ABSTRACT
Urban retailing, which is defined as new or structured retail entities in traditional central business districts, will become a reality in the 1980s. The demand for these projects is far outstripping the capability of national developers to produce them. There is inevitable conflict, however, between federal policies such as preservation of historic buildings and other stated goals, i.e., the improvement of mass transit and the creation of subways in low-density metropolitan areas conflict with each other in this sense. Wholesale preservation of “historic landmarks” does little or nothing to solve the basic problem. The basic problem remains the provision of cheap transportation to concentrated nodes of retail and office complexes. These office complexes have to be built in the traditional core areas of the city and will generate a demand for additional retailing. This
is happening already in places like Washington, D.C., to some degree in New York, to a lesser degree in Detroit because of Renaissance Center and prime projects there, and to a lesser degree in major West Coast cities.
