The Ballston BID launched BAC to encourage Ballston’s workforce to return to the office and re-engage with the community and amenities they have been missing by working from home. To best serve both commercial property stakeholders and business owners, the BID worked with CRE properties for building-wide events and directly with individual businesses on smaller team events.
Best Practice
Type: Best Practice
Charlotte Shout!
The Uptown district was affected greatly by the pandemic. Charlotte SHOUT!’s purpose became a celebration of the city’s resilience with the goal to bring people back into the streets of Uptown Charlotte while cultivating a diverse, vibrant and safe experience.
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.
Luminous Lane
The purpose of Luminous Lane was to rejuvenate an overlooked and uninviting space into a dynamic arts destination, showcasing local talent while addressing cleanliness and safety concerns. The desired outcome was to transform the alleyway into a welcoming environment, providing a platform for artists to exhibit their work and enticing visitors to engage with the space.
Park DTO: Making it Even Easier to Park
Park DTO aims to remove parking as a barrier to entry for anyone interested in visiting downtown Orlando. The program provides users with two hours of free parking at any city parking spot via a promo code using the ParkMobile app. Additionally, the program provides free valet parking for customers dining at participating businesses within the Downtown Development Board (DDB) boundaries.
Mardi Gras Parade Cleanup
Downtown Development District of New Orleans (DDD) has created an efficient, multi-agency approach to cleaning streets and public rights of way, properly disposing of the trash that litters every surface after each night of parades within a few hours of the last float clearing the streets.
WINTERACTIVE Art Exhibit
WINTERACTIVE is a free winter art experience running for three months and featuring 16 artworks and interactive play elements spread along a roughly 1.25 mile route throughout Downtown Boston. Inspired by the vibrant winter festivals and art neighboring Québec, Canada, it is designed to showcase Downtown Boston, while guiding visitors to eat, shop, and connect with Downtown along the way.
Downtown Burbank 2023 Annual Report And 2022 Accomplishments (20th Anniversary Edition)
To enhance safety and improve the aesthetics of Downtown Burbank (Downtown), the PBID developed multiple public space management initiatives to address the needs of the district. The Hospitality and Social Outreach Program and additional programs and initiatives for public space management together achieve the PBID’s goal of creating a welcoming environment.
Downtown Mobility Center
The Downtown Mobility Center was conceived to address the need for improved parking and mobility options in Memphis. It demonstrates the Downtown Memphis Commission’s “Park Once” strategy. This Center not only provides 960 new parking spaces but also integrates various mobility services like public transportation, bike share and rideshare zones, improving connectivity within downtown.
Rideau – Ottawa’s Original Downtown Rebrand, Repositioning and Marketing
Downtown Rideau BIA embarked on a bold new overhaul of its marketing program. A renewed and compelling presentation of the area was created, one that would have lasting value, create a sense of pride and place, celebrate the broader downtown Ottawa experience, highlight the spirit of the national capital as a leisure and tourism destination and create a fresh and positive narrative for audiences.
Exchange District Community Investment Strategy
The Exchange District Plan 2022 (referred to as Area Plan) provides a cohesive planning vision and renewed direction for development in the area. The Area Plan was officially endorsed by Winnipeg City Council in February 2022 and plays a pivotal role in guiding decisions for the next 25 years and beyond.
Hudson Square Gantry Art
The Gantry Art is part of Hudson Square Canvas, the BID’s urban art gallery. Hudson Square Canvas is an integral piece of the BID’s ongoing effort to transform a neighborhood once known for its car congestion into a vibrant and welcoming neighborhood for pedestrians, filled with innovative energy.
Brewing Success: Noma Bid’s Metropolitan Beer Trail
The NoMa BID successfully leaned into the neighborhood history by “branding” community assets to create the Metropolitan Beer Trial, a unique experience and destination marketing program linking 11 locally owned breweries/bars all walkable or bikeable from the Metropolitan Branch Trail.
