Residents of the New Urban Stapleton development want the nearby big boxes gone... if only they weren't the backbone of the tax structure:
An ambitious project like Stapleton requires a vast amount of financing, much more than can be generated from residential property taxes alone. So, to enter Stapleton from Interstate 70 is to be confronted with the very emblem of suburban sprawl, a conventional 750,000-square-foot big-box shopping center called Quebec Square with huge parking lots that can accommodate 5,000 cars, a Wal-Mart Supercenter, a Sam's Club warehouse store and a Home Depot...And in fact, it's the sales taxes from the rural poor who are supporting the new urbanites:As a generator of tax revenue, however, retail is much more significant than housing. Hank Baker, a senior vice president at Forest City Stapleton, said that Quebec Square, which opened in 2002, brings in $8 million annually in property and sales tax, nearly seven times the amount from the project's first 1,000 homes. (An affiliated company, Forest City Ratner, is the development partner of The New York Times Company for its new headquarters in Manhattan.)
Unlike communities built on undeveloped land, Stapleton is surrounded by mostly low-income neighborhoods whose residents were traveling beyond city limits to shop at stores like Wal-Mart, Mr. Gleason said. This demand helped city and community leaders reconcile themselves to Quebec Square...I'd like to see the relative prices of food and other goods, since the WM Supercenter is nearly adjacent to CostCo.
Posted by Kevin on June, 1 2005 at 08:13 AM
