Three Districts, One City

When traveling across the country, you start to pick up on development trends that work. You begin to realize that visitors flock to certain things and locals flock to other things. One thing I noticed greatly is that these three places are generally different. Locals want a place that isn't too busy, but provides all the accommodations they need like shopping, housing, and dining, all in the same neighborhood. Maybe the younger folks want a small neighborhood they can walk from bar to bar in a residential neighborhood. On the other side, visitors tend to flock to a downtown riverfront where they can venture from restaurant to restaurant, shop to shop, while having the opportunity to get some entertainment in the evening. All of this is done in many cities that I have visited in the past year and half, but none better than Kansas City which has an established downtown entertainment district, a midtown bar scene for locals, and a midtown shopping district, we could learn a lot from them.

First, before we jump right in, I think it's important to note the demographics of Richmond and Kansas City, based solely on population. The City of Richmond by itself has a land area of 54 square miles, which is tiny compared to many cities. However, if you add the county of Henrico, that levels the playing field to 307 square miles with a combined population of 531,000 people. Comparatively, the City of Kansas City is 319 square miles with population of 467,000 people. This brings me to my first comparison.

Kansas City has a focused downtown entertainment destination with the Power & Light District located immediately adjacent to their convention center, their indoor arena (built with the Power & Light), and downtown offices. Within the Kansas City Power & Light District there are several restaurants, shops, a grocery store, a couple theaters, and a rooftop swimming pool. Before 2007, this area was nothing but parking lots. Now the area is expanding by adding high rise apartments, more shops, and more restaurants. When Kansas City hired the Cordish Companies to develop this area, they had a vision to revitalize downtown in such a way to entertain out-of-town guests and give downtown employees a place to unwind. They accomplished this mission with a very vibrant and very busy entertainment district. You may have seen pictures from the KC Live! Block during the World Cup:

This is what Shockoe could be on so many levels. Just imagine this on 17th Street in 4 years (except with the existing restaurants we already have and the pedestrian mall) and how much business it would bring to all the existing restaurants and potential shops in Shockoe. Shockoe could be the place hotels point their guests when they are asking for a place to go. It could be THE place for festivals, sports, sports bars, fun restaurants, fine dining, museums, attractions, canal cruises, guided tours, trolleys, segways, and more. Even Kansas City couldn't offer all these amenities, but we can, if we focus all these ideas in one place. Unfortunately, many West End and Southside residents don't care about tourism and don't care to see Shockoe become this kind of place. Well, this is why we elect leaders to see the big picture for us.

Moving just a few minutes outside of Downtown Kansas City, you come across Westport, which is a lot like the Fan. It is a small little area densely populated with bars and restaurants, and nearby apartments. It also has a little bit of shopping. For the idea of offering young locals a small bar scene, Richmond has this covered in the Fan. In fact, I really couldn't find a better place in other cities that could really compete with the Fan in terms of assortment or abundance of concepts. So, we have that going for us. The Fan is the perfect quiet neighborhood for those who want to escape the traditional downtown scene of tourists. And if you don't think the Fan is quiet, go to New York City's Midtown, your opinion will change.

The next thing Kansas City has is Country Club Plaza which is like a urban shopping and residential neighborhood as seen below:

It's like a blend of Carytown and Short Pump, all inside the City. What our city doesn't have and needs, in order to grow and bring in more taxes to pay for education and mass transit, we need a dense shopping neighborhood inside the City limits that can compete with Short Pump, Willow Lawn, Virginia Center Commons, White Oak, and other Henrico shopping centers. Sure, we have Carytown, but it's not enough to compete, nor does it offer anything that is in Henrico. The Boulevard could be this new shopping district for the West End, Northside, The Fan, and Downtown. However, it could be built as it's own town center with high rise condominiums, stacked retail, ground-level boutique shops, some fine dining, a bridge to the existing Bow-Tie Cinemas, and more. At the same time, you could make Carytown a pedestrian mall and create a shuttle service to and from Midtown Boulevard.

The makes everything west of Downtown a great place for locals and everything downtown and east, a great place for entertainment and tourism. Kansas City focuses their districts in such a way as to maximize each neighborhoods potential. In Richmond, we are all spread out and it's unorganized. We also are very limited on space, so we have to do as much as possible with what we already have.

