Will, you are so right on as far as having an anchor such as Target in Petaluma to keep people here in town shopping. Like I have said previously this would bring more people from around the county to shop in our town.. I think even people who are stuck on 101 every afternoon in rush hour might just want to get off the freeway to do their shopping until the traffic is better..what a concept..hopefully the city will be smart in advertising the downtown area at this shopping destination..
Tahoe, I am not for a tribe opening up a Casino, I just asked out loud if there is anything standing in the way of a Sovereign Nation to open up a Casino if they own the land. I think that the Federal Government ok's this type of thing and not a small City government, or did the RP council actually ok the land next to Depot to become a casino?..not sure can someone tell me (Dave) if this is something that could possibly happen here if Regency chooses to sell. Do they have to get approval from the Ms. Mayor on who they can sell to?? It is only a question..

Okay Will, you said it - "what they offer at many of the downtown shops you can't find at a Target." And I agree with this. But then why do many people say a Target will take away business from downtown? I just don't see that being the case. The stores in downtown are unique. We have boutique, antique, specialty shops, but none sell what a Target sells.

quote:

Originally posted by PTOWNKIDSTAXI:
Hey I had just a crazy thought over the weekend regarding this issue.. Does anything stand in the way of Regency selling this property that they paid for years ago to say some "Indian" Tribe. Is this possible. Could this happen and possibly turn this prime land into an Indian Casino, perfect location right off the freeway, close to San Francisco. Interesting at best. This might be the best solution for Regency and more cost effective than to file a lawsuit against City Hall..

If you've been following Station Casions/Graton Rancheria's attempts to build a casino in Rohnert Park, I'd say NOT POSSIBLE. Even if the site isn't home to the tiger salamader, Station Casions filed for bankruptcy this year, and Rep. Jared Huffman is very much against it. I don't really have the focus right now to get into the nuances of trying to get a casino approved and built in this economy...But seriously, can we do SOMETHING with that site?

I'm curious to see how Measure A pans out in Mendo County... I'm not for the project, but I'm interested to see the results of a developer's effort to take a project to the voters this November. You never know what happens in the privacy of a voting booth..

Target, Target, Target.......

Please, what will it take to acknowledge the many other retail options in Petaluma?

Longs/CVS(24hour), Kmart, Lucky, Safeway, Grocery Outlet, Raley's, Whole Foods, Petaluma Market, G+G Market, Kohl's, The Factory Outlets, Trader Joe's, Rex Hardware, and numerous other small retail locations.

Why Target?

What possibly does Target sell that current retailers in Petaluma do not?

If Wal-Mart was suddenly to replace the proposed Target, what then?

We exist in a town that has consistently failed to upgrade our ability to drive a car from one end of town to another.

Rainier…..overpass?

Streets that shake, rattle, and roll your suspension apart.

Stoplights that are poorly engineered, leaving people waiting at intersections for unusual amounts of time, often 20 to 50 cars deep.

If the shopping center is built and Target is installed, do you think these issues will suddenly be resolved?

Debate on the issues is a good thing, acknowledging facts in a debate are essential.

I agree OB, we should all keep the facts in mind when discussing or debating the future of our community. Here's a fact, we now face a $2.2M budget deficit at our mid-year review of our budget. A retail center, such as the one proposed at Kenilworth could bring in nearly that amount in combined sales and property tax revenue. And... an opinion based on the facts- shouldn't the Council be leading the city by directing staff to expedite or by simply not impeding opportunities for additional revenue when we are facing service reductions, layoffs, and the like?

Who's walking the talk? Who is supporting staff in working on getting Friedmans in Petaluma?, in getting the Regency project moved forward?, how about Costco?

and isn't it a FACT that petaluma has a HUGE retail leakage? could all these goods be bought in town? i would say a good majority of them could, of course but the FACT is people go out of town (i had to buy a sterio, satelite radio washer/dryer and a matres over the past few years out of town). OB1 states what he/she thinks SHOULD be done (that being everyone search out and buy what they need here in town) but the FACTS are folks are going out of town to buy goods. woulda/coulda/shoulda....i'm more inclined to looked at the facts and see what IS happening, people leaving town.

so yes, lets acknowledge the facts in this debate.....as it is essential! i think OB1 should take his/her own advice.

