Retail

Sub Categories: Retail

Top Issues Council Brief: Beyond the Pop-Up

Persistent vacancies represent more than just empty storefronts—they signal disruption, uncertainty and lost potential. But they can also serve as invitations to adapt policies, reimagine space and realign tools with today’s realities. This brief highlights a simple truth: no single strategy solves vacancy—but intentional coordination can.

Downtown Austin Space Activation Program

The DASA program revitalizes vacant and underutilized spaces by offering accessible opportunities for small businesses, entrepreneurs and artists to activate downtown storefronts. Its purpose is to establish downtown as a platform that fosters economic growth for all, functioning as a hub for cultural vibrancy and community engagement.

Catalyzing Storefront Vitality Through Public Policy Advocacy

Public policy has tried to address the vicissitudes in the market for ground-floor space in urban places, alternately trying to constrain or unleash market forces in ways that advance broader district and city-wide goals and imperatives. This session explores public policy innovations that shape ground-floor vitality.

Beyond the Pop-Up: Addressing Large Scale Retail Vacancies

Addressing not just heightened vacancies in a post-pandemic environment, but also the unique challenge if large-floorplate retail vacancies, are challenges shared by many downtowns and commercial districts. Learn from industry professionals and peer organizations about innovative approaches to tackling these challenges and the role Urban Place Management Organizations can play in restoring retail vitality to the district.

Cultivating Placemaking with Economic Impact

Economic Development drives our mission to support constituents and ratepayers while enhancing place vibrancy through programming, events, art and merchant support—all within a clean, safe environment. How can we choose the right path and maximize our initiatives?

Advancing Places: Alternative Retail Strategies

Breathe new life into your retail scene. This webinar recording explores innovative retail strategies beyond traditional storefronts. We will delve into successful programs that activate underutilized spaces and empower local entrepreneurs. Discover how to attract unique businesses, foster positive experiences and boost your district’s economic vitality.

This webinar features a 2024 IDA Excellence Award, Union Square in Bloom and a 2024 Best Practice, HIIVE (Hub for Inclusivity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship).

Starting From Scratch

Due to the damage wrought by the pandemic, and/or the lack of a true “center” amidst rising demands for one, many communities are struggling to revive or establish downtown retail districts from a base of what feels like nothing. Unearth and tap the latent potential that still exists in urban and suburban settings.

The Transformational Impact of PPP for Downtown Revitalization

Vacant to Vibrant is a public-private partnership (PPP) revitalizing downtown San Francisco through community-driven pop-ups. The initiative supports small businesses, artists and cultural organizations in activating vacant storefronts. The program has brought together the public and private sectors to address urban challenges and work collaboratively to envision and build a dynamic future for downtown.

Top Issues Council Brief: Downtown Investment

Shifting work patterns, downsizing, flight to quality and weak leasing markets have raised concerns about downtowns’ economic resilience, urban vibrancy, talent retention, and community engagement. This brief reviews the role of UPMOs, examining challenges facing both office and retail markets.

Community-Centered Economic Inclusion

This session addressed lessons from a community-centered economic inclusion initiative in Detroit and Puget Sound. It focuses on bridging the gap between underinvested areas and regions of opportunity, offering a framework for inclusive economic revitalization and connecting business districts with local residents.

Hello, Retail, My Old Friend

As post-pandemic challenges continue, one trending recovery strategy involves retail – a downtown ecosystem staple. Landlords securing deals are leveraging ground floor retail as an amenity for upstairs tenants, advancing leasing.

Storefront Improvements

To help minority-owned businesses and entrepreneurs survive and thrive in a post-pandemic economy, the U District Partnership has taken various steps. It has streamlined permitting, provided architectural assistance, and injected $4.7 million of capital into the business community through three strategic grant programs.

HIIVE (Hub for Inclusivity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship)

The Hub for Inclusivity, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship (HIIVE) in the Market at 7th Street is a small business incubator program focused on providing access to opportunities for diverse businesses within the food and retail sectors. The program leverages CCCP’s existing small business infrastructure to provide needed capacity and access for small business development.