Some folks say Shockoe doesn't have to be an entertainment district or that it doesn't need a stadium to be one. Well, that just not logical. Richmond needs a downtown location near the high rise offices, near the river, near the hotels, and a place already populated with restaurants. We just need to build on this in such a way as to make it more attractive by renovating the Farmer's Market and the Train Shed, by connecting Rockett's Landing to Brown's Island with the Riverfront plan, and by bringing people to Shockoe with attractions like the Edgar Allen Poe Museum, the Slavery and Freedom Heritage Site, the Virginia Holocaust Museum, the Riverfront Canal Cruises, The Richmond Trolley Tours, and the RVA Segway tours. All these things will bring small numbers of people to the area at different times. Two things will bring large amounts of people at one time, festivals in the Farmer's Market and sports in Shockoe Stadium. These large crowds, as it does in every other city that have similar concepts, will trickle to the other attractions, as well as the existing restaurants and potential retail shops (which we need desperately in Shockoe).

Visitors are simple. They want a place they can point to on a map, see that it has a lot to offer, park their car at their hotel, then walk the streets to find something to do. Shockoe is the most logical place to direct visitors with its existing hotels and restaurants. We just have to make it the vibrant neighborhood that it can potentially be by bringing in as much to do as possible. If there is a concert, sporting event, or festival, at least 5 nights a week, year-round, in Shockoe, than it has become Richmond's entertainment district, because that's what entertainment districts do. And this is what we need to offer both our visitors and our residents.

Shockoe already has a great reputation for festivals with Shockoe Fest, the Bacon Festival, Shockoe on the Half Shell, the Brunswick Stew Festival, and more. It already has many great restaurants with the Tobacco Company, Sam Miller's, Sine Irish Pub, Southern Railway Taphouse, Haxall Point, Casa Del Barco, Halligan's, Havana 59, Rosie Connolly's, On the Rox, Margarita's Cantina, Station 2, and so many more. It has the Riverfront Canal Cruises, the Ghost Tours, the Segway Tours, the Richmond Trolley Tours, and moer. The sad thing is, none of these restaurants or tours are "tourist-destination" busy unless there is a festival in Shockoe. So how do you fix that issue? Make Shockoe a festival all the time!

Shockoe can be a place for tourists and visitors, the Fan and the Boulevard can be (slash already is) a place for locals. This is how we must focus our city plan moving forward.

UPDATE:

When I visited Kansas City in July of 2013, I got a lot of insight from the civic leaders and from the Cordish Companies who developed the Power & Light District. It may be important to go into detail of what encompasses the Power & Light District, especially after a few comments I have received. The Power & Light District does in fact include a 20,000 person arena known as the Sprint Center which is often used for basketball tournaments like the NCAA Tournament in March. It is also used for concerts and other events. It is most certainly a economic driver for the Power & Light District as it bring people to the area, then those people have something to do before and after events in the Sprint Center. Sure, some can argue that the Major League sports facilities are in the suburbs, but they provide no economic impact to the surrounding neighborhoods as they are stand-alone facilities that are not built in an entertainment district. Below is a map of the Power & Light District as well as a few pictures I took while I was in Kansas City.

Click on the map to see the legend.

KC Live! Block before opening. Think 17th Street! 

Power & Light model. 

Sprint Center is the cornerstone of the revitalization and renaissance of 

downtown Kansas City

In addition to the arena, the area features condominiums, restaurants, themed bars, movie and live entertainment theaters and mixed retail. Sprint Center is listed among the finest arenas in the country and has become Kansas City’s home for basketball, hockey, concerts, family shows and special events. A public / private partnership between the City of Kansas City and AEG, the $276 million Sprint Center has helped change the face of downtown Kansas City and will be the destination place for sports and live entertainment for many years to come.

Since Opening on Oct. 10, 2007, Sprint Center has exceeded all expectations having hosted more than 750 events and 7 million guests. Having exceeded attendance and financial projections in each year since opening in 2007, AEG/Sprint Center has provided nearly $9.3 million in unanticipated revenue to the City of Kansas City, Mo. through a revenue sharing provision in the arena management agreement.

Anchor to more than $6 billion of reinvestment in a revitalized downtown Kansas City, Mo., Sprint Center is a unique public/private partnership between the city of Kansas City and AEG.

Ariel Shot of the Power & Light from the Cordish offices.

Rooftop park on top of a parking deck.

Rooftop pool on top of a grocery store. 

Typical Thursday night in the Power & Light.

As you can see, the Power & Light District in Kansas City has a lot to offer visitors and residents. Kansas City spent $276 million on an arena that is the anchor to an entertainment district that brings millions of dollars in revenue annually, and we are crying about $79 million? It's an investment we need to make. Shockoe could offer a lot of the same amenities that are offered in the Power & Light District, if not more if we execute on bringing a sporting facility to the neighborhood that can be a venue for not only sports, but also other events as well. It would bring thousands of people to Shockoe on a regular basis and create a vibrancy that would domino into attracting more businesses, more festivals, and more tourists. This is the Shockoe that we need to strive to build!