Fulton Mall: Death By Compromise?

I say keep the design of the mall the way it is but make it an island of a different sort, i.e., one that caters exclusively to the surrounding affluent communities. There’s a strong need for high end dept stores, shops and restaurants in the area. While you’re at it, throw in some fine galleries and entertainment options too. We should strive to make FM something that the entire borough could be proud of, not just a select few. Trust me, given the vast materialism in society today and need to be at the “it spot”, folks of all races will find reason to shop and entertain in the new mall. It will happen and it will be the free market and not the government that brings it to fruition.

And for those who will invariably argue that Brooklyn high end shoppers are already served well then I ask you where? Take a look at Brooklyn Heights, the most affluent nabe in Brooklyn. What does it have? A Banana Republic on Montague Street? That’s pathetic.

And please don’t offer 7th Avenue, Park Slope as an example, I’m talking Tiffany’s, Cartier, Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom’s, Saks, Apple, Bose, Crate & Barrel, Pottery Barn, Restoration Hardware, Williams-Sonoma, Chanel, Coach, Cole-Haan, Fendi, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Tumi, Abercrombie & Fitch, Brooks Brothers, Burberry, Hugo Boss, Armani Exchange, D&G, Guess, J Crew, Ralph Lauren, Caswell-Massey, Crabtree & Evelyn, Ann Taylor, bebe, Max Studio, Victoria Secrets, Jimmy Choo, Sephora, etc.

There is high demand for these goods and services and right now it does not exist in our great borough. The current mix of goods at FM can be found a dime a dozen throughout the borough but for those who are accustomed to more high end offerings, there are no such options. In my book, Brooklyn already offers the “common man” many choices. What about the other end of the spectrum? I spend $2mm plus on a house and you are telling me that I have no choice but to drive 2 hours plus round trip to Short Hills or Westchester to shop?!? Granted Manhattan is closer but for serious shopping you need a car, parking is a beyeatch, and you have to hit multiple locations just to experience a broad spectrum of vendors. IMHO, Brooklyn can’t become the first rate city we so desperately want it to be while offering a second rate shopping experience to its residence.

CHP, I’m Anon 2:03 and 3:24. I’m precisely the child of the Fulton St shoppers of 20-30-40 years ago (and I used to work part-time at A&S and McCrory’s after dismissal from St. Joseph’s High School just around the corner on Willoughy & Lawrence Sts in the early 70s), but I refuse to go to Macy’s because their merchandise has become garbage, and customer service is indifferent if non-existent. There was a time when my parents could go to Fulton Street and find a variety of quality merchandise that fit their budget…and my parents were the immigrant/working/middle class of the 50s & 60s, by no means wealthy by any stretch. It’s a shame that type merchandise mix no longer exists. If it did, Fulton Mall, IMHO, would attract even more shoppers (I’m not even talking about the swells) and would rake in really big bucks. This is not a longing for an age gone by — there’s a huge market out there that isn’t being served. Nevertheless, I do think that over time, Fulton Mall’s retail mix will change, as change is inevitable, but it’s a long way off, so we middle-of-the road people will have to continue spending our money in Manhattan and New Jersey.

One of the things missing from the consideration of the impact of demographic shifts in the neighborhoods surrounding the mall on the retail mix is the fact that, thanks to the City Department of Transportation’s bone-headed street designs, the mall is an island. I lived until recently in Ft. Greene and then in Carroll Gardens and used to go out of my way to avoid walking or biking to/through the mall because the street crossings were so unpleasant (namely, Flatbush and Adams); I always felt safe walking _in_ the mall, just never _to and from_ the mall. I suspect that, if the City DOT bothered to redesign the streets that connect all of these neighborhoods (from Red Hook to Bed Stuy), more people from the neighborhoods around the mall would visit it (and the neighborhoods on the other sides), thus creating more demand for a wider variety of stores. Try pushing a stroller or walking your grandmother from Ft. Greene park to the Brooklyn Heights Promenade–it’s ridiculous!

In short, though Fulton Mall is doing very well, it’s also missing a lot of potential walking dollars from local residents.

Hmmm, very interesting this time around, and much more civil. The only way more upscale stores will enter Fulton Mall is if large, rich companies such as H&M, Barnes and Noble, the Gap, etc come first. The rents are so high, most smaller boutiquey businesses will not be able to sustain the overhead, unless they have deep pockets. I don’t think landlords are going to kick out sucessful, established businesses, nor should they, just because some upscale shopaholic in Clinton Hill needs a fix. Let’s face it, money makes the world run, and the piles of money spent in the Mall, just the way it is, is just fine for the landlords, and their tenants. I don’t think it’s a good precident to start dictating to the market.

Fulton Mall works because it is serviced by all of the subways lines, and all of the bus lines. While you may be able to get the same merchandise on Church Ave, or anywhere else, those places are not as accessible to people as downtown.

Downtown always catered to the working classes, not the upper classes. The stores may have had more acceptable names: A & S, May’s, McCrory’s, Wertheimer’s – that was only 20 years ago. The children of the shoppers then still shop on Fulton Street. It’s not all sneakers and gold. The Children’s Place, Macy’s, Conway’s, Lane Bryant, etc sell to all income levels, races and ages. If new stores come in and compete, great. Let the marketplace sort itself out by itself.

Upscale shoppers have the whole world, literally, to shop in. So it’s inconvenient to the swells in the surrounding nabes, too bad. It’s a lot easier for them to go to Manhattan, where most work anyway, and shop, or to go out to Short Hills, or anywhere else. Money has pushed the common person out of what was once the hood, now it’s trying to push them out of the only large shopping district easily accessible by public transportation. Enough already.

By all means, clean it up, open up the upper floors, invite large anchor chains to invest in Bklyn in the Fulton Mall, establish guideline suggestions (good luck on that one) for signage, but other than that, let it evolve, as it has been evolving, let the marketplace decide, let’s not legislate everything to death.