Does Small, Local Retail Matter?
Jonathan Coppage of the R Street Institute said that Washington has created barriers to the good urbanism Bergstrom spoke about.
“There are significant obstacles for small developers trying to get off the ground because of the mixed-use nature,” he said. “When you have the organic mixture of uses—the federal government is not set up for that.”
Coppage said that there were no federal loans or loan guarantees for mixed-use urban buildings unless they were around six or more stories or the developer could get a customized loan from a local bank—which is not likely. He said that there needed to be more adaptive institutions.
Bergstrom said that R. John Anderson, an architect and urbanist who promotes small-scale, incremental development, had developed a template for a one-story retail building with two 900 square foot stores that’s designed to be affordable from the beginning.
“Why does small retail matter?” asked Coppage.
