Retail Downtown - Spring 2005

The lure of relatively low retail rent and new residences continues to attract retailers to Main Street.  Downtown retailers are cut from a different cloth than the typical national mall retailers—more eclectic and less manicured presenting a certain charm and ambience of the old town feel.   The downtown retail flavor may soon change as development plans that include national retailers downtown are soon announced.  The Quay development and Isaac's downtown assemblage will deliver about 250,000 square feet of retail space to the downtown area.  The final picture is still evolving so the only fact we know for sure is that the $15 per square foot rental rates for downtown storefronts will soon fade to memory like the John Ringling Hotel and Lido Casino.