NY Developer Bets on $800M Project to Make Queens Feel Like Shanghai (2021) (opens in new tab)

(wsj.com)

1 pointstheoldlove2y ago4 comments

4 comments

4 comments · 2 top-level

ggm2y ago· 2 in thread

Good luck with that. Trying to import the feeling of somewhere is hard, one building won't do it. I see this frequently when market spaces are moved from old 19th century cast iron sheds with tiled walls and pokey spaces into new, purpose built, 20th century health standards compliant food retail premises. They are soulless, they are un-economic, and they empty out fast because .. you can't bottle it.

Maybe this will work. I suspect the concept will die in the harsh light of LPT expectations on how to extract value from commercial premises.

If they do the Shanghai nighttime LED exterior, then it will be like that one house on the street which does Christmas lights, one rather sad explosion of bad music and tinsel against the HOA backdrop of identikit lawns and flagpoles.

They need to make the Bund. Art Deco, modern, Star-Anise-and-fishhead-smelly, soup to nuts.

the development’s heart will be the mall offering mainstream versions of the options offered on the crowded streets of Flushing, where tiny shops hawk sesame buns and skewered pork intestines from windows along the sidewalk. A 24,000-square-foot food court with a futuristic cyberpunk feel will include 15 vendors selling fare ranging from Korean-style hot dogs to Japanese Ramen.

Yea.. I give it two years max. Maybe if they fit "Bladerunner" smog and rain machines, hand out neon-tube umbrellas and arrange for Rutger Hauer to kickbox you...

phs318u2y ago

Don't be so quick to dismiss the possibility. In the Australian suburb of Box Hill, the last 20 years have seen an absolute transformation as a low-rise suburb became home to the tallest group of towers outside of the Melbourne CBD. Coupled with a huge influx of migrants, primarily from China, walking around Box Hill at night definitely gives the impression of a Chinese city. Historically these sorts of developments were considered "impossible" and in fact, unwanted in the suburbs. Yet once development planning for the first tower was granted, it was only a matter of time. Given the tendency of first-generation migrants to flock, Asian eateries and other business followed. In the 2021 census, the language most spoken at home by Box Hill residents was not English but Mandarin Chinese.

So never say never.

Please note: the above does not constitute an opinion on whether this has been a good thing or a bad thing for Box Hill. It's a fact that its a thing. The point I'm making is that it's definitely possible for it to be a thing elsewhere too. It all depends on the planning permissions and whether business are incentivised in certain areas.

ggm2y ago

I guess sunnybank in Brisbane plays to "it can work" too but the valley mall here in brissie speaks pretty loudly to "it usually fails"

Box Hill probably has a self sustaining population acculturated to the experience. I'm less sure Queens is up for anything other than a disneyfied Shanghai.

I'd be fine if it works. There may be no downside to trying.

theoldloveOP2y ago

https://archive.is/mRa71

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