D.C. Streetcar to Spur Retail Growth

This summer, if all goes as planned, the return of streetcars after 65 years will be another step forward for the former H Street NE shopping district in Washington, D.C., reports The Washington Post.

The return of the trolleys is being hailed by city officials, businesses and developers as a new generator of economic wealth that will more than pay for the first of eight planned and heavily subsidized streetcar lines, eventually extending for 37 miles throughout the nation's capital. District planners are projecting as much as $8 billion in new investment within 10 years of the lines’ completion, the paper reports.

According to The Post, a 2012 consultants study predicted that the new system would encourage economic development, including “additional retail spending of new households and workers attracted by the streetcar.” The “visible permanence” of the streetcar “can serve as a powerful attraction to private real estate investment,” the study added.