Northwest Downtown Birmingham Master Plan
REV Birmingham and Urban Impact collaborated to engage an urban design and planning firm to develop a road map for the Switch and Civil Rights Districts. The selected firm, MKSK, led community engagement and the planning process over 18 months. The result, a next-level-deep plan based on the 2020 City Center Master Plan, outlines how to align future investment and development in the two districts for inclusive growth.
Animating The Junction: Pioneering an Augmented Reality Destination Through Art
The Junction BIA’s augmented reality (AR) integration project aims to elevate the Junction’s art-centric neighbourhood by increasing foot traffic and establishing it as a distinctive locale, fostering tourism and supporting local businesses. The project envisions making the Junction a must-visit destination by incorporating animated public art, supporting local businesses, enhancing walkability and attracting tourists.
Equity Forward Action Plan
National Landing BID’s DEI-focused plan sets forth a roadmap of actionable goals for the BID, its businesses and the greater National Landing community to work together to build a more inclusive community. Working with these stakeholders and businesses, the BID will seek to ensure diversity, equity, and inclusion are at the forefront of business operations.
ShopFairbankVillage2Win Contest
ShopFairbankVillage2Win was a sweepstake designed to influence shopping behaviour immediately and in the long term. For six weeks, the community was encouraged to shop locally and submit receipts for purchases over $20. These became entries into a weekly draw for $1000 ($500 to keep and $500 to share with the issuing business).
CIP Campaign
The language of community improvement plans (CIPs) are typically highly technical and demand specialist knowledge to parse funding regulations, bylaws, and zoning restrictions. Consequently, the City of Hamilton sought to create a clear, inclusive, and narrative-focused approach to promoting the City of Hamilton’s suite of CIP incentives to small business owners, developers, property owners and entrepreneurs.
Baird Urban Sports Park
The Baird Urban Sports Park was created to capture downtown Louisville’s urban experience and historic character while expanding and reimagining its use. What was an underutilized and undeveloped 20,000 square-foot vacant lot in the heart of downtown is now a public urban sports park, intended to encourage public community use through open play hours, and offer a unique downtown experience.
The Community Engagement Team
The Community Engagement Team (CET) is a unique, business-led outreach team that provides rapid response support and intervention for non-violent crisis situations and traditional street outreach services in Downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The CET partners with Toronto Police to divert vulnerable individuals from the criminal justice system and into local community support programs.
Downtown San Francisco Public Realm Action Plan
The Downtown San Francisco Public Realm Action Plan was commissioned by DSFP, the community benefit district serving the city’s Financial District and Jackson Square. The plan emphasizes place-based, pedestrian-oriented strategies focusing on creating a resilient and inclusive downtown to counter fallen pedestrian traffic from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Bloor-Annex BIA Parkettes
Four parkettes, situated at five-minute walking intervals from one another, transformed what was formerly underutilized and impervious areas in the Bloor-Annex neighbourhood into dynamic public amenity spaces. The collaborative and cross-disciplinary approach to the project helped incorporate new methods and techniques into the design process that highlight’s Bloor-Annex’s uniqueness.
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.
DSM Workforce Trends & Occupancy Study
In early 2022, Downtown DSM, Inc. and the Greater Des Moines Partnership commissioned a first-of-its-kind, hyperlocal study of knowledge workers in Greater Des Moines (DSM). The DSM Workforce Trends & Occupancy Study (WTOS) provided regional employers with insight into the workplace and work preference styles of knowledge workers.
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.
Grow Downtown
Grow Downtown is an initiative of the Saint Paul Downtown Alliance that connects landlords and tenants to offer short-term lease opportunities to small businesses, adding vibrancy to the central business district of downtown Saint Paul and its skyway system. Selected tenants occupy vacant storefronts with the potential for long-term occupancy.
