[turpentyne]

What will support occupancy, is the same premise as a shopping mall. There need to be anchors. A department store and a grocery store. These two things will provide the "life essentials" that convince people to move downtown. Problem is, no company will go, for fear of not having enough clientele.

Everything must be synchronized. This is why a large, taller than 6-stories, mixed-use building is so desperately needed. It gives a shot the the local infrastructure, whether its downtown or midtown.

Otherwise, we will always have either too many empty condos, or too many empty storefronts, as each non-mixed project adds a piece.

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A consideration for the warehouse district: With some creativity and ingenuity, why can't we keep these buildings, but use the space wisely by adding support structures and building higher? It will take some architectural savvy to not detract from the visuals of the buildings or the structural integrity. But I have seen some amazing results in other cities. See Toronto or New York for various ways of doing this. The closest I can recall that we've come to it in Phoenix, is the incorporating of the Orpheum Theater into its surrounding buildings, a few years back.