Retail projects Boom in SE Michigan

[tamias6]

According to this article, there is an ongoing retail boom occurring in the Greater Detroit MSA and South Eastern Michigan. Sounds contradictory especially when considering that the Detroit Area has been the hardest hit by Michigan's economic downturn. One would think that retailers would avoid Michigan and Detroit like the black plague right now due to a bad economy. But the article explains that retailers, developing in SE Michigan, believe the Area as well as the rest of the State will see an economic turnaround with in the next few years. So that begs the following question.

"Are retailers feverishly developing in Detroit and SE Michigan doing so because they see a light at the end of the tunnel that most ordinary folk do not or is the influx of retailers a big mistake based on pure speculation and hearsay?"

[Rybak 187]

I thinl that the state will be turning around soon. The retailers are being smart because by building now because the price of land will be cheaper now because there is less demand for land. Also, because there are less construction projects going on the demand for the skilled workers is lower, and because of that the prices for there skilled work is lower. So, by building now they are saving money in the long run.

[Michi]

The fact is, there is always going to be A LOT of money in the Detroit region. The doomsday reports are relavant, but do not offer an entire understanding of the region. For instance, Detroit is one of the poorest cities in the country. Everyone knows that from sea to shining sea. Yet, downtown Detroit is selling million dollar condos. Only an idiot understands that only poor Detroiters buy million dollar condos downtown. Only the idiot knows that me, the poor college student living in the city must be the demographic that shops weekly at Gucci and Kenneth Cole out at Somerset.

Obviously, neither are the case, and since the media doesn't really tell the whole story, it's left up to you and me, the general public to formulate the true understanding of the economy and simply the way of life in this region.

[tamias6]

The fact is, there is always going to be A LOT of money in the Detroit region. The doomsday reports are relavant, but do not offer an entire understanding of the region. For instance, Detroit is one of the poorest cities in the country. Everyone knows that from sea to shining sea. Yet, downtown Detroit is selling million dollar condos. Only an idiot understands that only poor Detroiters buy million dollar condos downtown. Only the idiot knows that me, the poor college student living in the city must be the demographic that shops weekly at Gucci and Kenneth Cole out at Somerset.

Obviously, neither are the case, and since the media doesn't really tell the whole story, it's left up to you and me, the general public to formulate the true understanding of the economy and simply the way of life in this region.

[Michi]

Well, yes and no (in my opinion). I think the exurbs are always going to "grow". Whenever there is greenfields at the edge of a developed metropolitan area, that is the prime candidate for the most market rate new development. However, a lot of the inner ring and traditional-styled cities and neighborhoods that have always been stable and middle class, nothing has really changed. Sure, there is an uptick in homes for sale and home foreclosures, but the populations and housing prices have always stayed relatively stagnant, meaning there's always been and will continue to be a demand for goods and services.

When you think of the Detroit region in the past tense, it's best described as a throw-away society with all eyes facing outward and all backs burned to the city. But, as we're experiencing now, some 10+ years after most other major metropolitan areas in the US, people recycling themselves and their lifestyles back to traditionalism brings with it economic developments and impacts where before, these areas were the losers to the profit of the gainers somewhere else further from the city.

So, from my perspective, natural exurban "growth" grouped with an increasing movement back to established, pre-existing, quality communities, equals a better manageable micro economy that will stimulate growh where it should be. But, I agree, in the mean time it seems like in many cases we haven't totally realized the destruction of a complete WalMart culture that cheapens the quality of life, yet for most people is convincing enough to be considered growth. I think it comes down to the argument that all growth is not good growth.