In recent years, the redevelopment of neighborhood retail strips has come in the form of mixed-use buildings. Because of zoning restrictions and the City’s desire to increase foot-traffic, developers on commercial streets often are forced to reserve ground-floor space for retail use. Some builders keep the space and lease it themselves; others sell it as retail condos, which work much like their residential counterparts.
We’ve noticed that many of these ground-floor retail condo spaces, like the ones pictured here at 2633 W Chicago Ave in Humboldt Park, remain half-vacant month after month.
Sights like this beg the question: do retail condos hold back neighborhoods that otherwise are developing quickly? Would these spaces fill faster if the ground floors were leased instead of sold? Or do retail condos encourage businesses that are more solvent and have a greater long-term committment to their neighborhoods? Looking at the bigger picture, is requiring this sort of ground-floor neighborhood retail even a good idea in the age of Target and Costco? We’ll examine these questions and others this week on Yo. Meanwhile, click on “Comments” below to give us your take.