The conundrum of commercial district revitalization

1. People don't buy all that they consume solely within their neighborhoods.*

2. For most goods, shoppers want to compare types of goods, prices, and options, before buying, so you need more than a single store--in a particular retail category--as an option.*

* This is why market studies showing the household-by-household consumer expenditures within a neighborhood don't fully matter, because you need a certain level of store availability (cluster, agglomeration) to attract spending in a particular retail category. And stores need a basic level of customers and transactions to be able to thrive, without losing business each time a new store (or restaurant) opens in the commercial district.

3. Most neighborhoods (even in New York City), don't have enough population to support a complete array of stores representing all retail categories. (For example, in Lower Manhattan, the Union Square area is the "regional destination" serving many neighborhoods with offerings such as furniture and books, while most of the neighborhoods have grocery and related, restaurants and diners, and services.)

4. Most neighborhoods don't have enough population to support the amount of retail space that is extant. For example, to support about 50,000 square feet of retail space, you need 30,000 regular customers.

5. If you want "higher quality" retail offerings, you need higher household income levels, and regular purchasing behavior in that category. (I can't tell you how many times people have said X or Y neighborhood could support a fine dining restaurant--say like Kinkeads--in their neighborhood.)

So, to repopulate the retail space available in a typical neighborhood-based commercial district you need to have destination businesses (and attractions) that appeal to and attract customers from outside of the immediate neighborhood. Together, non-neighborhood market segments and within-neighborhood segments may be able to provide the consumer demand necessary to support the retail mix that people say that they want.

But this creates tensions because too often, the retail that is offered, especially at early stages in the process of revitalization, is accused of not targeting the residents of the immediate neighborhood.

That's true. Otherwise, how do you support revitalization when there isn't enough market demand within a neighbohrood?