The Ten Largest Downtowns in the U.S.

[Hia-leah JDM]

Originally Posted by -Corey-

I know, but also is very well known that Miami has lots of condo-towers, in which is not the case for cities like Los Angeles.

That's a very good thing. It's still a bustling business and commercial center, but people want to live there too. The condos don't factor out the amount of offices.

[mhays]

Definitely, the best downtowns have a lot of housing while also being major employment centers. And retail centers. And tourism centers. And events somewhere on the downtown periphery to provide peak-level crowds sometimes. My own downtown, while doing very well in its peer group, could use more housing in particular.

It's funny when people think a downtown's "size" is only offices...and only offices that the brokerages count, i.e. they're even missing headquarters, public buildings, etc.

[Lordpenguinton]

I could believe that Tysons corner has more office space than Phoenix; over a million population, nowhere near impressed, Orlando FL has better density, downtown Atlanta, I could see it, sunbelt cities are for cars, cities that forumers here romanticize about, not in the sunbelt. To me you have NYC midtown, Chicago Loop, NYC downtown, San Francisco, Boston and then whatever, I'm sure some poster will say that the Houston Medical Center is the 3rd or 4th biggest out there, or some other place of nondescript offices, but I think my top 5 holds up pretty good when you include residents and hotels and cutural offerings and the like. Now if you guys like parking lots, I give you "Houston".

[diablo234]

Originally Posted by Lordpenguinton

Now if you guys like parking lots, I give you "Houston".

Actually those "parking lots" you mentioned in Downtown Houston are quickly being redeveloped into office and residential space not to mention a new park (Discovery Green).

[mhays]

Originally Posted by Lordpenguinton

I could believe that Tysons corner has more office space than Phoenix; over a million population, nowhere near impressed, Orlando FL has better density, downtown Atlanta, I could see it, sunbelt cities are for cars, cities that forumers here romanticize about, not in the sunbelt. To me you have NYC midtown, Chicago Loop, NYC downtown, San Francisco, Boston and then whatever, I'm sure some poster will say that the Houston Medical Center is the 3rd or 4th biggest out there, or some other place of nondescript offices, but I think my top 5 holds up pretty good when you include residents and hotels and cutural offerings and the like. Now if you guys like parking lots, I give you "Houston".

The Texas Medical Center claim relies on:
--Real downtowns only counting commercial offices, not residential, retail, hotel, government, etc.
--The fact that institutions usually count gross square footage, not net rentable as the brokerages do for offices (some of which they miss entirely).

It's a BS claim that works for the tourist bureau and other gullible types only.

It's probably a unique agglomeration of a large percentage of a city's medical institutions in one place, and impressive in that sense. But I get annoyed by meaningless claims like that.

In the mid-1990s I worked for a non-profit trying to build a large park on the edge of Downtown Seattle. One of my jobs was calling (pre-interwebs) most of the big cities around NA to come up with stats about park systems. One striking outcome was the large number of cities that claimed to have the "biggest park" or "biggest park system" by one measure or another. Or "third biggest" etc. in some cases. It seems that claims like this are made off the cuff or with clear caveats at first, then they quickly get taken out of context by PR departments.... I tried to work with planners when I could.

[Lordpenguinton]

Well atleast Houston will have plenty of lots to develop, I'm really surprised there aren't a lot of apartment or condo towers in downtown Houston. It does have one of the largest in terms of office square footage. It seems like a no brainer. Even Orlando has atleast 1/2 a dozen within downtown not to mention a number of smaller 3 to 5 storey ones. You could probably build many 20 to 40 storey buildings there. Then again maybe everyone there likes commuting by car, I don't know.

[diablo234]

Originally Posted by Lordpenguinton

Well atleast Houston will have plenty of lots to develop, I'm really surprised there aren't a lot of apartment or condo towers in downtown Houston. It does have one of the largest in terms of office square footage. It seems like a no brainer. Even Orlando has atleast 1/2 a dozen within downtown not to mention a number of smaller 3 to 5 storey ones. You could probably build many 20 to 40 storey buildings there. Then again maybe everyone there likes commuting by car, I don't know.

Like I said earlier there has been dozens of new residential developments that have been built in Downtown Houston recently especially in the area around Discovery Green. The new light rail lines being built and the construction of the Houston Dynamo stadium has also attracted new development to the area. Granted more still needs to be done but Downtown Houston itself has vastly improved compared with 20 years ago.

[it_delivers]

As of the end of 2011, Downtown Seattle had approximately 42.7 million sq. ft. of office space, with 220,000+ workers, and 60,000 residents. There is several thousand apartment units under construction, and Amazon is in the planning stages of 3 new towers adding roughly 3 million sq. ft. of offices.

[it_delivers]

Seattle's Eastside "suburb" of Bellevue, has a downtown that comprises of 9 million sq. ft. of office space, 4.5 million sq. ft. of retail and entertainment, and 10,000+ residents.

[CNB30]

Originally Posted by Westsidelife

^That figure represents all of Manhattan. It would be better if it were subdivided into Midtown and Lower Manhattan.

Dont be jelous of NYCs Pure awesomeness