A view of the atrium that runs the length of Cleveland's the Galleria at Erieview.

Could indoor gardens be in store for The Shops of Grand Avenue future? It could happen if the mall follows in the steps of a similar mall in downtown Cleveland, the Galleria at Erieview.

The Galleria at Erieview implemented an indoor garden, dubbed Gardens Under Glass, complete with a hydroponic system in empty space in the urban mall’s atrium. Fueled by natural light, mall marketing director Vicky Poole and Artist Review Today manager Jack Hamilton (a mall tenant) have created a greenhouse thanks to a $30,000 grant from Cleveland’s Civic Innovation Lab. The pair see it as a catalyst for the mall, hoping to attract those interested in learning more and consuming the products of the gardens and other sustainable stores.

How could this idea be implemented at Grand Avenue Mall in Milwaukee? The Plankinton Arcade portion of the mall appears to have the highest retail vacancy rate and operates right now largely as a pass-through area along the skywalk system between the East Town office tours and the food court. It also features an atrium the length of the property that exposes two stories to sunlight. The opportunity cost of utilizing that space certainly seems low at this point. Making the largely vacant Plankinton Arcade more attractive through the installation of garden beds also might serve to encourage more traffic to the mall’s existing businesses.

A trial on a scale this small ($30,000) appears to be a no-brainer for Grand Avenue owner’s Ashkenazy Acquisitions Corp, especially compared to past suggestions of ours.

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

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 we 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 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 Pointer 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 Deanna 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 baggage of bad ideas past.

The winner will receive free rent for a year, an interior design concept from Kahler Slater, advertising at OnMilwaukee.com, and logo design from Spark Milwaukee.

While this won’t completely reinvent how the mall operates, this is a good idea.  My only question is why stop at one store?  Why not give away two or three?  It doesn’t appear anyone will be renting the spaces anytime soon, and turning them into active businesses can only help other tenants.

The Shops of Grand Avenue website claims it will have more information soon.

I would argue the most economically sustainable approach, for the retailer, building owner, and the city, is for all retail to interact with the street.  The current alignment however at Grand Avenue is the mall versus the street.  And in case you haven’t been on west Wisconsin Avenue lately, both sides are losing.

The inward facing mall does not benefit from nearby venues, except during the lunch hour when the skywalk sees a stream of individuals head to the third-level food court.  The outward facing street that is the north side of west Wisconsin Avenue does not benefit from the mall located on the other side of the street, as Grand Avenue’s few outward facing stores fail to generate any form of street traffic that would make the area attractive.

The end result is failing stores and empty storefronts.

There is light at the end of the tunnel though.  With Grand Avenue currently on life support, the reality that the current owner, Ashkenazy Acquisitions Corp, is going to be looking for public dollars to support some form of renovation is growing more likely by the day.  This should be taken as a chance to do things right, and orient the mall around the street.  The plan being that increasing the retail availability on the street will certainly increase the values of non-mall properties, but will also strongly increase the value of the mall itself.  If public dollars are to be invested, the city should definitely get a positive externality of reactivity multiple blocks outside of the project itself.

How to achieve a street-based orientation?  Organize the retail locations by the level of impulse involved in purchasing.  The food court is currently located on the third floor, furthest away from the free advertising the street provides.  This should be reversed.  Pot Belly’s should be joined on Wisconsin Ave. by as many restaurants as possible from the food court.

The empty Linens & Things store provides easy space to start, Office Max and TJ Maxx should be reconfigured to be on the second-tier.  Utilizing the stairways that are currently blocked off, Office Max and TJ Maxx could have street-level retail space and a link to a second-level store.  This would allow for coveted street-signage and visibility, as well as a store layout that maximizes the mall’s capacity for street-level retail.

The old food court could become one of many things, but the best bet might actually be a school.  With the large number of charter schools springing up in Milwaukee, and MPS in its ever-present state of flux, I would imagine the surge in downtown Milwaukee residents would warrant a school at some point to serve them.  If not a school, a daycare center or job-training facility might be a nice fit.  The food court space, because of the mall’s skywalk connection, has good direct connectivity to numerous employment centers in the area, which might make young children (and parents) more at ease.  For green space for any youth-focused facility the underused Zeidler Park could be reconfigured.

