Neighborhood Change and Why Public Participation Matters

We have a problem in this country. While some urban communities are facing unprecedented growth, the benefits of this economic development success are not necessarily being spread evenly around. More to the point, as cities like New York continue to grow and attract residents and investors, those who have weathered the ups and downs - both residents and small business owners - are increasingly finding themselves at risk of displacement. Frankly, this should come as no surprise. The market pressures to find higher paying tenants (both residential and commercial) and the rewards for finding loopholes in the rules that protect residential tenants in particular have never been greater. (See this fantastic series in the NYTimes that discusses the many challenges tenants face).

We are a victim of our own success. The problem is that none of this is in the long term best interest of our urban places. A city where those who provide critical services are unable to get to work without a long commute, or crippling transportation expenses that rob them of time and ability to manage their homes or finances, all while incurring child care costs that they can already ill afford, is a city that squanders the resources of its citizens. Not only that, but the situation deeply undermines their ability to participate in the very decision making process that affects the urban investments that potentially impact and improve their daily lives.

Our client, Livingston County, NY gathered hundreds of residents to discuss downtown recommendations in November 2017. Great staff, long-standing community relationships, and strategic outreach were key to ensuring that a broad section of residents were in attendance. For those unable to attend, the County issued an electronic survey to get additional feedback.






Why does this matter to our work? 
In our analysis of place we lean heavily on both qualitative and quantitative data to inform our assessments and recommendations. But what happens when only a small segment of a community participates in that process? People who are barely making ends meet don't have time to participate in most community planning efforts. Too frequently, the plans that inform resource allocation and public policy are not necessarily reflective of the community as a whole, but rather a small subsection of those who have the time, resources and inclination to participate. For those of us engaged in community planning efforts, we must do better and we must explore innovative ways to engage communities on their terms, not ours. It is hard work and sometimes the budget to engage communities and residents is simply not there.

Another challenge, particularly for the work we do along commercial corridors, is that the success of a business is inextricably rooted in market realities that are hard for us to change. With higher income residents come opportunities for both existing and new businesses. Generally this is good news for businesses who now have more customers with more discretionary spending. But in some markets, "improvements" come at the expense of those living there. As rents and property values increase, neighborhoods inevitably change. In New York City where I serve as one of thirteen City Planning Commissioners, I witness firsthand the skepticism that many community members bring to their public testimony - concerns that improvements that accompany rezoning efforts are precursors to displacement. The question that is often posed is "why didn't we get park improvements or streetscape improvements or really any kinds of improvements BEFORE?" As a result, residents often find themselves in the strange position of rejecting improvements that they themselves acknowledge would make their communities and lives better. But what good are those improvements if they are no longer able to afford to live there? That is the rub.

As we think about rapid changes in technology we have new opportunities to challenge our methods of engagement and explore ways to ensure that community planning is more effectively than ever before. Some great best practices can be found in the annual awards given by the American Planning Association. Making sure these great examples are not simply the exception to the rule will take time and resources - but most off all it will take a commitment to participatory planning that to date has been in limited supply.

For Upstate NY Practitioners: Small Scale Real Estate Development Workshop

If you plan to be in the Syracuse area on June 27th, this looks like a great day-long session designed to introduce the principles behind neighborhood based real estate development projects. Small scale development is a an important community development strategy - but it requires small developers!

The workshop is conducted by the Incremental Development Alliance, a national non-profit that works to build local wealth in neighborhoods through ground-up real estate development.

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Small Scale Real Estate Development Workshop

WHEN: Wednesday, June 27, 2018 8a-5p
WHERE: Hotel Syracuse, 100 East Onondaga Street Syracuse, NY, 13202
COST:

• Early Bird Registration Rate ($170) open until Friday, June 8 
• Regular Registration Rate ($200) open until Monday, June 25 
• Last Minute Registration Rate is ($230) 

Register today at http://www.incrementaldevelopment.org/events/syracuseworkshop

Apply for a scholarship here

The workshop offers specialized training about how to create small projects, like 1-3 story buildings with less than 20 units, which are residential, commercial or mixed in use and 1,000-12,000 sf in size. The course assumes you know a lot about where you live, but not necessarily much about the real estate process or building development.

Through presentations on finance, design and site selection, a hands-on practice exercise, and networking with local like-minded people, this workshop is the first step to becoming a small developer yourself or creating a supportive ecosystem for small development in your city.

Who Should Attend?

