The team conducted a street-by-street analysis (20 miles total) of existing conditions including lane width, sidewalk width, on-street parking, traffic speeds, pedestrian traffic, and ground floor vacancy to gauge how existing conditions impact the efficiency and economic functionality of downtown. With fieldwork completed, the team engaged with city planning and traffic engineering staff to better understand the thought and efforts going into street reconstruction and striping efforts.
Market Analysis
Sub Categories: Market Analysis
Milwaukee Public Market: An Economic Catalyst for Milwaukee and the Historic Third Ward
Determining the location for the Milwaukee Public Market was integral to the city’s revitalization. Being able to create a linkage between the different Milwaukee neighborhoods, specifically the third ward to downtown, could draw residents and tourists into the city in a way that had proven difficult for years. The Market has acted as a business incubator for local entrepreneurs who have since been able to grow and form community connections that provide opportunities for continued success.
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.
Talent Attraction and Retention
Attracting talent to your downtown can be challenging. This presentation outlines innovative strategies for attracting workers and new businesses to your downtown as well as cultivate local talent and entrepreneurial endeavors.
Neighborhood 360°: Planning for the Future of New York City Commercial Districts
In order to begin the deployment of what is now known as N360°, SBS developed a strategic public-private partnership with LISC NYC and Citi Community Development, aided by technical assistance from Larisa Ortiz Associates, to develop an assessment tool and analytical framework — a “Commercial District Needs Assessment” (CDNA) — that would help SBS to engage community partners in evaluating existing conditions and identifying needs of a commercial district.
It Might be All About the Experiences, But Experiences Do Not Pay the Rent
Retail expert Michael Berne, President of MJB Consulting, lays out the fundamentals of experiential retail, its do’s and don’ts, how it works, and how experiences tie in to successful retail. Make sure your downtown retailers are employing the age old strategy of experiential retail in a way that helps boost their business.
Open for Business
Open for Business is a project to increase awareness of the West End Business Improvement Zone as an ideal place for businesses to locate. The project was designed to provide a full picture of information on the area to help recruit new businesses to the zone. Extensive research was conducted to gather compelling information on the area specific to what brokers were looking for, and condensed into a format that was attractive, easy to use and understand.
Retail Strategic Plan
The City of Cambridge is experiencing rapid changes in consumer purchasing habits; in particular the growth in on-line shopping that impacts traditional downtown districts. The city realized that they needed to better understand these macro trends, and needed guidance to enable city staff and leaders, as well and the business community to develop best practice policy prescriptions that could be effectively implemented by the City and embraced by the community.
Top 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.
Top 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.
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.
Changing Face of Economic Development: Land Use, Sustainability, and Housing
The nature of retail is changing in the digital age, and so are its consumers. This presentation walks through what changes are occurring and what to expect in the future, as well as how to help retailers adapt and succeed.
Colorado Springs ULI/IDA Advisory Panel: Affecting a Downtown Reniassance
IDA’s Advisory Panels are a time-tested way to explore new ideas, solve difficult problems, and rally the board, staff and community around priority projects or topics. This panel was tasked with creating a strategy for a downtown renaissance. The panel highlighted assets to leverage, identified challenges, and identified specific opportunities to execute high-payoff actions to focus time and funding on. The presentation details the panel’s findings and recommendations.
How Data Guides Your Future – Experience From Abroad
What are the key interventions to secure the sustainability of your downtown? How do you prioritise decisions? A $1.3 million research study in the UK provides insight. It identifies the 25 key local interventions that BIDs should take. Using pedestrian flow counts, the research has also identified four types of centres with differing usage patterns and needs. Find out about the new classification of centres and why the new evidence-based decision-making approach is being adopted.
Zoning and Regulations for Retail Vitality
Successful retailers must exhibit creativity to thrive in a rapidly changing retail environment yet, concepts like breweries, retailers that offer educational classes, and small scale artisanal food manufacturers frequently get tripped up with code violations, parking requirements, and special permits that make it hard to compete. This session brings together national experts and practitioners to provide guidance and ensure your codes and regulations align with the new retail reality.
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.
Thinking Outside the (Big) Box: New and Better Approaches to Retail Market Analysis
Urban place management organizations are nimble in navigating transportation issues. The session will discuss trends and how UMPOs play an essential role in planning and implementing projects that improve connectivity in city centers including public transportation, bike infrastructure, transportation network companies and autonomous vehicles. UPMOs assist transportation projects at every level working with the community, government, and transportation agencies through every stage.
How We Do Economic Development: Best Practices and Trends from IDA’s Ecnonomic Development Top Issue Council
IDA’s Economic Development Top Issues Council has been working throughout 2018 to compile research on how downtown organizations engage and practice economic development. See how your downtown stacks up. Learn about cutting edge programs and policies that downtown organizations are using to advance their economic development agendas. Find out about the top trends and issues facing downtowns in the area of economic development.
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.
The Many Meanings of Retail Diversity
Drawing on case studies from across North America, the IDA Top Issues Council on “Diverse Retail Mix” will be exploring different meanings of retail diversity and for each meaning, arguing on behalf of its importance, analyzing with which goals or stakeholders it conflicts and how true “crossover” might be achieved, and finally, what specific roles a Downtown organization should play in its promotion and preservation.
Bridging the Gaps in Your Retail Landscape
Learn how to champion retail and business diversity in your downtown, and how to tailor it to both market demand and the uniqueness of your district. There are many socioeconomic, geographic and other components that come into play when building a neighborhood. This webinar teaches strategies for understanding those factors and how you can use them.