Clarendon (Arlington Virginia)

Lazy Sundae
Originally uploaded by asmythie.

(This image depicts the Lazy Sundae sweet shop in Clarendon, now closed.)

Marc Fisher writes today, in "Entrepreneurs Who Changed Clarendon Find It Has Changed Too Much," about changes in the scale and retailer mix in Clarendon, specifically the crowding out of independently-owned businesses.

I haven't poked around Clarendon lately, so I don't know the deal, but I suspect that it's not exactly a matter of small businesses not being able to pay "market rates" for rent so much, but that the increasing rental rates being asked are out-of-kilter with the building footprints that are most likely to house independent businesses.

1. New construction in the Clarendon area has attracted national retailers. And the rents in the newly constructed buildings are likely to be in excess of $50/s.f.

2. As new construction comes in with national tenants, market value of extant property likely goes up. This leads to both an increase in property assessments and an increase in asking prices for rents.

3. However, as I have discussed ad infinitum such as in:

-- Forcing Displacement by the disconnection of tax assessment models from public policy goals;
-- Testimony -- Historic Neighborhood Retail Business Property Tax Relief Act;
-- (and this shorter sum up) Globalization of the DC real estate market catches neighborhood commercial districts up in the wake;

the reality is that small footprint, often "historic" buildings are constrained spaces not attractive to national tenants. Therefore, setting property tax assessments or rental rates based on a completely different type of building and footprint is inappropriate and will lead to business displacement.
Clarendon Ballroom.
Ben's Chili Bowl, U Street NW, Washington, DC. (GWU photo).

Are Clarendon and U Street brothers under the skin?

Perhaps, Clarendon has all the same real estate market conditions shared by neighborhood commercial districts in DC. Also see:

-- (Why aren't people) Learning from Jane Jacobs revisited.

Index Keywords: urban-revitalization