This is a new one...

in discussing the plight of the restaurants downtown and the revised lease with FDOT which requires an additional foot - making less space for sidewalk tables and including the requirement of stanchions, Annabeth Karson pointed to the "new construction" downtown which raised the rents as the source of economic distress downtown.

In reality, our downtown is becoming an entertainment district and, as such, the rents are skewed upwards due to the predominance of restaurants and bars - which demand higher rents than regular retail space.

And, in the alternative, would we really be wanting property values to decrease in the downtown?