The construction at Glendale Town Center seems to be coming along nicely, at least as much of it as you can see behind the construction fencing.

Panera Bread, in front of Staples, is taking shape from metal framing and roughed-in plumbing. The "B shops" building in front of Macy's is further along, building anticipation about what exciting new retailers will be coming soon to separate us from our disposable income.

But the part of the construction site that makes me giddy is the big red bullseye on the fence with the text "COMING 2008."

Sure, I have lots of selfish reasons for wanting a Target store closer to my house. But I also find the construction exciting because Target's recommitment to our neck of the woods, after closing their store at 53rd Street and Keystone Avenue back in 2002, is something of a coup in the retail world.

When Target announced that store's closing, it optimistically noted that north-side customers were still being served by Target stores in Nora, Castleton and west Carmel. I know I'm not the only one who responded to Target Corp.'s suggestion by devoting far less of her disposable income to Target purchases. On a frenzied day of picking up groceries, dog food and whatever else I might need, a drive even to 86th Street doesn't fit into my schedule.

Sure, my checking account has thanked me and the magnetic stripe on my debit card lasts a lot longer than it used to when Target was a three-minute drive from my house. But my longing for inexpensive-yet-stylish clothes and home furnishings did not dissipate. As a reporter covering the retail beat, I groused loudly and often to any broker who would listen about "my" Target closing.

What I learned was that almost the minute the Target at 53rd and Keystone closed, local retail brokers and developers began pitching Target Corp. for a new, bigger store at 62nd and Keystone. First, the idea was floated for the southwest corner of the intersection, now home to Goodwill and LA Fitness.

That never happened and Target kept building bigger and better stores in the suburbs, taunting us with their shiny Sunday circulars and hip television commercials.

The problem, it seems, in getting national retailers to pay attention to that corner, or any other in our neighborhood for that matter, is our demographics. The diversity that makes our part of the city a great place to live also makes it a hard sell to national retailers. When picking new locations, retailers start in their offices in far-off cities, drawing a circle around a site on a map and looking at who lives inside it.

In the suburbs, as you might imagine, that circle encompasses a fairly homogenous group-well-paid, highly educated homeowners with a lot of disposable income. It's a no-brainer for retailers to plunk down a new store in the middle of that circle.

However, in our part of the city, if you start at any intersection and drive a mile or two in any direction, you pass through neighborhoods that are affluent or down-on-their-luck, mostly white or mostly black, owned or rented, and every combination thereof.

Retailers, especially the big national ones, have very specific ideas about who their customers are. Marketing to a small, targeted group of people is much less expensive than marketing to everyone. In our neighborhood, it's a lot harder to tell a retailer, "This is who your customer will be."

Therefore, it becomes an issue of "selling" a retailer on a neighborhood-pointing out the unique characteristics that the U.S. Census doesn't track that hold the promise of profits for the retailer. As you watch construction progress of the Target at Glendale and the Fresh Market at 54th and College (Port-A-Lets have arrived; can the workers be far behind?), realize somebody sold them on those locations long before they will ever sell us anything.