Let me stipulate up front - I'm a fan of Dreamland for a lot of reasons.

However, while the Plush sims (the commercial areas) seem to be doing very well, lots of traffic, stores, etc., the Plush Avenue sims aren't. The Plush Av sims are prebuilt urban shopping centers, very nicely built out with extra prims, but more expensive to rent. However, they are deserted almost all the time, while nearby Plush sims are jumping.

So what's the problem?

IMNSHO the issue is largely that people don't want to rent in areas where the stores are already built, and apparently aren't interested in shopping in such a controlled environment either. Both renters and shoppers like the diversity (controlled chaos?) of the individually built areas.