I live an hour or so away from the town I went to grad school so I still visit once a month or so. It seems like every time I visit another old building is torn down and another one of these 5 over 1 buildings are going up.
The stores are rarely successful and I'm sure that the companies building all these things just factor in the cost of building these as a cost of doing business in that town.
Most of the kids that rent these "luxury apartments" (which is how they are always described) are from cities with much higher cost of living so they can charge a ton of money and mom and dad will still think it is reasonable. This ends up recreating housing crises of big cities because people that live and work in the town are getting priced out of living there.
The stores are rarely successful and I'm sure that the companies building all these things just factor in the cost of building these as a cost of doing business in that town.
Most of the kids that rent these "luxury apartments" (which is how they are always described) are from cities with much higher cost of living so they can charge a ton of money and mom and dad will still think it is reasonable. This ends up recreating housing crises of big cities because people that live and work in the town are getting priced out of living there.