Grocery stores operate on extremely thin profit margins. When you build a grocery store downtown, the economics of the deal don't work unless you subsidize it.
The biggest problem is parking. Suburban stores have acres of free parking on relatively inexpensive land. With a downtown store, you have expensive land plus you have to pay $15,000 per stall for ramp parking, and $25,000 a stall for underground parking. That's a lot of money when the zoning code requires several hundred parking stalls. Plus, few people are willing to pay for parking when its free everywhere else, so the investment into the parking ramps provides no return. Since margins are so thin, Lunds would either have to mark up its prices, or go to City Hall with the tin cup out. I doubt that here in coupon clipping Minnesota that people would pay more for groceries to cover the added costs. So Lunds has only one choice, unless it wants to take a bath on the project. I absolutely agree with the statement that "everytime someone suggests building downtown, they want us taxpayers to chip in." But the reality is that if we really want a downtown grocery store we need to subsidize it. The next question then, is at what point does the subsidy become too much to justify? I'll leave that one to the people who count on our votes for their jobs. -Dave Harstad Whittier --- Terrell Brown <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Walking from lunch at home back to the office a few > minutes ago, I > noticed the headline of one of the free weeklies > mentioning a downtown > grocery store. A quality grocery store downtown is > not a new topic. > > Not far into the article, guess what? The store > needs a city subsidy > of $8-12 million. Why is it that everytime someone > suggests building > downtown, they want us taxpayers to chip in? > > Granted the $8-12 million is significantly less than > what Mayor > Sayles-Belton and Jackie Cherryholmes rammed through > for the Target > store and Block E. > > At $8-12 milliion, its not much more than what we > taxpayers paid to > move the Shubert Theatre. Now I've forgotten why we > moved the Shubert, > but it doesn't look much different in its new > location, its just more > noticeable. > > Back to the subsidy. $4 million is for 30 > affordable housing units. > That's $133,000 per unit, not an especially good > deal. For $133,000 > per we can go buy 30 downtown condo units, rent it > out at affordable > rates and have money left over to buy a few more > units. (The Towers > and the north end of downtown and 1200 on the Mall > on the south end > come to mind as places where you can buy for less > than $133K). For > $133,000 per unit we can build virtually anywhere in > town. > > Yes, I'd like a downtown grocery store. I'd prefer > it be a bit closer > to home so that walking home with a weeks worth of > groceries would be a > reasonable consideration. I do, however, fail to > see why whenever > anyone wants to build on some of the most desirable > real estate in the > metro area their first stop is at City Hall to see > how much of a > subsidy they can get. > > Hasn't City Hall learned that the TIF gravy train > has got to come to an > end? > > > > Terrell Brown > Loring Park > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > __________________________________________________ > Do You Yahoo!? > Listen to your Yahoo! Mail messages from any phone. > http://phone.yahoo.com > _______________________________________ > Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic > Discussion - Mn E-Democracy > Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: > http://e-democracy.org/mpls __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Listen to your Yahoo! Mail messages from any phone. http://phone.yahoo.com _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
