Small business owners and longtime residents are raising concerns that rising commercial rents along Delray Beach’s Atlantic Avenue are threatening the mom-and-pop shops that help define the popular downtown corridor, according to business owners and community members who contacted WPTV.
Gail DelVecchio, a Delray Beach resident who has visited the area for decades and lived there full-time for the past four years, said she reached out to WPTV because she fears the trend could undermine the character that makes Atlantic Avenue a destination.
“They’ve done such a great job bringing it back,” DelVecchio said. “People come to Delray. It’s just a great happening place and I hate to see that ruined.”…