ABSTRACT: One of the prominent features of urban change over the past decades has been the rapid expansion in the population and employment in a few sectors of the central parts of major metropolitan areas. This outcome reflects interdependencies between the production needs of advanced services and the income they provide for their staff, shifts in residential preferences and choice, and public policy that has sponsored inner area re-development schemes. These three elements has stimulated developer activity which can be seen in new and renovated commercial and residential buildings. For some researchers this outcome has emerged in large part from the globalization of the economy, especially the advanced services sector. The purpose of the current paper is the provide a refinement of that idea, showing that globalization in another sector associated with changes in the policy of selected institutions has produced a different cluster of inner area residents that in some cases may be more numerous and perhaps even more influential on local city outcomes in housing and retail activity than the workers associated with advanced services.