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By Jeramey R. Jannene Special to OnMilwaukee.com E-mail author More articles by Jeramey R. Jannene

Published Aug. 8, 2009 at 11:33 a.m.

Tags: grand avenue, retail, recruitment, development, downtown, delmar loop, block e, inniss

Milwaukee Talkie, the blog of the Public Policy Forum, examined the urban retail market and how to best utilize the hiring of Deanna Inniss as a business recruiter by BID #21, Milwaukee's Downtown Business Improvement District. It noted that one large thing wasn't on her task list: the inside of Grand Avenue Mall.

Looking at Minneapolis, Melissa Kovach observes that even with a light-rail line, nearby sporting events and anchor tenants, the urban mall, Block E, still has a vacancy rate equivalent to Grand Avenue's (30 percent).

The way to a healthy urban retail environment proposed by the Public Policy Forum is to focus on unique, indepdent retailers at the street-level. Words of wisdom that sound similar to what we concluded when UrbanMilwaukee.com explored the idea of rebuilding the Shops of Grand Avenue.

It's great to see more and more people coming around to the idea that an urban shopping center that is simply a clone of the suburbs will fail.

What survives? Look at the Delmar Loop in St. Louis. An urban neighborhood served by a light-rail line, with good urban, street-level design. Every time I visit the area, it seems to grow bigger and healthier.

What do we have to look at locally? The Historic Third Ward. No fixed transit connections, but it is served by two bus lines. Most importantly, though, is the extensive network of street-level retail establishments with offices and condos above.

Good urban design grows upon itself, unlike a stationary mall. This is no more evident than in the growth of the Fifth Ward where retail, offices, and condos are spilling over from the Third Ward.

The Fifth Ward, officially known as Walker's Point, is located just south of the Third Ward, and has seen projects like South Water Works spring up over the past year, and now Riviana appears to be moving forward again even in a down economy.

There is also the East Side concept of dorm-oriented development that appears to be taking hold.

By bringing in Inniss as a recruiter and taking the inside of Grand Avenue off of her plate, she is poised to build off the success of the Third Ward and spread that unique urban shopping experience to the rest of Downtown.

Godspeed to Deanna, and kudos to BID #21 for bringing her in and not saddling her with baggage of bad ideas past.

15 comments about this article. Post a comment / write a review.

Recent Talkbacks ...

Posted by Red_5 on Aug. 11, 2009 at 3:27 p.m. (report)

"You may not like the truth or may not be able to handle the truth, but if you want results, society as a whole has to take bold action and quit pandering to the masses of people who offer no contribution to society." Oh please enlighten us speakerofdeuce. We are dying for you to outline your solutions to all of society's ills while presenting all of your facts and truths to support them. The sooner we know we can all get to work on your Final Solution type project that it will read like and make Milwaukee a better place.

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Posted by speakthetruth on Aug. 11, 2009 at 2:56 p.m. (report)

I do not care to decide who gets to stay or who gets to have children or not have children. My only point is that we have too many people who do not contribute to society in a positive fashion. These people have too many children. This needs to stop. The Grand Avenue needs to go, no question about it, but rather than bemoaning a decision regarding the retail options of a few city blocks, why don't we aim to improve the entire city both now and for future generations? Let's end the ghetto.

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Posted by MKEDave2009 on Aug. 11, 2009 at 11:59 a.m. (report)

It's sad how Jeremey's thoughtful and important article on the future of the Grand devolves into a back and forth about speakthetruth's "final solution" for Milwaukee. History shows us that whenever we start talking about "eliminating" or "expelling" those who don't contribute to society, inevitibly one person or group of people has to make the decisions about who can stay and who can go. I would imagine that in speakthetruth's grand vision for the city, he's the one doing the deciding, guided by his version of "the truth." I'm grateful that I live in a country where this impulse is relegated to the rantings of blogs and anonymous posts on online forums, and not manifested in actual state policy backed by military power. Most people in the world aren't so lucky. One wonders why, if speakthetruth's observations are based on truth, on verifiable fact, not on opinion, why he must share these observations under a false name and behind a photo of his dog. What you're sharing here are very important facts (not opinions, mind you) that could potentially alter the course of society. You owe it to us all to learn the identity of the visionary that learned the truth! OnMilwaukee.com can't be blamed for loony-toons posts on some talkback form, of course, but I nearly did a double take when I saw that this guy has his own dedicated bandwidth on OMC for his anonymous musings. How sad. There's a difference between "content" and "filler," and OMC's overreliance on the latter has diminished whatever credibility it may have once had as a source for news and opinion. Some websites have really broken away from the pack and have become places where people can find compelling content and interesting discussions. Some websites have basically become ashtrays full of half informed rants. How sad for Milwaukee that OMC appears to be on its way to becoming one of the ashtrays of the internet.

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Posted by speakthetruth on Aug. 10, 2009 at 8:54 p.m. (report)

What some of you fail to realize is that my talkbacks are based upon fact, not my personal beliefs. You may not like the truth or may not be able to handle the truth, but if you want results, society as a whole has to take bold action and quit pandering to the masses of people who offer no contribution to society. Wrap your head around that, if you can, by thinking about your comments that promote "tearing down" Grand Avenue. Think of the far too many people in Milwaukee (and far too many people everywhere) as suffering from a malaise similar to the one that faces the mall: too dependent on public funding, offering little or no value, not inviting, economically unsustainable, etc. The Grand Avenue should be eliminated. You can connect the dots on the larger issues facing Milwaukee, but I'll give you a hint: the solution is the same.

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Posted by AnotherSunnyDay on Aug. 10, 2009 at 7:49 p.m. (report)

speak the truth- on the off chance you are not just trolling with your ridiculous comment, there are several things very wrong with what you said. - MCTS buses serve many, many locations along wisconsin avenue and Grand Avenue is just one of those. If the buses were removed all the numerous other businesses and residents along Wisconsin avenue would suffer. - The people on the buses smell? Really, as said before when is the last time you rode the bus? I don't ride the bus often but when I have I've never had any problems with the passengers. - I've never had a problem with the buses clogging up traffic, you must be sooo inconvenienced by the bus stopping every block or so and getting in the way in your imagination. - Someone else called you arrogant, although I'm not sure the word arrogant even begins to describe the douchebaggery present in your comment. Please do everyone a favor and don't comment unless you have something constructive to add. As far as the mall itself, I really like the idea of tearing parts of it down and adding greenspaces/parks or other unique things to break up the mass. Certain parts of it look very dated and tired and as said before the suburban mall concept does not work in an urban area. The 'problem' clientele that others spoke of is not a problem unique to grand avenue, go to any mall in the area and you will see this type of behavior occasionally. Doing a more 'broken up' type of development with offices/residential units/parks in between the store spaces would help eliminate the problems with this type of behavior-you don't see this in the third ward for example.

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Show me the other 10 Talkbacks

Recent blogs/briefs by Jeramey R. Jannene

More thoughts on Downtown retail, Grand Avenue Aug. 08, 2009 With Milwaukee Downtown's hiring of Deanna Inniss as a recruiter and taking the inside ...

The future of urban shopping centers? July 18, 2009 Is dorm-oriented development the future of urban shopping centers? Indeed, a new development ...

A history of the new Milwaukee circulator streetcar April 29, 2009 The Milwaukee circulator streetcar is moving forward, but there is still confusion in ...

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