M Street Landing SW Plans
8 11 2010The recently revised master plan for the long delayed redevelopment of the Southwest Waterfront is expansive in its scope, with a multiple phased approach stretching over the next ten years. Developing a 26 acre site is something that takes time, and there are a lot of elements of the plan that get us excited, but none more so than the third phase M Street Landing piece which is across from the newly opened Arena Stage.
Each of the sections of the project has been branded with a name, and the M Street Landing section is going to be an open plaza that will connect the Arena Stage with the waterfront with a showy water feature and the possibility of ice skating during the cooler months. The massing will be one and two story buildings to keep the beautiful Arena Stage as the center piece and visible.
The focus for retail and restaurants will be more family friendly and casual. Given the opportunity for pre and post theater traffic and dinning, you would think this would be the first area the developers tackle, but it actually isn’t part of the first phase. We think waiting till 2016 to develop this section may be a little to long… we would have done it first, what do you think?
I think this may be an issue of timing and street realignment, but it would be nice to have some dinning options right across the street from Arena Stage for theater goers to keep them in the area after shows.
Probably because they are redesigning the street grid with some new traffic circles (cause those work so well elsewhere in the city!)
@Alexa:
Traffic circles can are safer than the regular 4-way intersections and can accomodate a greater vehicle throughput.
http://www.ite.org/traffic/documents/AJA94C60.pdf
As a SW resident the I say the changes can’t happen fast enough. Dining and retail options 10 minutes or less from my home? Bring it on! Another benefit would be with increased visibility and more people Police presence would go up deterring crime.
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