The bottom 2 floors of the 6-level parking garage at One Park Place will be dedicated for shoppers at the new Phoenicia Specialty Foods market going into that building, reports the Chronicle‘s Purva Patel. How convenient will that be for folks arriving by car who want to grab a few pitas from the conveyer belt and then head around the other side of the building to Discovery Green for a picnic? The opening of the 28,000-sq.-ft. store at 1001 Austin St. was originally scheduled for December and then April. It’s now been delayed until “at least” May 15.
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- One Park Place hopes to open Phoenicia store in May [Prime Property]
- Previously on Swamplot: Swamplot Award Winners Converge as Phoenicia Moves in Next to Discovery Green
Images: Jackson & Ryan Architects
If I read in between the lines correctly, the insinuation is that many non or former phoenecia customers will be utilizing the Park Place garage. I have to say thats an accurate prediction. Discovery Green is pretty well-planned, but that pricey underground garage they have doesnt cut it. People are always looking for cheaper alternatives. It will be interesting to see how Phoenecia handles this
One Park Place will regret their decision to allow the hoi polloi to park in their garage. Especially, the unwashed masses who feel the Discovery Green garage is too expensive. That is all.
The parking garage at One Park Place is well controlled by the building. You can’t just roll up and slide into the garage. I suspect the building will have to deal with this issue as a cost of getting the grocery store they have always wanted. They will probably need to give people timed tickets and limit them to an hour of free parking (I can easily spend an hour at Phoenecia) and charge a few bucks thereafter. I really hope this works for Phoenicia. Downtown lunch traffic can be very fickle. The masses tend to not want to walk far from home to get their daily feed bag on, and out of town conventioneers either look for standard chain restaurant fare from home or want some Tex-Mex or Bar-b-cue. There simply isn’t enough demand downtown to sustain Phoenecia on grocery shopping. They will need to move a lot of falafel (more than I can eat each week, though I will do my best).
The new Phoenecia will attract plenty more than just the downtown grocery shoppers — there are a lot of inner-loopers who love their food, just not the hike out to the west side location. I don’t mind paying a token sum to park in a nice safe place, and plan to be a frequest visitor. Perhaps Phoenicia cashiers can valiate the timed parking ticket so SHOPPERS ONLY get a free pass?
As for conventioneers, yeah, there’s a certain percentage who will want BBQ and Tex-Mex, but there’s another group that welcomes the availability of fresh prepared food that they can take back to their hotel rooms and eat in front of the tube (as they probably do at home). Not everyone is on an expense account.
i agree 100% with claire.
Pretty sure this is great news and there wont be any problems. Most garages that work like this provide a ticket upon entry that is then validated when a purchase is made in the store. But since we do love to complain, yeah this is going to suck, thanks for nothing.
ME LOVES PLAYING WITH BARBIES!!!!