It's not clear that the end of the search for best price is even at BigBox with mail order Amazon/Walmart making their way in. The advantage of a town/city at all is in its density and walkabilty, the ability to windowshop and compare. The US had a lot of investment in that over the last 100 years (e.g. since 1918) until the leveraged sub-urban hypergrowth (and buyouts) of the 70/80s till now. A lot of it seems like reaching for yield (through leverage) in the hope of bringing back the good old days.
Certainly, it will be hard to get developers with their control of most city councils to buy into a reinvigorated well policed downtown until it really falls down. They make their money buying cheap, getting sweetheart infrastructure/tax deals and building "upscale" housing/retail on the edges... or the core once it's already gentrifying.
Certainly, it will be hard to get developers with their control of most city councils to buy into a reinvigorated well policed downtown until it really falls down. They make their money buying cheap, getting sweetheart infrastructure/tax deals and building "upscale" housing/retail on the edges... or the core once it's already gentrifying.