Ad for low cost commercial space, Grid Magazine, Philadelphia, December 2009

Ad for low cost commercial space, Grid Magazine, Philadelphia, December 2009
Originally uploaded by rllayman

While this is likely for "flex" space, like warehouses, it demonstrates the point made by Jane Jacobs in Death and Life of Great American Cities about how a "large stock of old buildings" is necessary to keep the fires of urban innovation well stoked. This is 1/4 or less of what similar space would cost in DC proper. (I saw an ad for similar space in the industrial area of Alexandria for somewhere between $10-$12/square foot.)

Not to mention that DC has very limited inventory of such space, and prices are being driven up beyond the means of typical industrial users (and poor innovators) by demand from charter schools looking for large spaces to create and house schools.