[wburg]

I don't think magic is required--there is already a high demand for downtown housing, as you can see if you try home shopping in the central city. The properties aren't cheap because their numbers are limited, especially ownership housing. There are only about 2000 for-sale homes, including condos, in the entire grid! Rentals are also comparatively higher, due to demand and the advantages of location. People aren't coming in droves to live here because there is a severe shortage of central city housing supply! High demand, low supply--and thus, high prices and shortages. This produces opportunity for a developer willing to provide an urban product to supply that need.

Catalysts come in all sorts of forms--some are as simple as less-restrictive zoning codes and parking ratios, both of which were recently passed by the city council. Both make it easier to build urban forms in the urban core, and lower requirements for parking lots that just aren't as necessary in an urban setting. That changes the fiscal equation for builders. I suppose I'm less sanguine about the potential of arenas to be catalysts--the studies and numbers I have seen don't suggest that outcome. Arenas tend to follow after the revitalization of a neighborhood, but they don't cause it. I'm already seeing the first signs of recovery in the central city--and sure enough, here is an arena plan to capitalize on it.