Residential

Sub Categories: Residential

The Public Realm – An Economic Development Tool

The function and relevancy of traditional downtown commercial districts are in question due to emerging disruptions accelerated by the COVID pandemic. However, downtown districts are reinventing themselves by refocusing on the pedestrian experience as an economic tool to drive office leasing, workers, residents, and visitors back downtown.  

New Economic Engine – Private Sector University Housing

The private sector student housing industry has exploded as an alternative to campus living. The industry provides hundreds of thousands of beds, in communities of all sizes, in high value buildings adjacent to colleges and universities. These communities and residents have created significant economic growth and are transforming these areas.

Advancing Places: HUD Financing Opportunities

HUD’s Section 108 Loan Guarantee Program provides Community Development Block Grant recipients with the ability to leverage their annual grant allocation to access low-cost, flexible financing for economic development, housing, public facility and infrastructure projects. Organizations can use these funds to support central business districts, retail/office manufacturing, small business financing, mixed-use properties and business retention as a few examples

Workforce and Affordable Housing Initiatives

A group of professionals from a diverse set of professional backgrounds discuss strategies for creating Workforce and Affordable housing to ensure housing affordability in downtown districts.

Advancing Places: Connecting with Downtown Neighborhoods

We often inherit a complicated relationship with the neighborhoods adjacent to the traditional downtown core. Those adjacent neighborhoods are sometimes very different in history and composition – the buildings are likely older, the land is less developed, and the community less affluent. The neighborhoods may be separated from downtown by historic and political barriers, including racist and exclusionary policies and years of broken economic development promises.

Advancing Places: Housing Attainability

Every community needs housing options that meet a diversity of incomes and lifestyles. Downtowns, city centers and neighborhood districts throughout North America are working to make attainable housing a reality for people seeking an urban lifestyle. Urban place management organizations of all sizes and resource levels can play a role in encouraging more housing at a variety of price points and of varying styles.

Loan & Tax Abatement Program

Through its Development Loan program, Memphis’s Center City Development Corporation offers a low-interest loan product designed to support smaller commercial developments. It offers a low-interest loan of up to $200,000 for permanent building renovations and new construction within the Central Business Improvement District. The product is not a construction loan; rather, it is permanent financing that can be used to take out a construction loan.

Developing a Retail Strategy

All downtowns are dealing with the changing world of retail and developing strategies for retention and attraction. Learn from Cherry Creek North, Downtown Memphis and Downtown OKC, three very distinct downtowns, as they discuss their respective approaches for filling vacant spaces and retaining and attracting retailers.   

Inclusive Place-Based Economic Development

In 2015, Charlotte’s downtown association, Charlotte Center City Partners, was invited by neighborhood advocates to catalyze a multi-year partnership effort to transform the Historic West End of Charlotte corridor. However, in West End, long-tenured residents and businesses threatened by rising property values feel this pressure acutely as they face predatory investors and find very limited affordable housing options for those who wish to move but stay in the neighborhood.

Developing a Retail Strategy

All downtowns are dealing with the changing world of retail and developing strategies for retention and attraction. Learn from Cherry Creek North, Downtown Memphis and Downtown OKC, three very distinct downtowns, as they discuss their respective approaches for filling vacant spaces and retaining and attracting retailers.   

Flipping the Script: Using Housing as an Economic Development Tool

For decades, downtowns were built on the premise that office recruitment and expansion was the foundational element for long term success. Our panel believes that housing is now playing an outsized role in surging downtown success and that the attraction of housing is a necessary precursor to bring jobs back from the suburbs. Panelists will explore this idea with real-world market data and case studies from Charlotte, Denver, and elsewhere.

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.

Albus Brooks Master Talk

Albus Brooks is the Vice President of Business Development and Strategy for Milender White, a development and construction firm operating in Southern California and Colorado. Serving two terms on Denver City Council, including two terms as Council President, Albus accomplished an ambitious range of progressive legislative victories with the goal of building a truly inclusive city.

