Quote:
Originally Posted by combusean
You can't seriously believe that retailers don't take into account area median incomes? Why would real estate developers here go through the hassle of providing that information to prospective tenants if they didn't care?
Retailers don't care about their workforce when compared to their customers.
Moreover, Roosevelt Commons is not "low to moderate" income. It's one of the most expensive complexes in the city.
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Retailers do, but you also have to consider the fact that for downtown to be a real community that supports grocery stores, markets, shops, etc. it will take a mix of incomes...like in a real city. Low to moderate income earners tend to spend more of their discretionary income on goods and services (grocers, markets, stores) while higher-income folk tend to spend more of their discretionary income at restaurants, high-end stores, bars/wine bars, coffee houses, etc. This is why so many cities are encouraging development of real, mixed-income communities in their downtowns:
http://urbanland.uli.org/Articles/20...irkMixedIncome
Of course there will be plenty of room for the expensive, typical "yuppie" shop and retailer, but that is no reason to push out lower and moderate income folks that can help make a complete community and not a whitewashed, culture-less, staid atmosphere. That includes the unique artist community in which not many of those people can afford rent in a luxury development.
I think you are confusing Roosevelt Commons with Roosevelt Square. Roosevelt Commons in a "low income-tax credit" rental property with rehabbed, historic buildings on 5th Ave and a new complex behind historic bungalows on 6th Ave south of Roosevelt...this is the front of Roosevelt Commons on 6th Ave: