I have a hard time feeling too sorry for Target. However, I do not envy anyone having to deal with the chumps on the stump downtown.

It would be so nice to have a Target to go to without having to get in the car - and stuck in traffic no mater which way I headed.

Also, that building is getting emptier by the month. It needs a decent tenant.

*matter, even

Wait until Target starts dealing with the city on parking details. It will fall apart.

Oh yeah...parking! No one is supposed to drive anymore.
Sorry Target. Just quit now, don't waist your time.

Yeah right, poor Target. Are you going to feel sorry for Walmart next? Brooks brothers does sell quality clothes if you can afford them.

"Wait until Target starts dealing with the city on parking details."

Last I looked there was a City owned parking garage right across the street. As more and more people have been moving back into city centers nationwide Target has made it a policy to locate stores there. There are Target stores I believe in downtown Chicago,Stamford CT., Minneapolis, St. Louis and several in NYC including one next to the Costco in Manhattan. They have also leased the bottom three floors in a condo bunker in downtown Seattle though that store is not open yet.

That city-owned parking garage is scheduled to be torn down for a high-rise tower.

"city's strict DIY, keep-it-weird, buy-local, orthodox Blumenauerism"

Code for - No sane retailer would move downtown unless it is one heck of a deal.

Having worked in retail for 12 years I think their biggest concern in the downtown area is going to be the street people, 'road warriors' otherwise known as street youths, and the assorted tweakers and drunks looking for a place to shoot up or piss. Parking will be close behind on the list of problems...

Somehow I doubt they will worry about parking when the building is at the intersection of the streetcar and MAX.

Besides, people with cars wont be coming downtown to shop at Target when they can just go to one of several in the suburbs, without the "downtown element", and park for free.

"As more and more people have been moving back into city centers nationwide"

May want to check the 2010 census figures on urban vs. suburban growth.

I would like a Target downtown, but I am genuinely curious about how parking will be handled. I don't see them being satisfied with the street parking and pay parking around there.

"Somehow I doubt they will worry about parking when the building is at the intersection of the streetcar and MAX."

Wow.

Let's see. Portland's city blocks are, what, 200 feet by 200 feet? That's 40,000 square feet per floor - assuming the entire floor from wall to wall is used.

Two floors, 80,000 square feet.

Typical Target is closer to 160,000 square feet, so this is going to be one tiny Target. Given that the Galleria does not have a solid wall-to-wall floor (but has a large open space in the center), that takes out a lot of space unless the interior is going to be gutted, rebuilt, with a solid floor.

Target has been in the process of renovating all of its Portland area stores with full grocery departments - is this Target going to have a full grocery? Surely Target could provide some real competition for Freddy's and Safeway, the only other downtown grocers.

It'll be interesting to see what isn't in this Target store...Fred Meyer had to come up with a new concept ("Northwest Best") for its Burnside store because it can't be a full-line store but they didn't want it to be a "Marketplace" store (which is used to describe stores without an apparel department and with abbreviated home departments).

Super Target stores are more closer to 160,000 sf.

The average Target store from Google says about 128-135,000 sf.

http://retailtrafficmag.com/retailing/analysis/big_box_giants_downsize_03302011/

The age of bigger is better to big box stores is slowly coming down.

80,000 sf is plenty of room to sell a bunch of junk nobody really needs.

The older Target stores in Beaverton don't appear to be in the range of even close to 160,000 sf on average.

That city-owned parking garage is scheduled to be torn down for a high-rise tower

HA !!! Might want to finish the one next to it first....

80,000 sf is plenty of room to sell a bunch of junk nobody really needs.

Yeah -- milk, underwear, shoes...

"May want to check the 2010 census figures on urban vs. suburban growth."

Snards,

I didn't say more people were moving into the Cities than moving into the suburbs. I merely said there has been marked increase in people moving into the cities. In fact the biggest growth areas have been in the new outer growth ring suburbs and the old inner growth ring suburbs not the inner city itself.

With the assault on government taxing ability everywhere the ability of the outer suburban areas to keep subsidizing suburban growth may be slowing. In any event the old pattern of almost growth going to suburban subdivisions seems to be slowing down. Wouldn't it be ironic if all the arguments going on in the blog involved people fondly dreaming about the 1940;s arguing with people fondly remembering the 1960's when something entirely different is going on.

"With the assault on government taxing ability everywhere the ability of the outer suburban areas to keep subsidizing suburban growth"

How can anyone around here utter such a thing when the masive subsidies for infill, TODs and grand schemes in the cites has been going on for so long?

Fortunately the gross misappropriation is running out of pots to plumder and the madness is grinding to a slower pace.

"In any event the old pattern of almost growth going to suburban subdivisions seems to be slowing down."

That explains why Washington county will be bigger than Multnomah county in about 5-10 years. Portland's already behind Hillsboro/Bvtn for job creation. It doesn't hurt that Sam/Vera were on a perennial campaign to ruin what retail is left downtown (excepting lunch carts.)

Maybe one day we'll stop hearing that threadbare "we need a strong downtown" justification for spending every development dollar downtown.

Steve:

Washington County has almost twice the amount of land than Multnomah Co...and Mult. has large unbuilt parks and a large airport and port (that take away room for residential development).

I'm not going to hold Mult. Co up as a model county -- it could be doing so much more on the growth aspect of jobs and tax structure. Just pointing out that this would need to be correlated for.

"it could be doing so much more on the growth aspect of jobs and tax structure."

It could be doing anything besides chasing guys who want to leave town and doleing out handouts to Homer, G-E and any streetcar project they can find.

Fred Meyer has plans to renovate its Stadium store at 20th & Burnside into a full one-stop shopping store. In about two years. It's about time; downtown sucks for 'generic' shopping, which I consider much more important that other types of shopping.

Washington County has almost twice the amount of land than Multnomah Co...and Mult. has large unbuilt parks and a large airport and port (that take away room for residential development).

The majority of Washington County is well removed from development as well. Timber isn't exactly a bedroom community...

Target may want to check out the street drummers and other "musicians" that block the sidewalk at the max station across from this venue. Also the parking garage stairs make for a great "modesty" stall for the female homeless to urinate, resulting in covering the sidewalk while wating for the train to pull in.

ws, you have it backwards. Nice try. Washington Co. has less than 1/2 of its total acreage in the urban growth boundary compared to Multnomah. That's the real measurement.

But it's interesting that both Washington and Clackamas Co. has much more population, building investment and economic growth than Multnomah. Something isn't working right if you believe the Planner's dreams.