The lower levels could largely be kept as is, with the notable exception of utilizing what is currently the large holiday season robot band in the first floor plaza space below the food court as a new indoor eating area for the winter.  An open dining space would serve to activate retail spaces inside the mall that see diminished traffic counts because of the move to street-level retail.

The second floor, the further the unit is from an entrance, could be transitioned from retail space into small office and non-impulse retail space.  Dentists, tailors, small financial firms, etc, etc could be more heavily marketed to.  Units near entrances could maintain their function as retail spaces (Old Navy as an example of one in this role already).

At the end of the day, one of the things that certainly needs to change is that more street signage for the individual tenants should be installed.  It should be lighted signage so that it’s visible at night and jumps out.  The mall is on Wisconsin Avenue in an urban area without much in the way of residents on the street, the signage should be nearly something onto itself, like it is in Times Square.

With the redevelopment of the Shops of Grand Avenue you would hope to see increased retail in the other empty spaces along Wisconsin Avenue.  By allowing Wisconsin Avenue itself to be a retail destination, you would anticipate spillover onto side streets that you’re not seeing now.  The massive underutilized of the land on the intersections of Wells and 2nd Street and Wells and 3rd Street would become a prime spot for redevelopment.  Mixed-use buildings on those intersections would further add to the street life of the area.

One thing the area sorely lacks is nightlife.  West Wisconsin Avenue is a ghost town at night.  It would probably be good for more bars to occupy the stretch, as well as simply more businesses that are open late.  The proposed Ghazi development would help this, as would development of empty retail spaces on the north side of the block.  The biggest thing however will be the flexibility to change the hours of mall if it is oriented to the street.  Currently the mall closes at 7 p.m.  A street-orientation would allow the stores to set their own hours, and enhance the safety and vibrancy of the street.

Redeveloping the Shops of Grand Avenue isn’t going to be cheap, but the mall and the street are on a death spiral as it is now.  A wisely done redevelopment could increase the value of all of the properties in the area, and create an organic, market-driven path to future growth in the area.

West Wisconsin Avenue is one of the first areas people often see in downtown Milwaukee.  It plays a crucial role in establishing someone’s first impression of downtown.  We need a healthy and vibrant mix of uses on the block.

In Summary…

1. The mall is failing and will presumably need a public investment via TIF dollars at some time in the near future.

2. Moving the food court to the street-level and orienting it around Wisconsin Avenue will drive up pedestrian traffic, increasing the street life and improving all businesses along West Wisconsin Avenue.  This will also allow businesses to stay open later if they don’t depend on mall access, this will generate higher profits, which means higher rents.

3. The third floor (old food court space) could be used for an office tenant(s), single large retail tenant, daycare, or educational institution.  Zeidler Park could be reconfigured to yield green space.

4. The open plaza on the first level that currently is filled by robots playing music could be an indoor eating venue in the winter.

6. The second floor could be transitioned to attract tenants not reliant on impulse retail.  Outdoor signage could be given for every tenant.

7. The increased activity taking place on Wisconsin should fuel growth in nearby under-utilized areas, such as this intersection.  The increased signage should make the area seem a little bit more alive at night, allowing businesses to be open later would help this.

While from an urbanist’s perspective we still would prefer you choose the sidewalk, here’s a map for those of you looking for other connections. Next up is mapping the empty retail spaces that are on roads paralleling a skywalk route.

View Larger Map

I’ve been in support of the statue since I first learned of it because it encourages visitors (who come to Milwaukee for completely unrelated reasons) to stay downtown, walk downtown, and spend their money downtown.  One more thing for Milwaukee visitors to do.

• Mary Louise Schumacher is still opposed to the statue because it’s too trivial.
• The Associated Press has an article that sums up what is happening, and even mentions Brenner leaving town.

The best part of the entire thing is that Henry Winkler and company held a press conference to announce the completed funding in front of the Culver’s at the Shops of Grand Avenue.  Couldn’t they find a slightly better location?