How much of the business of these places comes from residents of Prairie Trail? It seems more like a destination for residents from outside Prairie Trail.
The District at Prairie Trail Ankeny
- Thread starter JP4CY
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How much of the business of these places comes from residents of Prairie Trail? It seems more like a destination for residents from outside Prairie Trail.
I've been impressed with The District. It's not perfect, but I'm glad the effort was made. I wish Whiskey House, Main Street Cafe, and the Outside Scoop would have been located there instead of White Birch.
I was able to go Christmas shopping for my wife, mom, and grab a beer with only having to park once, so it checks the boxes for me.
I was able to go Christmas shopping for my wife, mom, and grab a beer with only having to park once, so it checks the boxes for me.
The Johnston Town Center project at the old City Hall site at NW 62nd and Merle Hay is supposed to be similar but on a smaller scale.
Hopefully they take a major thoroughfare (Merle Hay) and narrow the lanes so they can add parking that nobody uses. Worked brilliantly in Prairie Trail.
Why do you say that? If I lived in the area surrounding PT I would definitely walk or bike to the restaurants and bars. Would be way better than having to drive or Uber somewhere.
They didn't narrow Merle Hay but they did add parallel parking on the east side adjacent to the town center. It looks odd right now because there isn't anything built yet, but I think it'll actually get used because the parking will be right in front of the building. The parallel parking on State Street is ridiculous right now because nothing is fronted out onto State Street and it doesn't look like they plan to have anything there in the near future.
I was being sarcastic, sorry if that wasn't obvious. I don't have a problem with walkability and traffic calming and all that, but Prairie Trail is not a community unto itself. Lots of people from outside have to come in or pass through and they need to get where they're going. Ankeny's thoroughfares are a hot mess, which seemed predictable even in the mid-2000s when Prairie Trail was conceptualized, and they decided to carve up one in the name of street parking which has no apparent use.
Oh I agree completely with State Street. I don't know what they are trying to do there. And the fact that it serves as a big barrier between the residential and commercial areas of Prairie Trail doesn't help. It's what we'd call "Drive-To Urbanism." I'm a little more optimistic with the Johnston Town Center. They built a bunch of apartments up around it in the last 5 years.
When I go there, it doesn't seem like a very big walk/bike crowd. It seems mostly like a crowd that has driven there. Perhaps they are driving from Prairie Trail itself, but I would expect to see a lot more bikes parked and walking traffic to/from the residential areas.
There's no doubt State Street splits Prairie Trail in half, not unlike freeways do to urban areas. But that portion of State Street preceded Prairie Trail by a decade or so and was well-established as a major commuter route. I'm no urban planner but there just had to be a better way to handle that.
Merle Hay seems different in that (at least as I recall it) traffic tapers off a lot the further north you get from I-35/80.
That said I haven't been there in a long time, I'll have to go check it out.
At least Prairie Trail isn't suffering from the same dilemma as Somerset in Ames. It seems that every time there is a retail space vacancy, it is filled by a real estate office, insurance agency, or financial services company. "Walkable" is a nice concept, but the only things worth walking to in Somerset are the restaurants.
Exhibit A: Brick City moved across the street to the old +39 location and the old Brick City location just got filled by another real estate agency. Great location as you come through Somerset, but it is pretty much just a billboard for the real estate agency now.
Exhibit A: Brick City moved across the street to the old +39 location and the old Brick City location just got filled by another real estate agency. Great location as you come through Somerset, but it is pretty much just a billboard for the real estate agency now.
Prairie Trail as a walkable area is a bit of a misnomer. The majority of the adjacent residential is more than half a mile a way. Which is the distance that people start to choose to drive rather than walk. Add in the need to cross State Street which is like 100 feet wide with traffic travels 45+ and its not surprising that The District is primarily driven to by those folks.
Aren't there apartment complexes just to the east and north of the district?
If done correctly should be a nice addition. They are currently building around a house at the moment though.
True, it'll be interesting to see how that changes things. Though walkability is a combination of things beyond just the proximity of things. The residential to the west has good street design for walkability but suffers from the disconnect to The District. The stuff to the north has to walk past all the parking and everything, which just isn't a real appealing walk. The stuff to the south that connects better with the main part of the District is probably the most likely to draw some walkers.
Well they've already built the new City Hall and the new City Plaza, plus all the streets. Right now it looks like they've go work on one of the buildings at the corner. I believe the City owns all the property so they've go a lot of ability to make it happen. I'm optimistic.
I think the underlying problem might be that the restaurants there keep closing. The surrounding neighborhoods aren’t enough to sustain them, and if you don’t live nearby, it is universally a pain to get to.
