Dive summary:
- In the poor Blue Hills neighborhood of Kansas City, Mo., a 250,000-square-foot retail and residential project called Citadel Plaza is supposed to be revitalizing the area, but what the city has instead is vacant lots where 60 homes and businesses once stood.
- Arguments between a developer and the city did not help things along, but the reality is that wanting and designing an urban retail center as a tonic for poor areas is not enough to make it succeed if retail tenants do not want to join the dream.
- Such projects have worked elsewhere, but Blue Hills has had declining population for several years, and competing retail locations are not far enough away to create the climate that would bring in an anchor store, but the city has not given up and is looking for another developer.
From the article:
"You can draw the plans and you may be able to get the financing together, but if you don't have the buying power, it's very hard to get retailers to commit," says Patrick Phillips, chief executive of the Urban Land Institute. ...