• Individuals in construction, design, planning or real estate looking to either enhance their current practice or make career transition 
• Volunteers or professionals in business associations, main streets associations, historic preservation groups and neighborhood improvement groups looking to champion incremental development in their communities 
• Public sector professionals in city management, economic development, planning, and related agencies who are looking to make it easier for small development projects to occur in their town 
• Professionals in non-profit development organizations, churches, and community development or housing development organizations who need new strategies for small lot development 
• Private banking professionals specializing in mortgages, commercial real estate loans or SBA loans and professionals as at Community Development Financial Institutions and Community Foundations who want to become more effective investors 

Pedestrian Malls - Getting it Right

Nur Asri is an Associate at Larisa Ortiz Associates

Main Mall, Charlottesville VA

It’s been almost sixty years since the first pedestrian mall in the US opened in downtown Kalamazoo, MI. Designed by Victor Gruen, the father of the suburban shopping malls of America, the Kalamazoo mall has since been opened to one lane of traffic after forty years of being completely pedestrianized. The fate of the Kalamazoo mall is unlike that of hundreds of other counterparts across the nation. In fact, according to one study, pedestrian malls in the United States have an 89% rate of failure.

Pedestrian malls are often characterized as being public streets designated for pedestrian-only use and closed to vehicular traffic. The predominantly downtown feature rose between the 1960s and 1980s as an attempt to attract shoppers back to downtown cores following the flight to suburbia. Since its heyday, over 170 pedestrian malls across the country have been completely removed, combined with transit, or continue to struggle.

The Problem with Pedestrian Malls

Since its inception, pedestrian malls have posed several issues for downtowns including crime and safety, low retail visibility, and lack of customer convenience. Collectively, these issues have resulted in a less attractive shopping environment, lowering foot traffic and customer dwell times. When these patterns emerge, the retail mix also starts to shift away from comparison and destination goods and services, and vacancies become a common sight.

In Poughkeepsie NY, for example, the Main Mall which was in existence from 1973 until 2001, failed to stop the decline of the downtown due to growth of immediate suburbs and shopping malls, and also  the rise of vagrancy problems on the mall. Following the opening of the Dutchess County Department of Social Services nearby and the lack of assistance and programming on the mall in the 1980s, Poughkeepsie began to attract loiterers and transients on the Main Mall and was no longer a preferred shopping destination amongst County residents.

Third Street Promenade, Santa Monica CA

Too often the design of pedestrian malls often neglects heightening visibility of stores to various types of customers. Since malls are closed off from the rest of downtown, enhanced store signage and increased wayfinding is needed to direct customers towards businesses on the mall. Blade signs, A-Frame signs, large fonts, and clear logos were often left out of consideration. Placement of signs at every entrance to the mall was often disregarded and ended up leaving those customers driving in cars around downtown out of the picture.

Finally, the lack of convenient parking spaces and well-maintained pedestrian pathways to parking structures or transit stops on the periphery of downtown drove customers away from pedestrian malls (no pun intended). Even business owners operating on the malls found their operations disrupted as they often no longer had a dedicated, convenient spot to load/ unload goods. Accessibility of the downtowns became disrupted as a result of pedestrian malls.

Getting the pedestrian mall right

Despite these potential problems, some pedestrian malls have managed to survive and continue to be attractive environments for shopping downtown. And as we’ve found, there are a myriad of factors that enable these malls to be successful.

• Co-locate the mall near large anchor institutions and attractions

16th St Mall, Denver CO

Having institutions and anchors such as universities, hospitals, museums, convention centers, and stadiums/arenas, ensures that there is a constantly high flow of pedestrian traffic year-round in the downtown that is likely to spill onto the pedestrian mall. The City of Denver’s 16^th Street Mall, for example, sees large numbers of pedestrians annually thanks to its close proximity to the Pepsi Center (home to national hockey team Colorado Avalanche), University of Colorado, Denver Performing Arts Complex, Colorado Convention Center, and Coors Field, home of the major league baseball team Colorado Rockies. Last year alone, the Colorado Rockies saw close to 3 million attendees to their games for the season.

• Build a captive downtown audience

Upper floor housing on 2nd St, Santa Monica CA

The visitors to attractions and destinations are still quite temporary – there are ebbs and flows in their movements. However, residents and workers have a more consistent daily pattern of movement and they’re likely to pass through the pedestrian mall at least once a month, if not a week. In a survey conducted in downtown Santa Monica, 82% of residents were found to visit the Third Street Promenade at least once a month.  Furthermore, making dense downtown housing available not only creates captive shoppers for businesses, it also ensures that residents have their eyes on the mall at night, creating a safer environment for shoppers.

In the 1950s, Santa Monica’s Third Street Promenade mall failed because most stores closed by 5pm when no one lived in the immediate area and there were no late-night entertainment options and few restaurants. Today, there are mixed-use residential buildings on adjacent streets, numerous hotels and office buildings in the area, creating a strong day-to-night captive audience for the pedestrian mall.

• Ensure active ground floor uses

AMC Theater Third St Promenade, Santa Monica CA

To ensure the pedestrian malls are active and safe 18 hours of the day, ground floor uses should be zoned for active uses that cater to a wide range of audience. Operating hours of retailers and services on the ground floor should be long and late-night hours should be maintained for a sizable portion of ground floor uses. This is easy to get at when there are restaurants, bars and entertainment venues along the pedestrian mall – just like Pearl Street Mall in Boulder CO. Santa Monica also successfully achieved this with a 21-screen cinema on Third Street (and zoning out cinemas from other nearby areas – an extreme solution).

