Strategic Economic Development

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Cities everywhere want to fill empty spaces, attract new investment, increase foot traffic (and desirability), and bring new energy to their downtowns. To be successful, you must have a plan that builds off YOUR strengths, addresses YOUR shortcomings, understands YOUR community’s wishes and demographics, and creates YOUR own positive momentum. We can help you build consensus, create a unified vision, and develop a work plan to make the magic happen.

Why go it alone?  There are valuable resources and institutions all around you that can help promote your goals, expand your economic base and attract meaningful investment.  We can help you develop specific programs that build on your strengths with educational institutions, business interests, healthcare, non-profits, media and more.  By developing a win for all, momentum is created, relationships are built and results are achieved.

Precious marketing dollars must yield favorable results.  We can help you creatively maximize your marketing and promotions plan, identify like-minded partners, and refine your materials to generate buzz, garner investment and attract right-type companies with the ability to expand and the desire to become a part of your community. Whether you are starting from scratch, re-envisioning your brand or just updating an existing look, we help you achieve the results you want.

As downtown stores compete with online merchants for shoppers, you need to make sure your public parking is well-priced, well-signed, well-located, and well-managed.  Your merchants have much to offer – you can’t go online to smell the coffee, get your haircut or enjoy a meal with friends.  Help your shoppers find parking (whether self-park or valet) and provide them easy-to-use technology that gives them added time to explore and enjoy.  As parking demand increases, we can also help you create joint ventures yielding additional public parking and shared use agreements, too.

The ability to attract and retain talent has become a priority for successful companies wanting to remain competitive while building a winning culture.  Today’s talent is looking for more than just a paycheck or an address – they are looking for a sense of place and a sense of belonging. This requires not only a positive work environment but attractive downtowns, quality of life offerings, and housing choices that meet their tastes and budget.  We can help you build amenities and housing options that help your community attract and retain tomorrow’s corporate talent.

Creating a vibrant and successful downtown requires a mix of uses – places to work, places to shop, places to sleep, places to discover and places just to relax.  Today’s downtowns need to be authentic, evolving and interesting to the worker, the resident, and the visitor. We can help you collaborate with your businesses and residents to recruit more tenants, improve storefronts, host events, encourage new investment and solve transportation and parking issues that can impede progress.  (See the Public Private Joint Venture section for catalytic anchors that create momentum.)