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Trendy by Design: Yale Builds its DowntownOnce decrepit and even dangerous, the shops outside Yale's historic Old Campus now bustle with energy, offering the latest in summer fashion, music and gourmet food — everything a student or young professional might want downtown.
In fact, Yale has designed the district to be precisely that.
Armed with focus groups, student surveys and a growing list of retail properties, Yale is building the downtown of its dreams: A gourmet market here. J Crew there. Barnes & Noble up the street and a Manhattan-style boutique around corner.
After years of buying and remodeling, Yale now owns dozens of storefronts and is New Haven's largest retail landlord.
Tenants are hand-picked and the details are closely managed, from requiring that shops stay open until at least 9 p.m. to insisting fresh flowers be displayed on the sidewalk.
The strategy is rare in academia, where real estate is typically used to expand campuses or build endowments.
"We wanted to run our real estate without regard to financial returns.
It's strictly social returns," said university Vice President Bruce Alexander, a developer who helped rebuild Baltimore's harbor and Boston's Faneuil Hall before being lured out of retirement by Yale.
University scouts recruit across the Northeast for the names students demand. When selecting its newest clothing retailer,
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11/6/2006 | Viewed 26,072 time(s)
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