Midtown Mile Shines Brighter

The “Midtown Mile” is a tad brighter now after the boutique condo building 805 Peachtree officially flipped the switch on its new signage and exterior lighting on Monday night.

Take a look at the pictures and tell us what you think?

And with the Monday opening of a new restaurant, Cucina Asellina, following the December opening of STK, how are you feeling these days about the Midtown Mile and its future?

The original goal for the Midtown Mile was to along Peachtree Street between the Woodruff Arts Center and North Avenue create a special high-end shopping district that would rival New York City’s Madison Avenue and Chicago’s Magnificent Mile.

But that was conceived seven years ago or so, and last year, some of the city’s biggest in-town developers began developing a new concept for the Mile. Where once 1 million square feet of retail space was envisioned for the Mile, the goal is now in the neighborhood of 600,000 square feet of existing and planned retail spanning 5th Street to the Arts Center.

According to a study last year sponsored by the Midtown Alliance, Midtown serves a population of approximately 1.1 million people, which is “38 percent larger than the typical U.S. shopping center trade-area population” according to the consumer research firm Alexander Babbage Inc.

The firm went on to report that Midtown residents venture to Midtown restaurants for dinner on an average of almost eight times per month with four out of 10 of those Midtowners spending $300 or more per month. It also concluded that nearly one in four Midtown residents spends at least $1,000 per season on apparel.

There’s no doubt that developers want to continue to bring in the type of retailers that some of Midtown’s young and lucrative demographic is craving. It would appear that with the market slowing bouncing back from the prolonged recession, the light truly could be ready to shine on the Midtown Mile.

But what do you think? What types of retailers would you like to see come to the Midtown Mile?