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Old Posted Apr 3, 2017, 7:51 PM
necropolis necropolis is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: San Antonio
Posts: 173
I don't understand the obsession with the idea that every project needs ground level retail (not specifically citing the previous post but there are many just like it across many of the SA threads). If there were demand for it then it would likely be included in a project. A retail/office tenant provides long term leases and sometimes multiple sources of income which brings stability to the project. On the other hand, apartment vacancies will fluctuate weekly and condo sales/ownership can also be volatile based on general economic conditions. If demand was there, developers would opt to allocate some space to a stabilized tenant.

Retail space will come when demand is there; just be patient and let the neighborhood and surrounding development continue to build up. Just think about it, do you really think a neighborhood coffee shop or restaurant would survive a year if it's main customer base was only 200-300 tenants in the building plus maybe a few hundred more within an appropriate radius? For that to work everyone who lived in the area would have to like coffee or the food being served and exclusively eat there almost daily in order for the business to maybe turn a profit. Sure there are many single family homes near downtown but based on the median family income of the older existing neighborhoods it's unlikely that disposable income is high enough to add much additional support.

If new construction overbuilds on ground level retail then I personally think that walking past empty or abandoned retail spots is more of a detriment to the look and feel of a neighborhood than just having those spaces occupied by leased apartments.
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