Annie Milli Master Talk

Annie Milli is the Executive Director of Live Baltimore, a nationally recognized 501(c)(3) Residential Marketing Organization. A self-described “accidental urbanist,” Ms. Milli began her career as a graphic designer, later becoming an art director and executive in the field of commercial advertising. Ms. Milli led Live Baltimore’s marketing division from 2013 to 2017, during which time she developed a resident retention initiative, targeting city families.

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.

Simon O’Byrne Master Talk

Simon O’Byrne is an award-winning urban designer/planner with Stantec’s Urban Places who has been frequently quoted in European and North America media and spoken at many international conferences. Simon has led multi-disciplinary design teams in the planning and delivery of complex and politically charged projects. His experience ranges from intensive urban revitalization redevelopments, to the Ice District in Edmonton, to creating resiliency in Hull, UK, to the Alberta Legislature Grounds.

Parramore Comprehensive Neighborhood Plan

The Parramore Comprehensive Neighborhood Plan focuses on creating a healthy, sustainable, and vibrant community that prepares for the future while preserving, enhancing, and celebrating the culture and heritage of Parramore. The Plan contains the community’s vision for their neighborhoods based on a set of Healthy Community Design principles, and provides strategies with short, mid and long term action items.

Downtown Albany Residential Development Initiative

The City of Albany began the Downtown Residential Development Initiative in 2002 with the purpose of increasing mixed-use development and adding residential units in its downtown. This was a strategic recommendation of the City of Albany’s economic development strategy “Capitalize Albany” first released in 1996. The strategy identified downtown diversification as a critical element of the City’s overall economic health and revitalization.

Elkhart River District Implementation Plan

The City of Elkhart has begun building a walkable, mixed-use neighborhood on 105 acres of underutilized land next to its downtown. Civic leaders believe the River District can ease a housing shortage, address a worker shortage, and attract knowledge workers and entrepreneurs who will diversify its economy. The 2017 district master plan called for as much as 1,000 units of housing; stores; bike- and pedestrian-friendly streets; an aquatics/fitness/healthcare center; and a network of open spaces.

Northeast False Creek Plan

The Northeast False Creek Plan is an innovative and comprehensive plan to replace the Georgia and Dunsmuir viaducts (2.6 km of elevated freeway infrastructure) with a new mixed-use waterfront community. As a result of intensive collaboration between the landowners, senior levels of government and the community over an 18-month planning process, a 20-year plan for the buildout of Northeast False Creek was adopted by Vancouver City Council on February 13, 2018.

Oswego, New York, DRI Strategic Investment Plan

The small city of Oswego parlayed a $10 million state grant into more than $50 million in new downtown investment. Even after years of decline, Oswego retains some important assets to build on: walkable scale, historic buildings, and a beautiful setting on the Oswego River. The city won state funding to create a plan that identified specific projects, explained how they would benefit downtown, and showed that they could attract other money.

Improvement and Benefit for Who? The Hows, Whys, and What to Dos About Gentrification

Community improvements made by a variety of stakeholders often disproportionately benefit property owners who do not contribute their fair share. In many instances property owners become millionaires on the back of the work and investment of others. This presentation walks through a scenario where a property owner with a property assessed at $650 thousand is selling for $3.2 million, breaking down the community improvements that have lifted the property’s sale value.

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.

Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership Advisory Panel: Strategy for Housing Growth

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 asked to identify the challenges and obstacles for building new housing in downtown, as well as identify resources and tools available for creating new housing. The report details the panel’s findings and recommendations.

Downtown Cleveland Alliance Advisory Panel: Comprehensive Housing Strategy for Downtown Cleveland

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 focused on workforce housing demand and social equity, as well as physical connections in central city and oppertunities for collaboration on housing issues among various community development organizations. The report details the panel’s findings and recommendations.