(Re)Designing Your Organization’s Retail Equity Program

Refine the design of current or future retail entrepreneurship programs offered in your community through a hands-on workshop that will present a toolkit of questions and prompts to enhance equitable outcomes for targeted businesses and their owners. 

Downtown Pittsburgh Restaurant Recovery Initiative

COVID-19 necessitated new and innovative initiatives, and a radical departure from how the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership (PDP) had previously supported the downtown neighborhood. It also required PDP to identify funding sources and build partnerships to expedite plans that would have an immediate and lasting impact on Pittsburgh’s downtown restaurant economy.

Downtown Days of Wonder Pop-Up Shops

Downtown Days of Wonder (DDOW) is a holiday activation program held from November to January in downtown Tulsa. In 2022, a new pop-up shop initiative was piloted for DDOW, designed to increase the amount of retail offerings downtown for holiday shopping while amplifying the work of local minority small businesses and entrepreneurs.

Pop-Up Shops at Martin Street

Pop-Up Shops at Martin Street is a retail incubator program in the core of downtown Raleigh. The program is designed to increase the diversity of ownership in downtown Raleigh and build a pipeline of new, independent, local retail to fill storefront space in downtown Raleigh. The project is a partnership effort of many local partners.

Grow Golden

Grow Golden addresses a problem many office-dominated districts have grappled with since the COVID-19 pandemic: how to fill and enliven vacant ground floor spaces? Grow Golden harnesses the talent of the diverse small business community and pairs them with property owners who need spaces filled, along with providing wrap-around technical assistance.

Downtown Farmers’ Market Incubator Program

The Downtown Farmers’ Market Incubator Program was created to support underrepresented, small and/or startup businesses and improve access and economic growth for local small, minority and historically underrepresented businesses across Greater Des Moines (DSM). To participate in the Incubator Program, a business must be owned, operated and actively managed by one or more persons who fall into one underrepresented communities.

Downtown Retail Rejuvenation

Are you facing vacant retail storefronts? Changes in customer shopping patterns? Increased suburban competition? Scared property owners who can’t find tenants for their street level spaces? Join the club! Every business district is struggling, but creative ideas and effective approaches are emerging.

International Place Management & Effective Small Restaurant Support

Grants to support the recovery of independent, small restaurants were implemented in downtown districts in Toronto, Mexico City, London, Tokyo and Sydney. Learn how place management works in these cities and what interventions showed the most impact for small restaurants.  

Reimagining the Downtown Your Community Deserves through Inclusive Entrepreneurship

Reimagining downtown takes more than traditional programming and events. Learn how two downtown agencies/organizations teamed up with commercial property owners and city leaders to reinvigorate their downtowns by flipping the negative impacts of COVID into a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reimagine the future of our downtowns – one storefront at a time – through inclusive entrepreneurship, incubation and pop-ups.  

Shelonda Stokes Master Talk

Shelonda Stokes serves as the President and CEO of Downtown Partnership of Baltimore and the President of Downtown Management Authority. Shelonda, a results-oriented, mission-driven executive, leads these two non-profit organizations with the goal of establishing equitable change and vibrancy in Baltimore City’s Central Business District.

Pop-Up Shops at Martin Street

Pop-Up Shops at Martin Street is a pop-up retail store program in downtown Raleigh to provide affordable and attractive short term retail space for minority and women-owned businesses to improve diversity in storefront ownership in downtown and Raleigh.

Commonwealth of Massachusetts Rapid Recovery Planning Program

The Rapid Recovery Plan (RRP) program distributed nearly $10 million across 124 communities throughout the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to assess impacts from COVID-19 and develop actionable, project-based recovery plans tailored to the unique economic challenges in downtowns, town centers, and commercial districts. In total, the program has resulted in nearly 1,000 actionable project recommendations requiring mixed levels of funding, technical assistance, and resources.

