MidTown Miami

I question whether or not big box should be a component of the urban core.  However, it provides a necessary service and product that the residents of the urban core often demand.  So if big box is going to come to the urban core, this project seems to be a good start at designing a dense enough solution.  It is not the enviable 2 story Target and Marshalls, however, let’s be realistic, the operating costs with 2 story targets is incredible, and if you want to get these things done, you have to be realistic about making the project work for all parties.

This is still just a box with rooftop parking, with the auxiliary entourage of Target and Marshalls followers.  Although it didn’t appear highly active, it was 10:00 am on a Tuesday morning when Milhaus visited, and there was already a decent amount of foot traffic as well as vehicles in the garage.  These types of project that squeeze a lot of retail activity in a small section of space seem to be a good alternative if you are going to have big box retail in your core.  It would have been nice to have more residential abutted right up near the project, however, I would assume that part of that is just time, and the fact that there was enough residential going on, and likely some of the plans for adjoining retail may have been intended, but just never got complete based on market place.