IMPACT DOWNTOWN PLAYBOOK | DISTRICT FRAMEWORK AND REINVESTMENT PRIORITIES
Pearl and Broadway:
Downtown’s live/work/play/learn dynamic
LAND USE
The parallel Pearl and Broadway corridors offer important potential to function together as a bustling place for working, living, learning and playing, stitched together by a ladder of short, walkable cross streets and passages. Development policy should aim to diversify uses along each of the streets to promote activity day and evening, weekday and weekend, and to enable the personal interaction that supports innovation and community. Both streets can leverage several mutually beneficial assets: North and South Pearl’s traditional concentration of retail, cultural and entertainment destinations; Broadway’s distinction as an established address for office use; the catalytic SCiTI Center and SUNY Start-Up NY hubs; and the emerging presence of housing along each street. North and South Pearl are entering a new chapter in their longtime role as downtown’s premier retail corridor. A variety of sit-down restaurants and pubs are reinforcing Pearl as a great dining and drinking
destination. New retailers are coming to Pearl and its side streets selling products sourced locally and regionally. A common theme among these dining, drinking and shopping establishments, including “Albany’s oldest store,” the enduring B. Lodge & Company clothing store, is authenticity. Pearl Street retail offers products and experiences that reflect Albany’s unique local character and can’t be matched at more generic shopping opportunities in the region. (Continued on Page 52)
...diversify uses along each of the streets to promote activity day and evening, weekday and weekend, and to enable the personal interaction that supports innovation and community. 49