Sustainable Urbanism by Douglas Farr

Sustainable Urbanism by Douglas Farr

Author:Douglas Farr
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781118174517
Publisher: Wiley
Published: 2011-11-24T00:00:00+00:00


Figure 7-16 New urbanist retail center. Image © U.S. EPA 2003.

Convenience Centers

Typically between 10,000 and 30,000 square feet, these centers offer an array of goods and services geared toward the daily needs of the surrounding neighborhoods. These centers are often anchored with a small specialty food market or pharmacy. The balance of the center usually includes five to eight small businesses ranging from 1,500 to 3,000 square feet each.

Each of these small businesses would have a difficult time if located on a stand-alone site. However, by being grouped into a walkable cluster, each business helps to generate impulse traffic and sales for the others.

Convenience centers need about two thousand households, or two TND neighborhoods, to be supportable. These centers must be located along a major road and ideally at the primary entry to both neighborhoods. Their average trade area typically extends up to a one-mile radius. Average sales for convenience center retailers are $225 per square foot per year. Annual rents in centers average $15 per square foot per year, with a range of $12 to $18 (see Table 7-8).

Neighborhood Centers

Typically anchored with a supermarket, pharmacy, and video store, neighborhood centers offer a full range of goods and services not available at corner stores or convenience centers. Neighborhood centers generally range from 60,000 to 80,000 square feet in total size (including the supermarket) and typically require 6 to 10 acres of property. Site planning using TND principles can potentially reduce the center’s size by up to 20 percent. These centers have an overall blended parking ratio of 4 cars per 1,000 square feet of gross building area. Supermarkets and restaurants will demand higher parking ratios around their business.

These neighborhood centers require 6,000 to 8,000 households to be located within their primary trade area. The typical suburban trade area is 1 to 2 miles. However, in very rural areas it’s not unusual for residents to drive over fifty miles weekly to visit a neighborhood center. By contrast, dense urban centers can support a supermarket every few blocks.

Neighborhood center sales and rents vary widely depending on business type. On average, the centers average $245 per square foot per year in sales. Rents range from $7.25 for supermarkets to up to $40 for coffee shops.

Many TND developers and new urbanist planners often try to limit the size of the supermarket to between 20,000 and 25,000 square feet. However, small supermarkets are impractical due to the large variety of goods demanded by the average American household. Today’s supermarket must carry a much greater variety of products than it did in the 1960s, when a 25,000-square-foot A&P was considered full-size.

The neighborhood center is a favorite for lending institutions and investment houses. They earn a proven income stream, and it is assumed that families will always need to purchase groceries. Recently the neighborhood center has been threatened by the discount supercenter, estimated to be able to put up to two supermarkets out of business when entering a market. In addition, the popular “green” grocery stores and



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