Another space-affordability problem arises when a business district becomes so popular that chain stores arrive in droves and rents scale rapidly, pushing out locally owned businesses and replacing stores that serve local needs with high-end boutiques.”A common pattern is that it’s a challenge to get people to locate in your district and then you get those independent businesses to come in and before too long, the property owners start raising the rent and bringing in national tenants,” said Alex Padro, director of the Shaw Main Streets program in Washington , DC. While modest increases in rent are often a good thing – a sign of the health of the district and a source of funds for building maintenance – steep., rapid increases destabilize local businesses, giving them no time to make adjustments.
Some communities handle this partly through legislation, adopting ordinances that bar formula businesses and require that new stores be “neighborhood-serving.” Berkeley even has a quota system in sone of its neighborhoods to ensure out by restaurants….”