Advancing Places: Entrepreneurship and Retail Pop-Ups
Overview: With the pandemic lingering into the coming months, unfortunately we are all seeing vacancies pop up in our districts. Join this session and learn about how two downtown organizations and one economic development corporation worked with partners to create pop-up retail programs to recruit, train and assist entrepreneurs with starting a business. We all need to be forward thinking during these times and realize we need to cultivate new businesses to fill those vacant spaces. Attend this session to learn from these experienced economic development professionals and see how they are creating new programs to cultivate business.
Learning Objectives:
Learn what it takes to cultivate new tenants.
Understand how to make the numbers work when working with the tenant and the property owner.
Identify the long term impacts for your business district
CM Credit: 1 AICP members can earn Certification Maintenance (CM) credits for this webinar. More information about AICP’s CM program can be found here.Â
CM Credit: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX AICP members can earn Certification Maintenance (CM) credits for this webinar. More information about AICP’s CM program can be found here.Â
Pricing: IDA Members: Free | Nonmembers: $40
Advancing Places is an online series aimed at empowering IDA members with the solutions needed to address the most critical urban issues of the day. This session will include a moderated Q&A and will be recorded for member and nonmember use in the future.
Speakers:
Bill King, President and Chief Executive Officer, Downtown Raleigh Alliance (Raleigh, NC)
Brandye Merriweather, Vice President – Downtown Development, Buffalo Urban Development Corporation (Buffalo, NY)Â
Scott Murphy, Vice President, Economic Development Downtown Dayton Partnership (Dayton, OH)
Moderator:
David Downey, President & CEO, International Downtown Association (IDA)
Speakers
Bill King
Bill King
President and Chief Executive Officer, Downtown Raleigh Alliance (Raleigh, NC)
Bill King has been with the Downtown Raleigh Alliance since 2014 and now serves as the President and CEO of the Downtown Raleigh Alliance after five years as its primary Economic Developer and Urban Planner. During Bill's tenure at DRA, he has recruited multiple grocery stores to Downtown Raleigh as well as numerous other retailers, served on the City's Downtown Raleigh Experience Plan and Dix Park planning committees, authored DRA's State of Downtown Raleigh Report, and started a retail grant program to incentivize new shops, and built a successful pop-up retail program. Bill has a Masters of Public Administration degree from the University of Georgia and a Masters of City and Regional Planning, Transportation and Economic Development from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is a passionate urbanist and advocate for the City of Raleigh.
Brandye Merriweather
Brandye Merriweather
Vice President - Downtown Development, Buffalo Urban Development Corporation (Buffalo, NY)
Brandye Merriweather is Vice President of Downtown Development for the Buffalo Urban Development Corporation. In that role, she is responsible for the Buffalo Building Reuse Project, which furthers the development of downtown Buffalo through the adaptive reuse of vacant and underutilized buildings, residential development and development of tools and incentives that assist downtown projects. Brandye also spearheads the Queen City Pop Up Project, downtown’s first pop up retail program. This program encourages retail along Main Street in downtown Buffalo by transforming vacant storefronts into vibrant retail shops that feature local retailers. Brandye was a 2018 IDA Emerging Leader Fellows.
Scott Murphy
Scott Murphy
Vice President of Economic Development, Downtown Dayton Partnership (Dayton, OH)
Scott Murphy joined the Downtown Dayton Partnership (DDP) in 2014. At the DDP Scott serves as Vice President of Economic Development, where he leads downtown strategic planning efforts, development support, and the DDP’s assistance to downtown businesses and attraction of new employers to the center city. Scott serves on the board of Bike Miami Valley, where he helped lead efforts to launch the Link Bike Share program. His other community involvement includes the Marketing Committee at the Dayton Foundation, the Minority Inclusion Steering Committee, the board of NAIOP Dayton, and the board of Learn to Earn Dayton. Scott is also a graduate of Leadership Ohio and IDA’s Emerging Leadership Fellowship program. Â
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