 Two Conversations that Have Stuck in My Mind
I've spent a lot of time pondering the development of downtown. What dominates my thoughts are two conversations that have really stuck in my mind.
The first conversation was with Jamie Correa. He was the consultant hired by Team Punta Gorda to do a design charrette for downtown Punta Gorda. This conversation occurred after Jamie had presented his report to the community in the Tentatorium in 2005.
While the design charrette was going on in Punta Gorda there was a lot of discussion about it in our dining room at Pies & Plates. I commented to Jamie that what I heard people saying is that they wanted downtown to be filled with art galleries, small boutiques and unique small businesses like Pies & Plates. They want quirky shops with personality like those found on St. Armands Circle.
Jamie's reply was that that is not likely to happen in downtown Punta Gorda. He went on to explain that while rental rates at St. Armands may be high today, they weren't in the beginning. The buildings were older buildings in need of repair so the rental rates were reasonable. He said, unfortunately all the opportunities for reasonable rent in Punta Gorda were wiped out by Hurricane Charley. New buildings will be built in their place and the costs of new construction will be passed down to the tenants. Small independent businesses like Pies & Plates, independent art galleries and such will not be able to afford the high rental rates in the "new downtown." Only well established businesses will be able to afford to be there. The businesses he named as possible tenants were Chico's, Ann Taylor and Brooks Brothers.
The second conversation I had was in January of 2007. It was a few months after the new lifestyle mall Coconut Point Mall opened in Bonita Springs. I really wanted to get down there to see it, so I was excited when I had a guest come to Pies & Plates who had just shopped at Coconut Point the day before. This woman was from New Jersey and she was staying with friends in Punta Gorda. When she mentioned having been at Coconut Point I asked her what she thought of it. Without hesitation she said,
"It was really nicely done but it was very boring. We have almost all of the same shops back in New Jersey. If I wanted to shop at them I could have stayed home. I'd rather spend the day shopping in little boutiques like Pies & Plates any day. "
These two conversations have had me thinking ever since. How can you create an exciting downtown shopping experience that will engage both locals and visitors if only chain store tenants can afford the rent? Why would someone living in Sarasota day trip to Punta Gorda if they can visit the same stores in Sarasota?
Secondly, these chain stores have large footprints. Can you achieve the critical mass you need for downtown to flourish if it's filled with only a handful of a chain stores when what it really needs is a large number of small boutiques, galleries and restaurants?
I love this comment from the 2005 Punta Gorda Downtown Master Plan sponsored by Team Punta Gorda:
Downtown retail development is not about making shopping centers but about life and place-making - creating spaces with attractive destinations for time well spent. In general, people do not come to downtown areas for everyday shopping needs; they come looking for an urban experience including: entertainment, an attractive waterfront, a variety of historic and contemporary architecture, pedestrian friendly areas, lots of things to do, see, explore, meet, etc.; most importantly, a downtown is NOT an artificial environment but, a friendly public stage where people go to see and be seen by other people. People come to downtowns to have the Communal Experience they cannot find in a mall or in a strip center. For Downtown Punta Gorda to be successful, it must deliver.
How can we deliver?
I believe the developers are on the right track. Downtown needs a major attraction. An aquarium will attract bus loads of visitors. But, they'll be mostly school children and senior citizens. When they are done at Mote they'll get back on the bus and leave.
Locals will visit the aquarium maybe once or twice a year. Like Fishermen's Village, it will be a place where they take their out of town guests to entertain them.
The best reason for bringing Mote to the community is because the presence of the aquarium will help attract conventions to the Events Center and visitors to the hotels which will get more people circulating downtown. So, building an aquarium downtown is a good thing but it's not enough.
Bottom line is this that for downtown Punta Gorda to succeed it needs a critical mass of unique boutiques, galleries and restaurants. If we can't get them by conventional means is there a way to get them by unconventional means? It's time to think outside of the box.
My idea is to open a boutique mall to serve as a retail attraction for downtown Punta Gorda. A cluster of 30-50 small unique boutiques selling only the best of the best, the funniest, most exciting and the most innovative of products. A place where you could spend hours browsing and not get bored. An adventure you'll want to share with friends. A place you can't wait to come back to again and again.
I'm not talking about building a space and carving it up into little pieces and renting it out to dozens of different owners. I'm talking about a private entity owning the entire boutique mall and the boutiques within. Kind of like a department store. A department store has one entity that owns it but it has different departments - women's clothing, men's clothing, shoes, housewares, etc. Like a department store Just Amazing would be owned by one entity but instead of departments it will have dozens of small unique boutiques and perhaps some restaurants as well.
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