For more than 50 years, retailers have favored the commercial strip: a linear pattern of retail businesses strung along major roadways characterized by massive parking lots, big signs, boxlike buildings, and a total dependence on automobiles for access and circulation.
For years, planners have tried to contain and improve the strip. Now they are getting help from consumers and the marketplace. The era of strip development is slowly coming to an end. Evolving consumer behavior, changing demographics, high-priced gasoline, internet shopping, and the urbanization of the suburbs are all pointing to a new paradigm for commercial development.
Commercial strips are not going to disappear overnight, but it is becoming increasingly clear that strip retail is retail for the last century. The future belongs to town centers, main streets, and mixed-use development. Here is why:
We’re overbuilt on the strip
From 1960 to 2000 there was an almost tenfold increase in U.S. retail space, from four to 38 square feet per person. For many years, retail space was growing five to six times faster than retail sales. Most of this space came in the form of discount superstores on the suburban strip.
The recession proved that we have too much retail. Strip centers are now littered with vacant stores. By some estimates, there is currently more than 1 billion square feet of vacant retail space, much of which has to be repurposed or demolished. One retail analyst estimates that we need to demolish 300 million square feet of retail space.
Continua...
http://urbanland.uli.org/Articles/2011/Mar/McMahonStrip
For years, planners have tried to contain and improve the strip. Now they are getting help from consumers and the marketplace. The era of strip development is slowly coming to an end. Evolving consumer behavior, changing demographics, high-priced gasoline, internet shopping, and the urbanization of the suburbs are all pointing to a new paradigm for commercial development.
Commercial strips are not going to disappear overnight, but it is becoming increasingly clear that strip retail is retail for the last century. The future belongs to town centers, main streets, and mixed-use development. Here is why:
We’re overbuilt on the strip
From 1960 to 2000 there was an almost tenfold increase in U.S. retail space, from four to 38 square feet per person. For many years, retail space was growing five to six times faster than retail sales. Most of this space came in the form of discount superstores on the suburban strip.
The recession proved that we have too much retail. Strip centers are now littered with vacant stores. By some estimates, there is currently more than 1 billion square feet of vacant retail space, much of which has to be repurposed or demolished. One retail analyst estimates that we need to demolish 300 million square feet of retail space.
Continua...
http://urbanland.uli.org/Articles/2011/Mar/McMahonStrip
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