Long time no blog...
Stopped by CityNorth a few weeks ago (on a Saturday night). The first phase, called "High Street", just opened a month ago (on Nov. 13). What an incredibly unfortunate time to open a new mall! The place was an absolute ghost-town. Just prior to going there, we were at Kierland Commons, and it was such a contrast. Don't know how to describe it better, but Kierland has a much "warmer" feeling compared to CityNorth. The retail mix at CityNorth also puzzles me. We spent less than 10 minutes walking from one end of the street to the other and none of the stores appealed to us, so we left. I'm guessing we won't be back anytime soon...
CityNorth seems like a dud to me - similar to my opinion of Westgate and Tempe Marketplace.
I wonder if we will ever have anything here similar to any of the following:
The Grove (Los Angeles, CA)
The Americana at Brand (Glendale, CA)
Victoria Gardens (Ontario, CA)
BTW, I got a kick out of this recent article in the paper:
Westgate remains safe despite shooting, Glendale officials stress (AZ Republic)
3 comments:
What's interesting is that the Grove is a project of the same developers behind CityNorth. The major difference between the two, aside from the economic climate, is that the Grove is infill. It's in a relatively central location along Wilshire near established areas on the west side of L.A. with durable buying power. CityNorth, on the other hand, has been built on virgin desert in the outer fringes of the city. A lot of the forecasts of nearby buying power were based on residential growth that has slowed, and many residents of more established and central portions of Phoenix are sick of being asked to travel to increasingly remote locations for shopping. My point of view may be distorted by my urbanista bias, but I'll bet this project would be doing much better if located somewhere like Central and Camelback.
Speaking of Central & Camelback, there are two good stores, Haus and Little Artika, with their original locations near that intersection. They've both opened second locations at CityNorth and may be worth visiting if you ever venture back there.
Thanks for your comments!
The recent news about CityScape scaling back was interesting as well.
BTW - The Grove and The Americana at Brand were both developed by Caruso Affiliated, while CityNorth is being developed by Thomas J. Klutznick.
Sorry, I was thinking of Time Warner in NY and Water Tower in Chicago. You're right about the Grove being a different company's project. I hope CityScape works out, although it'll be tough in this economy.
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