Retail Continues to both Evolve and Confound

Interesting article in today's Sentinel - relates well to a session that I am going to facilitate this coming Thursday for a National League of Cities "small cities" conference. 

Retail is obviously changing. I think some big points from this article that seem to resonate / validate with others I talk to both in Orlando as well as in our work in other areas of the country:

1. We have more overall retail space (and corresponding commercially zoned land) in the US for what the demand really is. This situation is amplified by the recent increases in on-line sales. 

2. Retail Brick/Mortar is surely not 'dead', but there is a lot of re-purposing and re-positioning going on to include other complimentary uses besides single use retail shopping - and this trend is expected to continue. 

3. Experience is a big part of the new retailing formula - in a package that is more like a Main Street (local, authentic, distinctive) than an internal, region mall model (which is no longer a desired spatial experience or tenant mix for the mass market).  

I personally think that these changes in retail offer a huge new opportunity for place based, local Main Streets that were devalued and left behind by regional highway corridors and big-box efficiency. The drivers of these trends have begun to come full circle in a way that I think presents new opportunities to authentic, well positioned Main Streets. (The cover photo I have attached above is from our teams' work in the Wauwatosa Village, just outside Milwaukee, where we have worked with the local businesses to redesign streets, open space, parking and way-finding to better support people, events and key redevelopment sites).

Enjoy!