TY - JOUR
T1 - Downtown revitalization in the era of millennials
T2 - how developer perceptions of millennial market demands are shaping urban landscapes
AU - Ehlenz, Meagan M.
AU - Pfeiffer, Deirdre
AU - Pearthree, Genevieve
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2019, © 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
Copyright:
Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2020/1/2
Y1 - 2020/1/2
N2 - Downtown Phoenix and Houston are changing. They are not dense, historic downtowns; instead, they reflect contemporary downtown growth in sprawling cities. Both cities have reimagined their downtowns, leveraging vacant land, new construction, and infill projects. Through this process, developers are shaping downtown in response to market demand. This research explores how developers in two Sun Belt cities are thinking about Millennials and cementing their preferences into rapidly changing downtowns. We triangulate data from the U.S. Census, regional media, and interviews with 22 downtown development experts. We find developers respond to Millennial preferences in several ways. They are endowing their downtown projects with a greater sense of place and diversity of activities. However, there is a social cost: underlying concerns include rising housing costs and gentrification in the downtowns and reduced demand for housing in the suburbs, particularly if Millennials elect to stay downtown for the long term.
AB - Downtown Phoenix and Houston are changing. They are not dense, historic downtowns; instead, they reflect contemporary downtown growth in sprawling cities. Both cities have reimagined their downtowns, leveraging vacant land, new construction, and infill projects. Through this process, developers are shaping downtown in response to market demand. This research explores how developers in two Sun Belt cities are thinking about Millennials and cementing their preferences into rapidly changing downtowns. We triangulate data from the U.S. Census, regional media, and interviews with 22 downtown development experts. We find developers respond to Millennial preferences in several ways. They are endowing their downtown projects with a greater sense of place and diversity of activities. However, there is a social cost: underlying concerns include rising housing costs and gentrification in the downtowns and reduced demand for housing in the suburbs, particularly if Millennials elect to stay downtown for the long term.
KW - Millennial migration
KW - Urban revitalization
KW - affordable housing
KW - centralization
KW - downtown revitalization
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85070515204&partnerID=8YFLogxK
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U2 - 10.1080/02723638.2019.1647062
DO - 10.1080/02723638.2019.1647062
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85070515204
SN - 0272-3638
VL - 41
SP - 79
EP - 102
JO - Urban Geography
JF - Urban Geography
IS - 1
ER -