Of course it's cheap. In order to make the numbers work, developers of sizable commercial projects in small cities will more often than not choose something lame, claiming they can't afford masonry or assuming city officials and townspeople desperate for economic development won't care or won't know the difference. It's not universally true but widespread and an unfortunate reality. A lot of smaller cities in the last 10, 15 years have seen TOD or "urban style mixed use", usually pitched as some sort of novel concept, and a big chunk of it is truly dreadful architecturally. Pretty much the worst 2000ese clichés and trends that are on their way to looking bad or already are. Not to be gloomy but many will look at some of the stuff currently going up 20 years from now and think "what were they thinking?" in the very same way people look at crap from the 70s and 80s.
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Everything new is old again
There is no goodness in him, and his power to convince people otherwise is beyond understanding
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