Will downtown Target lead to more stores?

That's no doubt the hope among residents who are cheering plans by the retail chain to lease 100,000 square feet of the bedraggled 7+Fig shopping mall (see earlier post). Brookfield Properties, which manages the 330,000-square-foot complex, says the Target deal is the first step towards opening other stores. No specifics being offered - and I must say that retailers have been extremely slow in catching the downtown vibe. At first, that was due to the typical tendency of chains to hold back on a redeveloped area until they're sure it's the real thing. Then came the recession, and chains put the brakes on any sort of expansion. From blogdowntown:

While it was no real secret that owner Brookfield Properties was in talks with Target to come into the space, the dragged-out deal left some in Downtown wondering if it would ever really happen. According to Bert Dezzutti, senior vice president with Brookfield's Southern California office, the delay was unavoidable. "This is the first step of the repositioning of the center," said Bert Dezzutti, senior vice president with Brookfield's Southern California office. "There's a lot that goes on with that, and we wanted to do it right. Downtown deserves a project that is well thought-through, that contemplates everything that Target needs and the community needs." "[We] would have loved to open a store earlier, but that's just not the reality."