Urbek City Builder has several upgrade paths for neighborhoods, and a district's composition can shift and evolve over the course of a game. Advanced buildings require nearby retail, which doesn't sound too hard on the surface - after all, buying and selling things is a foundation of society!
New players might be confused to notice that no buildings seem to provide retail to their area at first glance. That's because retail actually develops out of residential areas that have been designed for that purpose! If a lack of shopping has caused your Urbek city to stagnate, here's how to develop a thriving downtown.
How To Get Retail Into A Neighborhood
To create retail stores in Urbek, you'll need to develop a housing district into Mixed-Use Commercial & Residential buildings. These evolve from Modern Two-Storey Houses, so they have similar prerequisites to other neighborhoods that produce Skilled and Highly Skilled Work; they need to be away from Pollution and have access to tools, multiple sources of leisure, food services, healthcare, and high-school-level education. It's also a good idea to have at least one bus stop in the area so that your neighborhood doesn't need to take up valuable space with parking lots.
Construct a Supermarket to provide both tools and food services with a single building.
Once your city is large enough to unlock it, build a Small Bank in the neighborhood you wish to upgrade. The presence of banking along with all the other requirements will cause the Modern Two-Storey Houses to evolve into Mixed-Use Commercial & Residential buildings, granting retail to nearby buildings that may need it.
What Does Retail Do?
Mixed-Use buildings can eventually upgrade even further, eventually adding office space once your city has an Airport. Offices are necessary to build Research Centers, which provide some of the largest resource bonuses in the game. In the meantime, you can enjoy the benefit of extra Highly Skilled Work that retail- and office-heavy neighborhoods generate - just be sure that your food and energy production are able to satisfy the occupants' needs!
You'll eventually need to upgrade your Small Bank to a regular Bank to continue the retail upgrade chain. They take up the same amount of space (only one tile) so just tear down the old bank and replace it with a better one as soon as you can.
Retail is best placed in large, dense blocks since upgrading Mixed-Use buildings requires a lot of retail in one spot. Avoid placing Cool Squares or Sculptures in the area, as this may cause the neighborhood to develop into a Nightlife or Artists' district instead. The same goes for churches and police stations, as those could turn the neighborhood into a Religious Community - a great source of Happiness, but not what you're going for in this situation.