Pages

Saturday, November 3, 2018

The Status of Retail and What the County Is Doing to Improve It (from Sep 2016)

(Click on the image for the briefing)
  • Too many shopping centers (241) in county and too many are strip/convenience or neighborhood type.
  • Too much inventory suppresses rent and encourages "Mom & Pop" stores to move to better centers.
  • Lower-end stores at better centers discourage higher-end shoppers from shopping there and higher-end stores from moving there.
  • The lack of higher-end retail causes consumers to spend $1.4 billion annually out of the county. That's the cost of MGM National Harbor!
  • Response from local officials: Retail location decisions are made by private enterprise, not government. Fort Washington has the demand and the income but not the population density to attract higher-end retail.