Begone, Euclid! Leasing Custom and Zoning Provision Engaging Retail Consumer Tastes and Technologies in Thriving Urban Centers

47 Pages Posted: 25 Feb 2014 Last revised: 19 Aug 2015

See all articles by Michael N. Widener

Michael N. Widener

City of Phoenix Zoning Adjustment Hearing Officer

Date Written: February 24, 2014

Abstract

Technology capacity and innovations conflate notions of private and public spaces; the latter today incorporate the Internet “lane,” while private spaces seek access to that pathway. Merchants and their landlords seemingly find themselves in a paradox. They must embrace consumer technology expectations to populate mercantile premises as public spaces. At the same time, merchants must make stores and restaurants places of novelty to grip the attention of customers seeking to share the intimacy of their experience with everyone. Technology presents physical retailing with its greatest threat while potentially becoming its strongest ally if properly channeled. Advocates for urban centers’ sustained vitality must translate into action technology and communications currents to retain merchandising’s vital role in place-making in CBDs, downtowns and similar densely developed community gathering places. This essay describes how stakeholders, including city and town administrators, must imprint public and private spaces (like retailing premises) to produce sustained demand for physical merchandising in dynamic community hives through innovative land use regulations and ICT management policies.

Keywords: ICT, internet and communications technology, retail lease, retail leasing, floating zones, overlay zoning, New Ubanism, SmartCode, merchandising

JEL Classification: E21, H72, K11, K23, M13, O18, O33, O38, R14, R51, R52

Suggested Citation

Widener, Michael N., Begone, Euclid! Leasing Custom and Zoning Provision Engaging Retail Consumer Tastes and Technologies in Thriving Urban Centers (February 24, 2014). 35 Pace Law Review 834 (2015), Arizona Summit Law School Research Paper No. 2014-A-02, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2400725 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2400725

Michael N. Widener (Contact Author)

City of Phoenix Zoning Adjustment Hearing Officer ( email )

Phoenix, AZ
United States

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