![[re]think syracuse](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9zOwmbF-5H3f98APMfIEYdvBMpy9xV00b6hFfAWWOMJ0hffElCIP5sfYf-KifJe3WVCgSiZDaa8dKu5kJfwcXMT0C9KQF5PFV-kj_H7gNI-DuLExc1oxJJ1XUS0Pt1JPEmxiUQc1Jtx8/s800/rethinksyr%20banner.jpg)
Syracuse boasts having New York State's largest furniture showroom, among countless other furniture stores, but amongst all that showroom square footage, you're hard-pressed to find any contemporary or non-overstuffed furniture at a reasonable price. Thousands of college students and young people on a budget, as well as others with contemporary taste, must travel hundreds of miles to Canada or the NY metro area to satisfy their tastes and needs. Yet right here in Syracuse rests a massive facility of 1million+ vacant square feet, seemingly with no apparent retail yet to fill its innards, practically screaming to have a chance to fill the local affordable-modern-furniture void.
I'll let the image speak for itself... but just think of what a destination this would be for the entire state: There is no such store within hundreds of miles, and I'm sure the tens-of-thousands of college students who study in upstate NY alone could keep this place open, let alone all the other savvy shoppers.
The square footage is there, the demand exists; this just seems like a no-brainer. And this would be a heck of a lot more colorful to look at on a gray winter day.
Yes!
ReplyDeleteA few years back I did grip work with a video shoot inside that massive box. The project was called 'Arendi'. The video's purpose was to bring in investors/stores to fill in the space.
ReplyDeleteIf I remember right, they wanted to give the stores that came special incentives. For instance, they'd offer 10% off purchases to customers who used a smartphone type of device that would monitor their shopping habits. Then the store would get back the raw data - the customer's age, sex, type of products customer was looking at, purchased items, map of their movement through the store, etc. Seemed like a powerful tool the stores could have used. No idea what happened to that initiative.
If you're interested, you can see inside the structure on their website (http://www.destinyusa.com/arendi/) and click on the 'construction cam'. It's so odd that they've had this little security cam running for so long... but there it is!
btw, an IKEA there would be genious...
ReplyDeleteThe fact that there isn't an Ikea in this area is baffling. How many Colleges & Universities within 50 miles? We are at the geopgraphic center of the state. Hello Watertown! Hello Fingerlakes! You're right of course. Love your passion and your site! Would love to work with you at some point in the future.
ReplyDeleteInteresting to hear about Arendi. I've heard bits and pieces about this myself.
ReplyDeleteAccording to the CreativeCore website, there are 35 colleges & universities in CNY -- this store could surely pull from ALL of upstate NY [as of now, we upstaters have to travel to Ottawa, the Toronto metro, or NJ to find one] as well as large parts of Pennsylvania too. Who doesn't like affordable Swedish goods?