TGIFood Trucks
TGIFood Trucks was a summer pop-up of a rotating variety of food trucks and cuisines. Open to the public and free of charge, the goal was to encourage community connection and gathering in a safe outdoor space during the pandemic, and increase the area’s reputation for being fun and a foodie haven.
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.
Opa-Locka Downtown Master Plan
Despite a 2016 bankruptcy, political instability, and widespread stakeholder skepticism, the Opa-locka Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) launched a 2020 Downtown Master Plan to reverse downtown’s decline. The plan started to overcome past failures by creating public/private partnerships (P3).
State of Cape Town Central City Report
This is the ninth, and largest, edition of the State of Cape Town Central City Report, produced at the height of South Africa’s various harsh lockdowns. Its mission is to illustrate in financial terms the investment opportunities of the most successful downtown in South Africa through meticulous research.
Peacock Alley
Peacock Alley emerged as a location from an initiative led by Centro to gather feedback from the community to develop a placemaking action plan for the Houston Street corridor. The placemaking effort set out to provide novel play experiences while supporting local small businesses and artists.
Root 107 Pop-Up Park
For decades, there has been a deficiency of park space in the downtown core. Recognizing this gap, the City of Edmonton set aside 1.7 hectares of underdeveloped and vacant land in west downtown to be the future home of a central downtown park in 2026.
Reading Downtown Strategic Plan
The confluence of a rich architectural legacy; vibrant downtown communities; and the advent of unparalleled change unlocked an unprecedented opportunity for downtown to again lead its region toward a more economically competitive, equitable, livable, and resilient future.
Market
Market was a series of outdoor summer artisan markets in collaboration with local artist collectives. On three weekends in the summer of 2021, visitors could enjoy an outdoor craft fair, and then stick around to see what else was happening in the neighbourhood.
Main Street Pocket Park
What started as a weedy, deserted eyesore became a beautiful, welcoming parklet in May 2021. Sponsored by Ben E. Keith Foods, the Main Street Pocket Park is a collaboration of love, sweat, and a desire to see downtown Little Rock continue to thrive and grow.
DTSF ArtBox
The DTSF ArtBox gallery is a collection of 26 traffic signal control boxes wrapped with vinyl artwork from artists of all abilities from the area. Proposals were solicited in many languages, resulting in 176. A jury ultimately selected 66 artists, who were all paid stipends for their work.
Delightful Downtown – Grafton Park
As part of our DELIGHTFUL DOWNTOWN lighting installations, we developed a new light projection series that is being displayed onto the former Halifax Memorial Library building at Grafton Park from October 2021 until the end of March 2022. The series features a total of 12 different light shows over five months that changes to reflect relevant seasonal, heritage and cultural themes. Each month comprises of a main show that is accompanied with a shorter show.
Allegheny Overlook Pop-Up Park
The Allegheny Overlook, or ‘AO,’ was a brand-new pop-up park that transformed a portion of Fort Duquesne Boulevard in Downtown Pittsburgh, highlighting live performances, arts, and culture while showcasing one of Pittsburgh’s most iconic riverfront views. The pop-up park reimagined a peripheral boulevard and an underutilized riverfront park in the city’s urban core, creating a more vibrant Downtown in a city rebounding from the effects of the pandemic.
$3 Food Walk & Station Opening Festival
The $3 Food Walk and U District Station Opening Festival was an all-day event planned and executed by the U District Partnership to celebrate two neighborhood milestones: the return of 73,000 students, faculty, and staff in-person at the University of Washington, and the opening of a Light Rail Station. The event featured street closures, colorful decorations, a main stage with eight local performance groups, a beer garden, and a $3 food walk with 45 participating U District businesses.
Creating Confidence for Returning Workers During COVID-19
To ensure workers were comfortable returning to the office in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, the FDBIA worked with our members to develop a Best Practices for Return to the Office report. Advocate for indoor mask mandates, and we created promotional videos about returning to the office and public health measures.