Paul R. Levy is the founding president and chief executive of Philadelphia’s Center City District (CCD), serving in that capacity since January 1991. Under Levy’s leadership, CCD secured property owner and legislative approval for its reauthorization in 1994, 2004, 2007, 2012, 2017 and 2023, expanding its ability to finance and carry out capital improvements.
Benchmarking
Sub Categories: Benchmarking
How to Demonstrate the Value of BIDs
Learn how the 2022 San Francisco Community Benefit / Business Improvement District (CBD/BID) Impact Analysis was authored, including detail on how the authors synthesized data, how other cities can replicate this report, and the general challenge of comparing BID programs to one another in order to demonstrate value and impact.
We Aren’t Placemaking, We Are People Making
We have an opportunity to use experience, a pandemic and data to inform how we cultivate our greatest assets, our people. Before we can “reopen” our districts (as if they were ever closed), we must address the anxieties, fears, languishing, burnout and uncertainties of the past year. If we don’t, then we are asking people to walk out of a burning building, shake it off and build a new building. We can do better.
Advancing Places: Developing, Reporting and Communicating Annual Progress
Communicating the progress occurring in your district annually can come in many forms. Join this session and learn from three UPMO leaders who are gathering data and creating a benchmark for tracking development, investment, housing, and other areas of importance. These reports are used to better understand the current state of their downtowns and to help determine priorities and action steps. Learn how sharing the results can elevate your credibility and attract new investment.
Advancing Places: Capital Market Insights, Real Estate and Economic Forecast
The pandemic-induced work-from-home experiment has altered perspectives on work, flexibility and the office. When COVID-19 is no longer a lingering health concern, workers will not be expected to come into the office for tasks that can be done from anywhere. What purpose does the office serve in the future and how will that purpose impact the way occupiers think about their portfolio footprints, location strategy and office layouts?
IDA Vitality Index 2020 Downtown Trends
The IDA Vitality Index, powered by Stantec, has now grown to more than 50 downtowns across the U.S., including downtowns in the 25 largest cities. This session will introduce the latest trends in downtown economy, inclusion and vibrancy and feature a panel discussion highlighting what was expected and what was most surprising.
Authority in Data: Building out your Research Program
Learn how to build out your research program beginning with the basic State of Downtown to more advanced reports such as a Development Activity Report and COVID response report. With a strong research program, UPMOs will become the go-to expert in their downtown. This expert status with help shape your brand and serve your members. Come away with a realistic plan to build a robust research program given budget, staff and time constraints.
COVID Spending Insights from Mastercard (FKA Mastercard SpendingPulse™)
Mastercard SpendingPulse™ has become a leading economic and industry research service to monitor and forecast consumer spending across multiple industries and markets. Reports use advanced models to calculate total and sector-level retail sales based on aggregate sales activity in the Mastercard payments network, survey-based estimates for other payment types (including cash), and tune for macroeconomic factors.
Jennifer Vey Master Talk
Jennifer Vey’s work at the Brookings Institution primarily focuses on the connection between placemaking and inclusive economic development in the digital economy. She is the author or co-author of numerous Brookings publications, including Transformative Placemaking: A framework to create connected, vibrant, and inclusive communities and Assessing your Innovation District: A how-to guide.
Downtown St. Pete Development Guide
Not only a economic benchmark report, this documents delves into topics such as the adjacent residential neighborhoods and education. It was designed to memorialize our progress as an urban center and provide a road map to our community leaders for thoughtful growth into the future. Through our research in this project, we were able to forecast public and private investments approaching $8 billion will be spent in our city center.
Downtown 2.0, Livingston County Commercial District Assessment
The Downtown 2.0 Commercial District Assessment, a comprehensive plan for the County and its nine downtowns, identified shared downtown challenges and established a set of clear strategies and tactics for the County to collectively address business attraction and sales growth, capital investment, and redevelopment.
Then and Now: An Analysis of Downtown Retail – Parts 1 & 2
The Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association’s (DVBIA) two-part series, “Then and Now: An Analysis of Downtown Retail”, quantifies and benchmarks retail in the DVBIA’s 90-block catchment between 2012 and 2018. Part 1 examines non-edible goods and services, while Part 2 examines the food and beverage sector. The reports identify retail mix, average annual growth rates, business openings and closings and the percentage of businesses operating for 10 years or more.