DowntownDC BID Pandemic Assistance Grant Program

The Downtown Pandemic Assistant Grant Program was created to provide financial assistance to small businesses severely impacted by the COVID pandemic. The program application process was designed to be completed with simplicity and ease. Elements of the program’s success included a web-based application platform and marketing to alert area small businesses to the program.

Downtown Shopping Districts After COVID: Rich with Opportunity!

How did COVID affect downtown shopping districts? What are the challenges faced by these districts, and what is already being done to address those challenges? Looking ahead, which changes are transitory and which are permanent? And what can Place Management Professionals do to position their district for success moving forward?

Advancing Places: Placemaking and Design for Successful Retail

Watch this session and explore how downtown managers can foster better downtown retail environments with advanced techniques of placemaking and design. We will learn from two seasoned professionals whose expertise in placemaking, and retail design has created tools for more active people environments to support retailers.

Retail is Changing Are You? Models to “Disaster-Proof” Our Districts

Brick and mortar retail, especially with the pandemic, is changing drastically but our downtown recruitment efforts aren’t keeping up. Moving forward, shared spaces, studio/retail mixes, pop up retail, a diversity of business owners–and an understanding that retail must be different to disaster-proof our districts–will be key to keep retail and businesses alive in our downtowns.

Planning for Retail Vitality in the Face of Changing Market Dynamics

Downtowns are struggling to address the retail challenges and trends accelerated by the pandemic, including changes in shopping habits and fewer downtown workers. Hear how two BIDs approached finding solutions that acknowledge hard truths and identify opportunities for action while working with stakeholders to resolve long standing policies and regulatory issues that stand in the way of downtown recovery.

Advancing Places: Retail Is Changing. Are You?

Brick and mortar retail, especially during the pandemic, is changing drastically but our downtown recruitment efforts aren’t keeping up. Moving forward, shared spaces, studio/retail mixes, pop-up retail, a diversity of business owners – and an understanding that retail must be different to disaster-proof our districts – will be key to keeping retail and businesses alive in our downtowns.

Advancing Places: Cementing UPMO Leadership Role in Economic Development

With businesses facing an existential crisis and municipalities cutting budgets in 2020, UPMOs were forced to take the lead on triage and recovery. This session will explain how the pandemic experience and crisis management can translate into a permanent and lasting role in economic development.

Downtown Strong Small Business Impact Fund

In March of 2020 Twenty-two thousand office workers disappeared. Three-million visitors vanished. Our local retailers were shuttered. If ever there was a time to get creative, this was it. The decision was made to create a small matching grant program with an initial budget of $10,000 from our marketing account. A brand, Downtown Strong, and logo were created, and we began to promote the opportunity to our downtown businesses and non-profits.

Lift Up Local

Lift Up Local is comprised of three smaller projects: Expanding sidewalks, a grant program, and a downtown voucher program. This Best Practices dives into the logistics and details of each component.

Small Business Disaster Relief Forgivable Loan Program

Recognizing the significant economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our local businesses, the BBCRA Board approved the creation of the Small Business Disaster Relief Forgivable Loan Program (SBDRLP) and the allocation of $1 million in program funding. Using these funds, the BBCRA provided eligible businesses a forgivable loan of up to $10,000 to offset costs associated with utility, payroll or inventory expenses.

Advancing Places: From Pop-Up to Permanent

In this session, learn how three different organizations are incubating businesses in a pop-up environment to create immediate buzz and interest, potentially leading to long-term tenants in their district.  First you will learn how one organization leveraged the districts available space to lure in burgeoning locals and international mega brands, health and wellness providers, cultural organizations and emerging culinary entrepreneurs, through a newly realized, expansive pop-up program.

Advancing Places: Understanding Your Place in Economic Development

Knowing where your organization fits into the overall economic development strategy of your community and knowing your role is important. Join us as this experienced panel of place management and commercial real estate professionals share insights and tips on how to navigate your community as well as the real estate development community to create a win-win in bringing business to your district.

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?