Crunching the numbers in transit corridors
“The research — based on interviews with 24 developers, 16 employers and three major commercial real estate brokers in the Twin Cities — found that developers will sacrifice transit access if a site near a train or major bus line is more expensive or involves extra red tape.
The same goes for business owners, as well as executives in human resources and real estate in large corporations. They acknowledged that transit is an exciting site feature but said their location decisions were strongly driven by lines of business and ties to specific areas of the metro.
When it comes to both developers and business owners, “they are in the business of the current, rather than the future. … They need to make the numbers work,” said Yingling Fan, an assistant professor of public affairs at the U of M who conducted the study with research fellow Andrew Guthrie.”
Newmarker,Chris. Finance & Commerce 5 June 2013.