P.U.M.A.’s Global Trends Report: Pandemic July 2020 Update
In late 2019, P.U.M.A. and IDA jointly released the 2020 Global Trends Report highlighting opportunities arising from converging shifts in demographics, lifestyles and a new category, “disruptive forces,” that are shaping our cities. Little did we know that months later we’d be in the midst of the disruptive events of our lifetimes – the pandemic that has wreaked havoc on public health and economies, and the American protests for racial justice that could accelerate dramatic social change.
Downtown Denver Economic Trend Report
This sample economic development trend report summarizes key economic benchmarks such as employment growth and commercial real estate trends.
Vitality Defined
This session will present the first iteration of the IDA Vitality Index, powered by Stantec. The Index will be an interactive, online tool to benchmark the vitality of downtowns across the U.S. It includes select indicators of economy, inclusion and vibrancy to enable urban place managers to objectively quantify and benchmark their district’s strengths and weaknesses against peer cities. During the session, panelists will share the Index and discuss how districts can use this data.
My Bad Reputation: Overcoming a Place’s Negative Perception
They say perception is reality, but often negative perceptions about a place obscure positive changes, inhibiting growth and success. Whether the narrative is about high crime rates or inauthentic tourist traps, changing perceptions can require a multi-prong effort. Using case studies from a variety of locations, panelists will discuss how tools such as audience research, re-branding and press strategy can highlight local assets and reshape the narrative.
Craft Data-Informed Persona in Places of All Sizes
Downtown associations know their attraction and retention results are due in part to their marketing efforts. But how do you produce content that helps your downtown stand out from the rest? In this panel, downtown regions like Bozeman, MT; Los Angeles, CA; and Memphis, TN will discuss how marketing their narrative started with understanding the unique pieces of their story – namely, their data.
Making the Case: Market Analysis Scenario Workshop
Today, downtown and urban district professionals need clear and concise data to strategically inform management and investment decisions. This workshop begins with a baseline understanding of the data that can be useful for understanding the local market, including how to retrieve the data and how to supplement the data with local knowledge. Structured as a practicum, participants will then work in small groups to apply the methodologies and analyses to build a comprehensive district profile.
Global Trends 2020: What’s Next for Downtown
P.U.M.A.’s award-winning Global Trends Report has been a go-to resource for downtowns for more than a decade. This debut of the 2020 edition will provide insight on what’s next for downtowns given shifts in demographics, lifestyles and competition. The panel will also provide provocative recommendations on how downtown managers can adapt to and get ahead of trends shaping our cities.
NYC BID Trends Report – Telling the Story of NYC BIDs
The annual NYC BID Trends Report targets multiple audiences, serving both a promotional and educational role for the public and NYC BIDs themselves. SBS collects, analyzes, and features program output data, budget information, and highlights of exceptional programming in this report each year. The report highlights the overall impact and financial data for all BIDs and expense and output data organized by comparable BID cohorts. The report also provides financial and output data from individual BIDs.
Kate Joncas Master Talk – Baltimore 2019
Kate is currently the Director of Urban Strategy and Development for MIG. She leads strategic efforts for complex urban projects in downtowns, neighborhoods and urbanizing places. As Seattle Deputy Mayor from 2014 – 2017 she directed 32 departments, led waterfront redevelopment and Convention Center expansion, and developed a nationally recognized government performance initiative.
The Value of U.S. Downtowns and Center Cities: Third Edition
A strong downtown is critical for a successful city and region. This groundbreaking study articulates the inherent value a downtown provides to the greater city, highlighting a downtown’s unique and impactful contributions while accounting for 100+ key data points based on economy, inclusion, vibrancy, identity, and resilience. With three years of data, IDA grouped each of the center cities into one of three downtown tiers: Emerging, Growing and Established.
John Bela Master Talk
John Bela is an urbanist and public space designer with Gehl Studio San Francisco. He combines a background in art, science and environmental design to create vibrant, dynamic and resilient urban human habitats. A pioneer in user-generated urbanism, John has successfully completed many projects that involve radical new formulations of social space. John is a senior lecturer at the California College of Arts in San Francisco and a distinguished lecturer at U.C. Berkeley.
