The city's cool factor

Buy me a nice pair of platform wedges or a sweet, swingy cocktail dress and make me a happy woman.

Buy them at Urban Outfitters once it opens and make Norfolk officials happy, too.

Surely some will scoff at sky-high shoes and spaghetti straps as possible saviors of downtown, foolishly believing them capable of little more than poor support for arches and elsewhere. But landing Urban Outfitters in the A.A. Adams building that housed Time Lounge gives the city a chance to spur retail growth on Granby Street, along with something more intangible: cool factor.

It's hard to quantify, that cool factor. Definition varies from person to person and can fluctuate with hemlines and time of day. That's why it's so elusive. Recruiting cool with economic incentives is tough work because corporations, even those with an eclectic mix of funky retail offerings, exude some decidedly uncool vibes. "Economic incentives" lacks cool as well. Sounds like calculators.

Urban Outfitters, though - that sounds minty, refreshing. Outfits for urbanites. City haberdashers, but cooler.

Some of that cool comes from cold, hard cash. This week Old Dominion University professors forecast that retail sales in Hampton Roads would grow by 3.82 percent this year - more growth than tourism, more than business at the port. The fashion industry and edgy purveyors like Urban Outfitters, despite reputations for faddishness and vanity, generate a lot of money. Sara Blakely cut the feet off a pair of pantyhose and invented Spanx. The slimming undergarments have made her a multi-millionaire.

Urban planners theorize that when big retailers pay attention to downtowns like Norfolk's, it signals a readiness to thrive, a confluence of people and jobs and location that leads to a burst of activity. Cities from Los Angeles to Toledo hope to push foundering downtowns back to life by moving residents back into districts that had stagnated, and then touting to retailers the number of folks willing to spend their money close by.

Norfolk has previously used retail to great effect downtown, first with Waterside, built in 1983, and then with MacArthur Center, which opened in 1999. Downtown has been revamped by the sleek glass campus of Tidewater Community College on Granby Street, and by the opening of light rail, which means many more people can get to the area without the worry of parking. There's that confluence.

Add in a makeover of Town Point Park that made wiser use of its location on the water and offers a better experience for concertgoers there. Top it with another rebirth for Waterside - City Council members got their first look this week at five proposals to remake the facility. Pile on plans for an overhaul of the St. Paul's area, an area a few blocks east of downtown that stretches to Tidewater Drive; a community meeting is scheduled for early February.

The mall and the park offer family-friendly amenities. Urban Outfitters offers something (heaven knows you've got to be cool) for teenagers and singles. And that, city officials hope, will bring even more folks to downtown, which will bring more retailers, which will bring more money.

Which buys me stylish red suede red wedges with double straps. Cool, for me and for downtown.

Michelle Washington is an editorial writer for The Pilot. Email: michelle.washington@pilotonline.com.