Let’s get this straight. Sitting smack on top of roughly $950m. worth of publicly built attractions and infrastructure still was not enough for Reid’s Fine (sic) Foods to be a going business concern. That is not how urban planners and Center City Partners see the world.
Reid’s location at the base of a mid-rise parking deck, on a walkable, visible corner, smack up against a light rail line is cribbed directly from the New Urbanist playbook for transit-oriented, desirable retail. Even Reid’s goods matrix — high-end, but small and clutchable — fits perfectly in that scheme. So what happened?
Reality.
Uptown is not midtown Manhattan. Never has been, never will be — no matter how many absurd and obscene $4.1m. “wayfinding” signs city staff throws up to pretend otherwise. There is no long term demand for a high-end deli-market staffed by graduates of the Soup Nazi school of customer service.
As a result, I say not good-bye but good riddance.
