Knowledge Center
Economic Development
A primary objective for place managers is fostering a healthy, sustainable, diverse and prosperous economy for the managed place. The place manager collaborates and works closely with various levels of local and regional economic development organizations, developers, real estate brokers, private firms, philanthropic foundations, destination management organizations, non-profits, and state and federal government agencies, while representing the specific and unique needs, challenges and trends of the managed place.
Additionally, the place manager will work to recruit and retain businesses, conduct market research, encourage a strong local workforce, maintain a diverse mix of commercial and residential development, and facilitate a built environment that is accessible for all users to live, work, play, visit and invest.
Downtown Rebirth Report
Downtowns, once shunned as empty, unsafe places at night, are now being redeveloped at higher density and are thriving after dark. Patrons of downtown regional destinations mingle with office workers and resident young professionals, empty-nesters, and, in many cities, an expanding number of families with children. The trends of diversification, densification, and adjacent residential revival are also occurring on and around urban colleges, universities, medical centers, and research parks.
Read MoreStart Downtown
A groundswell of entrepreneurial and creative activity is changing Dayton. Over a series of townhall-style meetings and detailed work sessions, the Start Downtown initiative brought together more than 100 enterprising Daytonians to devise new strategies and grassroots projects to foster collaboration and connections between entrepreneurs and provide better support the creative culture rapidly emerging. Start Downtown won an IDA Excellence award at the 2018 IDA Conference.
We’d love for you to see this member-only resource to help make a difference in your district. Make sure you are logged in or join IDA to learn more about how members get sh*t done!
2016 Quantifying the Value of Canadian Downtowns: A Research Toolkit
This toolkit is a groundbreaking effort to provide a downtown data standard, a common set of data and processes that will help Canadian place management organizations, such as BIAs/BIDs, establish and sustain evaluation and compare progress among downtowns. While this toolkit is geared towards Canadian downtowns, it also is of value for urban districts outside of Canada who are looking to move toward data standardization and data best practices. In the toolkit, organizations will find
Read MoreTop Issues Council: Achieving and Maintaining a Diverse Retail Mix
IDA’s Diverse Retail Council is publishing this report to help urban district managers understand where and how revitalization is happening and how to encourage retail diversity in their work. Urban place management organizations are uniquely suited to champion the diversity of their district’s retail offerings, while both affirming the authenticity of the place and focusing the market demand.
Read MoreTop Issues Council: How We Do Economic Development
Downtowns, as areas of rapid growth, have become key tools in the economic development arsenal. They have created the places where entrepreneurs and businesses want to work. This document chronicles and reports on the intersection of downtown management and economic development. Today, economic development has become a staple program of downtown organizations, and the variety of approaches to downtown economic development is immense, reflecting differences in downtowns and their communities.
Read MoreTop Issues Council: Nighttime Economy
After decades of decline and flight from center city districts and neighborhoods in North America, many cities central cores are enjoying a modern-day renaissance. Throughout this transition, urban place management organizations have employed a variety of strategies to attract investment and increase opportunities for the surrounding community. This report provides a guide for nighttime districts to regularly reference as they face and address challenges to supporting a nighttime economy.
Read MoreDemographic Inversion and Ethnic Sub-Markets
Some of the industry’s top retail experts outline what it means to have a diverse retail mix and how the demographic inversion of downtowns puts ethnically diverse retail at risk.
We’d love for you to see this member-only resource to help make a difference in your district. Make sure you are logged in or join IDA to learn more about how members get sh*t done!
Downtown and the Green Rush Economy
Since legalization in 2013, marijuana dispenaries exploded onto the retail scene in Boulder. CEO of the Downtown Boulder Partnership, Sean Maher, walks through the impacts of legalization and shares successful legislation strategies for allowing them to integrate into the market without significant disruption.
We’d love for you to see this member-only resource to help make a difference in your district. Make sure you are logged in or join IDA to learn more about how members get sh*t done!
Incubators – A Shot in the Arm for Your District
Leverage local talent and demand for coworking space to create a powerful entrepreneurial environment in your backyard! This presentation shares a number of initiatives for assisting startups and aspiring business owners.
We’d love for you to see this member-only resource to help make a difference in your district. Make sure you are logged in or join IDA to learn more about how members get sh*t done!
Top Issues Council: Attracting Commercial Development
Attracting commercial development to an urban core relies on a multitude of factors to be successful. Some of the issues that need to work in tandem to create a platform for attracting commercial development include: a vibrant downtown, a user-friendly permitting process, available capital and land, infrastructure and ongoing management and maintenance. This report provides an overarching view of the evolution of urban retail throughout the past fifty years to the present.
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