A new report —co-authored by ULI’s Senior Resident Fellow and Bucksbaum Family Chair for Retail, Maureen McAvey, and Bridget Lane, director of Business Districts Inc. in Evanston, Ill.— explores factors that hamper retail development in some lower-income communities and offers solutions to overcome the dearth of shopping options for neighborhood residents.

Retail in Underserved Communities focuses primarily on urban markets, includes case studies of the East Liberty neighborhood of Pittsburgh; Union Market in Washington, D.C.; and Old Spanish Trail in Houston, and explores how retail development sparked revitalization efforts that are ongoing in each of these areas.

The report is based on observations from industry experts at a ULI forum held in February 2014 that included representatives from ULI, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the International Council of Shopping Centers.

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