Gabe Metcalf Master Talk
Gabriel Metcalf is the President & CEO of SPUR. Under his leadership, SPUR has grown dramatically in influence and membership. Before becoming head of SPUR 2005, Gabe headed up SPUR’s policy and advocacy work for five years. A prolific writer and speaker, Gabriel earned his Master’s degree in city planning from the University of California, Berkeley’s College of Environmental Design.
Joe Minicozzi Master Talk
Joe Minicozzi is the principal of Urban3, a consulting firm created by Asheville real estate developer Public Interest Projects. Urban3’s work in pioneering geo-spatial representation of economic productivity has prompted a paradigm shift in understanding the economic potency of urbanism and the value of well-designed cities. Their studies for municipalities across the United States and Canada have affected the reevaluation of public policy and a broader understanding of market dynamics.
Dan Koh Master Talk
Daniel Arrigg Koh is Chief of Staff to the City of Boston. In this capacity, he advises Mayor Martin J. Walsh on key issues and helps him execute his vision for the city and its 18,000 employees. During his master talk at the 62nd Annual Conference & Tradeshow in Atlanta, Georgia, Sept. 7-9, 2016, Dan discusses the use of data in improving city services, place management and city building.
Molly Cox Master Talk
Molly Cox is the President and CEO of SA2020, a nonprofit organization that drives progress toward a shared community vision for a thriving San Antonio. In this role, she serves as a facilitator, storyteller, convener, fundraiser, communicator, data analyst, policy wonk, and connector. A Certified Nonprofit Professional, with a master’s degree in political science from UTSA, Molly has also run a University Center, managed her own consulting business, and worked in radio and television.
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.
2011 U.S. BID Census Report
The study, conducted by the Institute of Business District Management, the Rutgers University’s School of Public Affairs and Administration and funded by several member organizations of the International Downtown Association, presents a snapshot of the characteristics of BIDs in 2010 and captures such information as: the geography of BIDs; revenue sources & budget size; governance & board composition; tools for measuring performance.
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 directions and insights on collecting, organizing, storing, and presenting downtown-specific data to make the case for continued investment and support.
Miami – Value of Downtowns Pilot Study
The Senior Manager of Urban Ecnomics & Market Development for the Miami Downtown Development Authority, Nicholas Martinez, AICP shares the results of IDA’s Value of Downtown study for downtown Miami.
The Value of U.S. Downtowns: Informing a Downtown Vitality Index
The Value of U.S. Downtowns and Center Cities is a data-driven examination of downtowns’ role as engines of citywide vitality. This project is in its second iteration of a new, repeatable formula for calculating the value of downtown and makes the case that investing in downtown delivers powerful citywide and regional benefits. Urban centers are productive, exciting and full of potential- learn how IDA actually measures this.
Form Follows Finance: Unplugging Economic and Planning Barriers
Data visualizations, economic impact modeling and policy hacks, oh my! This session is a must for anyone interested in the intersection of downtown economic development, placemaking, Smart Growth and regional infrastructure development. Participants will learn about cutting edge applications of geoaccounting, design and ninja policy moves in downtown Durham, NC and Minneapolis, MN.
Sizzling Second Tier Cities: Action Plans Reshaping Downtowns
Second tier cities are heating up and market-based action plans can provide a catalyst to reshape downtowns. Hear how Reno NV, Evansville IN and London ON all used recent downtown plans as a springboard to create energy and attract investment, thereby strengthening the role of downtown organizations that are rapidly becoming agents of change in each city.
Wake Up and Smell the Residents: How Residents are Changing the Place Management Industry
This session will review the growing role of residential in downtowns and the importance of integrating residential uses into place management. Panelists will offer tools to accommodate residential needs in healthy and complete communities. Highlights of IDA’s 2016 Top Issues Council on Downtown Residential will set the stage for a discussion about working with residents in place management organizations.
Calculating the Value of U.S. Downtown and Center Cities
This year, IDA partnered with 13 downtown place management organizations to conduct the first-ever project to calculate the value of American downtowns, putting center cities into their unique economic and geographical context as compared to the city and the region, examining key metrics based on the principles of economy, inclusion, vibrancy, identity and resilience. The downtowns served as pilots to craft IDA’s new data standard that will be used year-over-year.