What Really Happened to Downtown Retail: Part 1
So finally, I am excited to release the FIRST OF A FIVE-PART SERIES on WHAT’S REALLY HAPPENED WITH DOWNTOWN RETAIL (see below), which I’ve been teasing since presenting my thesis at last October’s International Downtown Association (IDA) annual conference in Chicago — and again, at last month’s San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association (SPUR) event. (I would have had it for you sooner, but alas, my day job as a retail consultant is the one that pays the bills). This initial installment endeavors to provide a fuller and more nuanced explanation of what’s been going on (at least along some of our highest-profile urban shopping streets). It tries to move beyond the ossified narratives about slow return-to-office and pervasive urban disorder to far more impactful trends, some of them a direct result of the pandemic (e.g. a temporary though severe contraction in consumer demand, from leisured visitors and city residents) but others pre-dating and outlasting it (e.g. the changing real estate preferences of expansion-minded “A-list” brands). The next three installments, to be posted in the coming weeks and months, will consider three specific case studies (Philadelphia, San Francisco and Chicago), while a concluding piece will explore how such districts are likely to evolve in the years ahead and how their challenges might be addressed by different kinds of stakeholders. I hope it proves thought-provoking and adds to the broader conversation.