Danger Zone One

The following excerpt was taken from the latest edition of Business Max magazine, a weekly publication that covers global financial information, market developments, and relevant statistics.

Is the Skyline falling?

Ten years ago, property developers were flocking to Pallad City with the hopes of cashing in on the redevelopment boom. With the city offering favorable tax incentives and near-unlimited air rights (barring few exceptions), scarcely any land or property up for sale went unsold—regardless of location.

Today the city faces a complete reversal. Vacant warehouses line the Garland Fishing District on the west side, condemned apartment buildings stretch from Mallory Avenue to Holloway Street in the downtown sector, and the once prosperous ValveCorp factory has been deserted for three years. All are for sale. None have sold.

Local economists have speculated that the city-wide development decrease lies with several existing factors, including fewer tax incentives, which have kept small and mid-sized developers at bay. The benefits Pallad City had offered to developers a decade back are now limited to megacorporations, leaving all other interested parties out in the cold. An increase in the crime rate has also caused the city’s reputation to plummet—a crisis first reported on near the start of the development surge a decade ago. Yet, some claim that the crime rates have little bearing on the issue, pointing to the continued redevelopment boom that Nu Metropol is currently undergoing—a city with an even higher crime rate than Pallad City.

Last year, the land on which Skyline Industries’ now derelict west factory resides—their original manufacturing plant before the company’s move to the south side—went on sale. The land in question had once sparked one of the most impressive bidding wars Pallad City had ever seen up until that time, cementing the value of the location for years after. However, that was two decades ago, long before the uncertain development climate the city faces today. But Skyline Industries is not the only casualty in the surrounding Ribbon District, which is entirely unoccupied in a three mile radius.

Without the prospects of new development, Pallad City faces a serious issue that will be more apparent in the coming years. Much like how the city abandoned the Kurtow Ruins redevelopment effort, it may be quite possible that the surrounding districts could be threatened with a similar fate.

Danger Zone One. Story by Midnight. Art by Katsu.

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