The Carrabba’s closing accentuates an issue that has been building for a while: What do we want in our neighborhood retail versus what are we likely to get? It is very reasonable to assume that the factors that have heated up (and shifted) the housing market here are likely to have a similar effect on retail. Perceptions of high quality of life and neighborhood character have spawned new residential developments, which have brought new people to the neighborhood and, with them, new expectations. East Dallas appears to be "on the radar" now.

The concern, however, is that an influx of chain-type businesses would undermine the very qualities that have made the neighborhood popular to begin with. It’s the McMansion issue of retail. Many of our local businesses feature their uniqueness while chain establishments trade on the opposite; the relative comfort of getting the same thing wherever you go. By design, chain operations are not especially flexible when it comes to the spaces they occupy and are geared toward the typical offerings in standard suburban retail development. So Jeff is correct, the Carrabba’s space would present a leasing challenge to these types of tenants.

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The resulting danger would be the temptation to adapt the neighborhood instead by constructing a suburban-style center here. It is this lack of flexibility that was given by the developer as the reason for demolition of the Dr Pepper plant instead of redevelopment as a retail center. These same concerns have been expressed about Shaffer’s  new retail center at McKinney and and the Maple-Routh connector. Don’t think it can’t happen here. Maybe not today, but the time when those kinds of financial calculations begin to work cannot be far off.

In the interim, we seem to have a new issue that I did not see coming: When existing, quality neighborhood businesses expand and displace other existing neighborhood businesses. Retail cannibalism. This cropped up with the recent notation in this blog about Blow and Times Ten Cellars possibly expanding into the space currently occupied by the Snow Pea. Good for them, but no one has offered any information, that I am aware of, about the fate of the Snow Pea. It’s loss would be a loss for the neighborhood.

So we watch and wonder and hope for the best, that whatever happens reinforces the good things we enjoy today. Oh, and a grocery store would be REALLY nice.