OB, the only reason people mention the word Target is because Regency paid for the new Kennilworth school by purchasing the old school site and telling the old council they would be building a TARGET on that site. Council ok'd the sale so that the new school could be built. If Regency said a baseball stadium is going to be built on the site and that council said great give us the money up front so that we can build our school. People would not be saying TARGET..Got it? Of course all the problems that PTown has will not be resolved if Target is finally built.. Suggestion, open up a new topic regarding all of the other problems u face in Petaluma..then u might get some interesting results from typers..

Went to Costco and Target over the weekend.. both places packed with cars and people shopping.. noticed a lot of friends from my town at those places..
One suggestion is to have the council just sit at those places for a whole weekend and see the foot traffic go thru..leakage...not a leak it is a flood..

FIX THE DAM

Don't people remember when Petaluma had no Movie theater in Town.. where did all the people go to see a Movie?
OUT OF TOWN.. Hey what happened when a new Theater opened back up. NO BRAINER people flocked and still do to the PETALUMA Theater. Oh my even out of towners..some even, hold on here, eat at some of the great places in town and even get choclates from two different places downtown.. Thank god this was done before this new regime arrived. Who knows they might have said no let them go to RP and see movies, go eat, spend money help their economic stimulus plan..this is what they are saying now with not moving forward with retail..what is so wrong with something that is working in towns across America right now.. Why are we so special to hold this up for so many years..that is CRAZY.. How many tax dollars has that land brought to to the City in the past year or lost???

OB1 is obviously one of those anti-big box anti new retail people slowly coming out of the closet.

If you talk all negative about the regency project and can't even see one positive, (especially when some downtown business owners even see many positives) you are obviously just against it all.

I myself can't wait to not have to leave town as much and hope this project is fast tracked.

Me thinks more of the stores at the Factory Outlets will soon be closing. Was there the other day...twas a ghost town.

Petaluma's Factory Outlets do not have the every day essentials for the average household on a budget. Have the hours expanded?

I had a difficult time shopping there with a teenager. I do miss the stores that have left, there are many good stores still there.

Maybe when Rainier gets built we might remember to shop there more often.

The Outlet's success was predicated to a certain degree on the city following through on Rainier and of course, the city did not and further, I think there were quite a few city insiders (not staff) who were happy to see them do mediocre and sit back and say 'I told you so'... always, always, many sides to the story here in Petaluma...

The outlets seem to be busy on nice weekend days and during the holiday's when they actually have sales. I think the prices at the outlets have gone up quite a bit and therefore, they are really not an outlet mall. I can find less expensive clothing and shoes for my kids at a real mall or Kohl's these days. They like Pac Sun and Aeropostle, but sheesh, the more they raise the prices, the more we have to head somewhere else. I like Banana Republic, Bass and the Kitchen Store, but unless they have a big sale, their prices have gone overboard too. And lately, we've been missing Mervyn's - before they went way downhill...

David,
Maybe the public needs an update on Rainier from the City. The total success of the Factory Outlets certainly depends on Rainier becoming a reality. But of course, that is a whole other discussion.
Thank you for your leadership.
K.

Whether or not the Rainier overcrossing is in place, I think the outlet mall does nothing in the way of marketing/reminding us that it's there. I've never seen an advertisement or a sale ad anywhere. Their loss and ours...

I think we are forgetting one other fact about the Outlets. If I recall correctly, this was to be stage one of three. The finished out mall was to have twice the stores.

An outlet mall is designed to pull people off the freeways and you need volumes of stores to do that. Look at Napa and Vacaville. Outlet stores won't come in unless they can have enough mass to draw so with this limited size, it has, for all practical purposes turned into another "shopping center" for our town vs an outlet mall.