PS3D said:
Bob Yancy said:
Howdy,
Other threads exist to talk about the process and decision the city made to purchase the former Macy's.
If I may, I'd like to request we dedicate this thread to forward looking solutions. To kick it off, I have one potential proposed solution, among others:
Pickleball & Senior Center: pickleball is the fastest growing sport in the US. The pickleball community is very active and growing here. We do not have enough pickleball courts in College Station and Bryan combined. Scant few are indoors. Column spacing width will support the installation of courts inside Macy's, albeit it'd be tight.
Bocce ball, dance and exercise classes, game tables, and practice putting green(s) could be installed in other areas. Not a full blown rec center that competes with local gyms, but an activity center for all with likely a senior citizen focus.
This would be a relatively light commercial renovation, albeit municipalities do find ways to spend surprising sums on construction. A use like this would have the benefit of not requiring significant demolition and would likely be an intermediate term solution that preserves the property for potential different uses or a complete mall redevelopment in the future.
Work with me here. I'm trying. Google search "pickleball in vacant malls" before telling me I'm crazy, please. ;-)
Respectfully yours,
Yancy '95
Going to reiterate what I said before. One main idea that needs to be held is that it needs to have entrances both outside and into the mall, keeping it accessible and without killing either entrance.
Because of the building's position and layout, the smart thing would do is to trade it with Dillard's Womens/Kids or JCPenney. In Richland Mall, one of the Dillard's stores moved into the former Sears space, still keeping its dual-store nature but in a more prominent, larger position.
That would give the City a easier-to-work with ~70k square feet, one-story building.
The two options I would see, both based after real ideas, are as follows:
1) A College Station location of Fieldhouse USA. These large facilities incorporate hardwood courts (used for basketball, tennis, volleyball, etc.) which can be rented out or run by leagues. The Grapevine location is located at Grapevine Mills and is in a former JCPenney Outlet Store itself. It has the hardwood courts but also a restaurant, tae kwon do studio, and gymnastics club. It features entrances both to the outside and into the mall. The Frisco location (stand-alone) has an indoor batting cage area and a barbershop (among others). Columbus (Ohio) has a trampoline park (RIP Altitude!).
Throw in a community room, pickleball courts, and maybe something unique to the chain itself--like an indoor/outdoor natatorium, and you'll have a real winner. The City can largely divest itself from the operation.
2) With Northgate becoming an increasing problem with parking and rent, there's the idea of converting it to an extension of mall space, but with unique flooring and lighting, and leasing it to bars and restaurants with a space that is open late night to make an entertainment center of its own. While a "mall-within-a-mall" that has a separate leasing agent might not gel with CBL Properties, the next best idea would be to convert it to a multi-club venue. In Cincinnati, this was done with "Metropolis" which was in a former anchor space (or part of it), which featured three venues, one on techno, one C&W, and one top 40. In Post Oak Mall, the way this could work (and probably at Metropolis as well) is that you would be able to enter the building and walk past the separate club storefronts during the day, at night, when the mall access is closed, the hallway becomes the point between the clubs. Maybe a restaurant/snack bar could be thrown in there as well. The City at that point could lease to a single operator, with the operator being able to rearrange the club themes as they see fit, and gives the city an out if the clubs are a chronic crime problem.
Some good ideas, but will our population support them?
Would Penney's would be interested. They have closed over 200 stores in the past few years and declared Chapter 11 a couple of years ago. The actually have opened a few stores recently, but I suspect that they are not going to move a store to another location without seeing an economic benefit by doing so.
Are the ceilings high enough for basketball ? They sure aren't for tennis volleyball or some other sports where the ball is lifted high?
As far as the development into an entertainment venue, that's an option, but both Columbus and Cincinnati OH metro areas have populations of 2+ million $$ while our population less the students is about 180,000. Add to that those using existing options and those on limited incomes, I am not sure if our population would support and major entertainme venues......especially in the summer time when the students are gone and families are vacationing.
We are not a very large city for major entertainment venues. If we were, they'd be here already or at least we would hear of talk about locating here.
Has anyone looked at it as the senior citizens center? You could have a senior citizens center on the ground floor and future city, county or state offices on the second floor.
Maybe A&M might want to move a few of their departments that are way down at Towerpoint to a location closer to campus?
I think the city officials need to be extremely careful of investment additional monies into the building. We don't want to invest a few hundred thousand or millions of investment dollars and then a few years later it's vacant again and it Groundhog Day. Don't chase wasted money with more wasted money.
