Leave or stay? The small business landscape along Buford highway

Immigrant small businesses in emerging gateway cities in the Sunbelt region are more likely to cluster along inner-suburban corridors where they contribute to economic development and the social and cultural capital of growing immigrant groups. These businesses also face numerous challenges in accessing government services and traditional financing, withstanding market shocks, and overcoming language and cultural barriers. This research examines immigrant retail patterns on the international corridor of Buford Highway in metropolitan Atlanta in order to better understand these trends. Through analysis of data regarding in/out migration patterns as well as in-depth key informant interviews and discourse analysis of economic development policies, we found that the interethnic concentration of businesses, long-standing demand, and cultural cache of the international retail corridor of Buford Highway has provided for a strikingly stable retail landscape despite gentrification concerns stemming from changing population demographics and economic challenges (including during the pandemic). Even though the focus area is experiencing demographic change and an increase in housing prices, the commercial corridor remains stable, suggesting a more complex relationship between residential and commercial gentrification than expected in practice and discussed in existing literature. From these findings, we call attention to bottom-up and top-down approaches to preserving places in ways that can foster cultural capital and enable immigrant small business resilience. This research contributes to urban geography literature through showing a complex relationship between residential and commercial gentrification, which may not always occur in tandem. • In/out migration patterns indicate retail landscape stability despite increasing housing costs along an international commercial corridor in Atlanta. • An interethnic concentration of businesses, long-standing demand, and cultural cache contributed to business resilience. • Bottom-up and top-down place-based planning strategies may fortify immigrant small businesses against development pressures.