But these highly praised projects are proving complicated and risky to build and have been slow to catch on in many places, according to a story in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
So, what's the deep, dark secret that's holding these projects back? Developers say they're complicated, risky and often less profitable than strip shopping centers. Acquiring land can be thorny, and securing financing is tough. Construction can be expensive and problematic.
Over the last decade, mixed-use projects like this have risen mostly on the East and West coasts. A form of New Urbanism, they try to recreate the feel of older communities, where apartments sit atop stores with offices next door.
"I think these projects are popular because they symbolize getting back to our roots," said Richard Moore, an analyst who follows real estate companies for KeyBanc Capital Markets in Cleveland. "You have so many apartment dwellers who want to be in the thick of things, with retail right outside their door."
And when such projects are designed properly and built in the right spot, they can be appealing to developers, too, said Maureen McAvey, the former director of the St. Louis Development Corp.
"When mixed-use works well, it works extremely well," said McAvey, a senior fellow at the Urban Land Institute in Washington. "It commands higher rents and will retain more value than a single-use building."
But rising popularity alone doesn't make building a mixed-use project easier.
For starters, the planning process can require years of negotiations with zoning boards. Second, construction costs tend to add up, too. At Boulevard-St. Louis, a mixed-use development, an 8-inch slab of concrete was built atop the ceiling of the first-floor shops to ensure that renters would have quiet time.
What also makes these projects tough is that they take so long to plan and build, making it nearly impossible to hit the market at the right time.
