Center City Philly retail

South Street is still pretty funky, while Main Street in Manayunk is tight-assed by comparison. Where is the funk in Washington, DC? Photos from Brandywine.

The Philly Inquirer followed up their Tuesday package Center City Renaissance with this story on Wednesday, "Center City retail resurgence: Dozens of new stores have followed the young and affluent moving into downtown."

As I have written about plenty in past blog entries, because Philadelphia still has a "large stock of old buildings" per Jane Jacobs, there are still plenty of low-cost retail leasing options for independent retailers. (Even though in my opinion Philadelphia still allows for too much demolition, although that is because the Philadelphia Historical Commission has a preponderance of government officials, which is a recipe for chicanery and compromise.)

For example, South Street is dominated by independently owned stores, despite the presence of a few chains, such as the Gap.

This is an example of your really needing to understand the dynamics of retail and commercial district revitalization, and being able to suss out the proper lessons from different settings. If you don't understand the economics of retail, on a local, regional, and a national basis, you're not going to be able to help your commercial district compete...


Index Keywords: retail