Trade Centres: Pseudonym For Economic Change

Abstract

The recent efforts towards stimulating economic growth in municipalities have seen an escalation of the use of Trade Centres as a vehicle to revitalize community economic life. There are many Trade Centres built after World War 2 in Europe. While some fairs became permanent fixtures, others remained temporary and transient in nature. The first type is the Ad Hoc Trade Centre. The second type of Trade Centre is the one more commonly referred to as the Planned Trade Centre. The fundamental use of a Trade Centre is to provide an environment for selected market sectors to exhibit and wholesale their products. The Trade Mall is a component of a Trade Centre and is a facility that provides temporary and permanent showroom facilities to selected market sectors which cater to the retail market. Complementary Functions are uses that are planned around or aggregate near the Trade Mart - and if owned or developed by the Trade Centre owners- become "constituents" of the Trade Centre. The Infrastructure required to support Trade Centres and component parts include transportation and municipal service items. The Core Trade Centres are found in principal cores, within both urban and suburban municipalities. The Adjacent sites are challenged by the necessity for the proposed Trade Centre project to work in conjunction with the existing nearby services and functions. Arterial Trade Centres revealed that siting was a key factor in determining the purpose and the function of the Trade Centres. Trade Centres are utilized today in developing or rejuvenating sites as described earlier, and also in stimulating the economy by measurements.