Downtown
We offer self-help tools and publications as well as direct assistance to communities to help improve their downtown and business districts
Downtowns and business districts are the commercial hubs of our communities. Not only do they generate sales and create jobs, but they also contribute to the quality of life as they serve the needs of residents, workers, and visitors. Downtowns offer a breadth of challenges and opportunities because of their wide range of attributes and assets. These differences all require a unique set of specific development goals and approaches. Find out how we can work with your community to find appropriate downtown development approaches.
Downtown Market Analysis
Downtown Market Analysis is our signature program for downtowns and business districts. With this program, we work to leverage the knowledge of a local study group in a community-led study to determine how best to retain and expand businesses, attract new businesses, improve the consumer’s experience, and develop marketing strategies. Our local community development educators work with each community for the long term as skilled facilitators and a researcher.
Creative Uses for Downtown Buildings in Small Towns
Long gone are the days when Downtown was the one-stop shopping center for the community. We provide examples of innovative downtown businesses in a variety of retail and service categories. This report is intended to stimulate new ideas for reusing buildings for retail, food and beverage, services, and community spaces.
An Analysis of Downtown Storefront Improvements
Do downtown storefront improvement projects provide an adequate return to the property owners, outside investors, or public funding entities? If so, what are the returns in both economic and other terms? This analysis provides 24 case studies that explore the impacts of storefront improvement projects over the past 15 years.
Downtown Economics
Downtown Economics Topics offers ideas on how to create a vibrant downtown in a small city. The publications analyze the benefits and difficulties of downtowns on topics ranging from coexisting with Big Box Stores to planning the optimal business mix.
Recovery in the Hotel Business (Issue 197, May 2022)
Hotels provide an important service to our communities and represent a significant economic engine for jobs, business revenue, and taxes. Plus, they often serve as a gateway to a community, influencing perceptions of the broader community.
Strengths, Weaknesses, and Potentials of Pedestrian Malls (Issue 196, February 2022)
Since its inception, members of the American Downtown Revitalization Review’s (ADRR) Board have engaged in a near-continuous e-mail dialogue about a wide range of issues, trends and opportunities that do not, in our opinions, always receive the attention they need and deserve in other media outlets and industry publications. The vitality of these conversations is evident in the number who join and/or read these back-and-forths more than two years after the ADRR’s launch; indeed, over time, non-Board members have added to the ferment with their own observations and insights.
Community Vitality & Placemaking
Successful downtowns have a sense of place, a community. Creating community impacts economics as more people downtown results in improved business activity, increased property values, and expanded local tax base. Learn about our efforts to enhance a downtown’s sense of place by exploring the work of our Community Vitality & Placemaking signature effort. The Community Vitality & Placemaking signature effort functions as a formal community of practice-advancing the scholarship and practice of placemaking, while also providing opportunities for internal and external colleagues to acquire foundational knowledge and develop proficiency with a variety of methods and tools.
