Developers Drawn To Filling In The Urban Blanks

For the next decade, urban infill development will be the development - or so say some developers and urbanists in "Filling in the Blanks," an article in the July/August issue of Real Estate Portfolio. The article notes two trends: a number of cities have seen a resurgence in population in the past few years, a change from previous decades, and an increase in the number of people who want to live in close-in suburbs which tend to be older and in need of infill. The primary challenge to developers: land assembly. "If you take the stereotypical strip shopping center in an infill area ..., you'll often find fractionalized ownership," says a shopping center developer. "By the time a shopping center is ready for revitalization you could have 10 different owners and a bunch of tenants with long-term leases. If you want to take down the shopping center you need to satisfy all these people, including legal occupants and legal owners. That's where the public-private partnership works best, with the power of eminent domain or the threat of that power."

Thanks to Dateline APA