Inner-city retail development
ROBERT STEUTEVILLE DEC. 1, 2003
Inner-city retail development continues to lag in all but a few US cities despite an expansion in real estate financing instruments, according to a new report from Brookings Institution. “Shopping the City: Real Estate Finance and Urban Retail Development,” by Kenneth T. Rosen, Grace J. Kim, and Avani A. Patel, concludes that the rise of real estate investment trusts (REITs), commercial mortgage-backed securities, and real estate opportunity funds since the early 1990s has benefited small suburban markets and a few cities with thriving downtowns, but has failed to produce a hoped-for “torrent of investment in inner urban areas.” The report offers suggestions on how to spur inner-city retail development. See www.brookings.edu/urban.
