During the 1950’s and 60’s, developers looking for a way to cash in on the growing suburban populations set their surveying crosshairs on the outlying areas surrounding suburban housing developments.
Retailers wasted no time claiming rental space in prime, fresh locations that could serve thousands of shoppers per day. Once vital to the local economies of the Golden Age, downtown store fronts began to dry up and blow away.
As the trend continued, greedy developers built more of these monolithic temples to the all mighty dollar, encouraged by local government with tax incentives and media hype. By the 1980’s, what was once positively referred to as progress soon became negatively known as “retail sprawl,” the commercial cousin to the movement by city dwellers to more suburban and rural areas.
Thousands of acres of Miami Valley land was gobbled up and converted into parking lots and brick and mortar monuments to American materialism. But, like the small town storefronts before them, the “new” retail outlets began to show their age. Finally anchor stores followed the lead of smaller retailers, abandoning the former El Dorado for greener pastures.
Fast-forward a couple of decades and a distressing trend begins whereby the old, enclosed malls start to be vacated. Massive, multi-story retail fronts that resemble – drum roll please – the quaint, old, brick facades of the deserted downtowns. Sometimes complete with a band gazebo and wishing fountain, the ironic attempt to mimic Mayberry is almost an insult.
Left behind, yet again, are millions of square feet of vacant commercial space, deteriorating tributes to the continuous advancement of gluttony. As the recession strangled consumer spending, the rampant acceleration of retail bankruptcies led to even more empty storefronts.
Apparently incapable of learning from previous mistakes and surrounded on all fronts by these crumbling eyesores, local residents and government officials are once again answering the Pavlovian bell of potential windfall promised by developers. Rampant unemployment and unremarkable industrial growth create the perfect environment in which to prey on struggling communities.
Fighting to balance budgets, create new jobs and attract more tax-paying residents, community officials are approving new commercial construction projects more than ever before. Overwhelming potential for growth and jobs is too much to ignore.
But high hopes also fueled the original construction of now derelict retail outlets, and the same fate will befall the next wave of stores as well. It’s an incestuous cycle that exists in communities where industries have long since gone and the only blue collar work is in retail and maintenance of commercial property. When retail spending feeds off of the paycheck of the retail worker, prospects for growth are nonexistent.
Retail development is reminiscent of the locust. It swarms a community, devours all of its resources, then moves on to the next, leaving behind empty buildings and deteriorating neighborhoods.
The only way to end this cycle is to stop building these behemoth shopping centers and focus efforts and funds towards redeveloping retail and industrial space that already exists. Municipalities should work towards cleaning up their downtown areas, helping landlords and tenants to find ways to make the genuine, old-style storefront profitable once again. Tax incentives and special programs should be offered to current retailers who may be struggling so they can grow and be competitive.
Local governments should make more of an effort to assist the mom and pop merchant to keep costs down on their wares by reducing tax burdens instead of handing those benefits to multi-billion dollar corporations. Big-box stores may very well employ more people at once, but if local merchants were in an environment where they could thrive, it would help attract larger industry to the area – and that means better jobs, and more of them.
At the moment very little incentive exists to keep retailers from spreading out even farther. And as unemployment rates remain stagnant, developers are once again whispering in the ears of local governments, “If you build it, they will come.” As the holidays approach, remember to support local retailers as much as possible and help elected officials see the perils of the past.
Gery L. Deer is an independent business writer and columnist based in Jamestown, Ohio. Read more at www.deerinheadlines.com.