An urban Wal-Mart could go in the East End no matter which major developer gets their way. In other words there is room for both a stadium and an urban Wal-Mart in the East End. Not to mention much more.
A neighborhood market with parking behind and or underneath, (the 2 story version) having an appropriate facade would not kill downtown. A regular Wal-Mart with parking underneath would not kill downtown.
If they or anyone else wants to put in a grocery store I dont see why it should be that horrible if it were urban in style.
Here are some excerpts from a news story I found interesting.
(((Wal-Mart is limited to land availability and zoning codes nationwide just like everybody else, he said. Many cities do not have zoning laws that would allow a mixed-use development like the Wal-Mart Village. Over the last few years, Wal-Mart has designed its buildings to represent individual communities, Zorn said. City officials are requesting noise control, parking, signage and landscaping concessions, he said. With that, communities "feel like they’ve built their Wal-Mart for their community. The process is becoming much more open." "We’re looking for local architects, contractors and civil engineers. We’re working harder than ever with business leaders, elected officials, and city and county planners. We’re quite regularly attending open forums and bringing renderings." Wal-Mart now has a veritable "menu" of elevations to offer, Zorn said. Wal-Mart is partnering with local colleges so students can engage in hands-on training while receiving an education. Those neighborhood residents are helping build their own Wal-Mart store, Garner said. "That’s phenomenal and powerful — it gives a sense of ownership," "We are looking at 50 to 70 ‘special projects’ that are not traditional," he said. The company is sharing tips and best practices with its international division, which has built multilevel stores in urban markets worldwide.
...But in urban areas, the building’s footprint must be more compact and relate to the street and sidewalks, allowing access for pedestrians as well as vehicles. The experimental stores in McKinney, Texas, Aurora, Colo., are environmentally friendly and sustainable in many aspects with the use of wind power or permeable parking surfaces. In Chicago, Wal-Mart is experimenting with grass on 50 percent of the store’s roof, joining many other companies in the city. " They showed us images of their latest ‘green’ store models with windmills, solar heating and recycled building materials.
....If they could just design some walkability and mixed-use into their design, up to 40 percent of the car trips to their stores could be eliminated, "she wrote.
The Wal-Mart officials were enthusiastic about these pedestrian-friendly ideas and even attended the public input charrette in Pass Christian in February, Hall said.
Roseland, Calif." To my knowledge, this has never happened before, "she wrote in the op-ed piece." Here was Wal-Mart’s director of architecture with the New Urbanists, working night and day on a design that would meet their interests of not only the size of the store and the number of parking spaces, but also of providing nearby housing for their workers and plenty of nearby customers within walking distance. "And it was beautiful and walkable at the same time." )))
Global Developments plans were for a 1.9 million square foot development, including 450,000 sq ft of retail. Some new Urban Wal-Mart prototypes are 99,000 sq ft split between 2 floors. Plus remember there are more places for stores and such to go in downtown.
"Urban dwellers dont want to shop at Wal-Mart" "Wal-Mart is the wrong demographic"
If thats true and nobody shops at the Wal-Mart then you won't have to worry about it being there for long. After a month of so of no hip urban shoppers supporting it, it will go under, right? You will have a new, decent looking brick structure with underground parking that can be used for other purposes instead of say a surface parking lot which may be there now. Plus a Wal-Mart won't be competing with any "trendy" urban type businesses so those types of businesses will have absolutely nothing to worry about.
Not the most urban, but another interesting variation of what Wal-Mart is doing in other places. Has 2 levels of parking and shopping, with "street level" shopping and parking on top of the lower level Wal-Mart.
http://www.seligenterprises.com/dbimages/district1.swf