on his site and I think you have done a great job reinforcing in your napkin plan. This is exactly the opportunity that Bayer Properties had when they built the Summit, which turned out to be nothing but a high-end strip mall with little social interaction or charm. I could just picture what this area would look like with some big department stores intermixed with smaller cafes, shops, as well as trees, fountains, nice lighting, etc. If there is one drawback it's the area demographics which could hamper attempts to get big-name, new to the area tenants to sign leases.
Posted by: Justin | November 26, 2007 at 02:04 PM
Thanks for the comment Justin, glad you like this idea. The demographics issue is important - when I was coming up with this concept, my target retailer that kept springing to mind was "High Street". This is a center for High Street retailers. I think the High Street does include shops that target a range of prices, lifestyles, and functions, however.
Some potential drivers of growth in this center would be:
* Virginia Lake Crossing, across the street. Will have its own shopping street, but they so owe us a map it's not even funny at this point. Still, there'll be residents, and they might want to shop.
* The hotel. I'm thinking this is a brand-name hotel like maybe a Westin. A hotel like that would serve a whole new base of customers for the Reno market and the proximity just between downtown and the convention center would be a real selling point.
Some interesting implications for Gottschalk's in this version however. Is G's now "High Street"? Were they trying to get there? Or do they co-anchor the center with something higher-end?
Posted by: Ken | November 26, 2007 at 03:40 PM
BTW here are a few Seattle-area shopping centers to address your points about Summit. My message: It's all the same everywhere. Post modern suburban strip architecture is a hard habit to break for developers!
http://www.redmondtowncenter.com/assets/corporate/PDF_Handheld_Directory_Brochures/RED-DIRECTORY_10.22.07.pdf
http://www.uvillage.com/map.asp
And Summit, for comparison
http://www.thesummitonline.com/sierra/files/SummitStoreDirectory.pdf
Posted by: Ken | November 26, 2007 at 04:09 PM
Since we're on the topic of retail. Have you checked out Las Vegas Town Square? It opened recently and I've heard great things about it. It sounds like the perfect type of project for this area. If the developer is smart they will play up the close proximity to downtown as an asset. I can honestly say from first hand experience there are many tourists who come to town that want more shopping/dining options near downtown.
http://www.vegas.com/shopping/townsquare.html
Posted by: Justin | November 26, 2007 at 04:43 PM
Interesting. I was unware of Town Square Las Vegas. I usually have to go to Vegas once a year in January so I'll take a look at it as part of my annual survey. I'm also tracking Sullivan Square http://www.sullivansquarelasvegas.com/live_stream.html That seems like one hell of a project.
Posted by: Ken | November 26, 2007 at 05:00 PM
OBTW:
Boulder, Colorado. They blew up a shopping mall a few years ago, something that doesn't happen often in cities Boulder's size. Now they're doing up a development called "29th Street" that is essentially a "shopping street" makeover of the old mall site.
There's a lot of this kind of thing going on in the country - the question is whether Reno's can show some distinctiveness and break out from the crowd.
Posted by: Ken | November 26, 2007 at 05:09 PM
I love the idea. IMO, the only thing that could make it better is if it was downtown. I was just recently at the K street mall in downtown Sacramento, and it would be amazing if Reno could get something like that.
Posted by: David | November 27, 2007 at 04:37 PM