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August 6, 2007
Downtown’s Planned Hotels: Too Many Rooms?
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
In an article about the spawning of hotel rooms in the Borough of Kings, columnist Dennis Holt addresses the concern that there isn't a local market for hotel rooms by noting that plenty of office space is in the pipeline, which should also spur more retail development:
We do know that the Albee Square site will have 150,000 square feet of new office space, again, at a good location, and there will be some office space at the Atlantic Yards. Office buildings also bring retail and Downtown Brooklyn is “under retailed,” much more is needed. When the brownstone neighborhoods were turning around, more buying power at hand, it didn’t have any impact on the retail history downtown.
People tend to shop where they work, and if there are more workers, there will be more retail. No mystery.
NoLandGrab: Aside from the reference to Atlantic Yards, Holt's point is noteworthy because one of the main reasons that Downtown Brooklyn is "under retailed" is that Bruce Ratner screwed the pooch on MetroTech by largely failing to add retail space to his office-tower complex. Also, the campus-like environment has failed to generate the economic benefits promised to the rest of the neighborhood.
Posted by lumi at August 6, 2007 8:21 AM