Congress for a New Urbanism

Over the weekend in Denver, the Congress for a New Urbanism, which promotes walkable, neighborhood-based development as an alternative to sprawl, held their 17th annual conference.
One panel that caught our attention was titled “The Retail Development Crisis: What Now?” It was moderated by Robert Gibbs (no not the White House Press Secretary) of Gibbs Planning, an urban and economic planning firm based in Michigan.

The news: Almost all new shopping centers have been canceled or placed on hold for one to three years. Lifestyle and town center retailers and department stores are not meeting sales expectations, especially when they lack department store anchors. On average, enclosed malls are out-performing open air or main street town centers, largely because of “tweens,” who prefer enclosed malls over town centers. However, retailers are now seeking urban and inner ring suburban infill locations rather than greenfield edge sites because they want to see existing populations before they deploy new units and are not willing to wait for planned residential growth.

---Nick Fasulo is an account coordinator for Solomon McCown & Company. He can be reached by email at nfasulo@solomonmccown.com.