Attention, Officials and Developers: Go After Kmart for Downtown D.C.
Here's a little food for thought for D.C. officials, commercial real estate brokers and others who are involved in attempts to attract a big-name department store to the downtown area:</br></br>Go full-bore after Kmart. Not next year or even next week, but do it now. Don't be put off because of some hangup over having a mass merchandise retailer doing business in downtown Washington. If Kmart is good enough for New York City, then why not Washington?</br></br>Don't waste any more time chasing executives of fashionable department store chains or upscale specialty retail stores that long ago swore their allegiance to suburban shopping malls and fashion centers. They're likely to maintain that allegiance as long as their stores can compete favorably with the expanding wave of superstores and other discount retailers in strip centers, outlet malls and what's known in the industry as retail power centers.</br></br>Sooner or later, market saturation or increasingly aggressive pricing, or both, will force competitors at both ends of the price spectrum to look for new opportunities. Those opportunities, for some, may lie in urban centers that have managed to retain some semblance of a viable retail base.</br></br>Indeed, that's already happening. Witness Kmart Corp.'s recent signing of a lease for a new store in Manhattan. A major part of the renewal strategy of the Troy, Mich., retailer is tapping into new market areas.