• Keep length of mall short

Of the 11% of pedestrian malls that have survived since the 1960s and continue to thrive, a hundred percent measure between one and four blocks in length – and no more. The short blocks allow ‘minimal disruption to traffic circulation and permit cross-traffic to pass through the mall’, solving for issues that may arise around convenience and accessibility for shoppers and businesses.

• Mitigate traffic diversions and design the pedestrian experience from afar

If a mall is to be located on a street that already experiences high levels of vehicular traffic, some traffic diversion will inevitably occur and this may potentially result in the loss of customers who are driving to the area and who are seeking convenient parking.  Measures must be taken to mitigate such impacts and may include clear signage to guide drivers to the nearest available parking lots and to guide visitors between the mall and parking areas, well-lit and well-maintained pathways and alleys connecting the mall, distinctive entrances to the mall, and large and varying store signs.

In addition, two-way roads should encircle pedestrian malls (instead of one-way roads) to make adjacent roads safer for pedestrians and easier for driving customers to turn around on.

• Maintain and program

Busking on Bourke St Mall, Melbourne (Australia)

Finally, pedestrian malls that have continued to thrive have been consistently clean and well-maintained. This ensures that visitors are welcomed by an inviting public realm. Programs and events such as busking and festivals have also been carried out throughout the year at successful pedestrian malls in order to build experiences for shoppers who are seeking more than just physical products.

Having a centralized, coordinated management group for the pedestrian mall enable smooth operations and program delivery and can really contribute to the overall success of a mall.

Just a Word of Caution

Although the above factors laid out here may help you implement a robust and integrated pedestrian mall, the mall does take a lot of stakeholder engagement, rallying support, and A LOT of capital before it can succeed. Remember – of the approximately 200 pedestrian malls built in the 60s and 80s, only 11% have been successful and even then many had to re-invest and re-strategize their malls over the years.

Pedestrian malls aren’t for the faint of heart.

The obscure zoning regulations that might be undermining your downtown revival

We have all heard the news. Retailers are increasingly experimenting with new business formats that blur the lines between uses that have never previously existed side by side. Things like education/instruction, production and retail now regularly occur in the same facility, making it difficult for planners to categorize these uses and creating the need for businesses to apply for expensive discretionary zoning actions for combinations that planners never dreamed of decades ago. By making it harder and more costly for businesses, particularly smaller, mom-and-pop (and often less capitalized) to open, cities are diminishing their competitive advantages and making it more likely that these businesses will locate elsewhere. As retail footprints shrink, a trend unlikely to change in the near future, successful commercial districts will be those that aggregate a diverse, robust set of uses in one place. Cities can't afford to lose interesting and unique retailers if they want to remain relevant to shoppers who can easily purchase the same goods on-line.

Table of Uses and Use Group Designations
Most cities have tables or use group charts that define, with great precision, the kinds of businesses that are allowed or restricted in certain areas. This made sense when noxious manufacturing uses were not anything you wanted around residential communities, but we have come a long way since then. Consider "Maker Spaces" that allow people to collaborate, build and create products. Or consider the new Nike store along Broadway in Soho. The entire first floor is dedicated to building your own pair of sneakers. Zoning restrictions in some communities might have prevent one or both of these concepts - yet these are precisely the kind of uses that downtown managers are looking to as they try to fill vacant spaces.

The Nike Store along Broadway in Soho dedicates the entire
first floor to the production
of sneakers. Would this use be allowed in your downtown?

Other examples include things like gyms, yoga studios and artisan specialty food manufacturing and breweries, all downtown friendly uses that are blurring the line between retail, service and manufacturing and frankly causing havoc in the zoning world. This is because most zoning codes do not often recognize the nuances inherent in these business models and as a result businesses are often required to enter expensive legal processes for permitting their businesses.

Here are a few concrete examples from our work that highlight the challenges...

Gyms and Spas
Times Square in the 1970's was not a place for the weak of heart. The problem, according to many, included the many adult massage parlors that operated with impunity. To fix it, the City amended the Zoning Resolution to prohibit "Physical Culture Establishments" and to require that these businesses obtain special permits to operate. Many parlors operating as gyms or health spas were closed and many credit the permit process with speeding up improvements to Times Square.

Fast forward forty years and the well intention special permit now exists in an environment in which healthy living is an important part of the urban lifestyle. Uses that we now consider normal parts of our everyday lives, including gyms, spas, martial arts schools and yes, legitimate massage studios, must apply for a Physical Culture Establishment permit that takes many months and according to Crain's New York Business cost $50,000 or more in fees and legal costs. While the code was later amended to allow as-of-right, art, music, dance or theatrical uses under 1,500 sf, this still leaves alot of legitimate uses open to the vagaries of the discretionary permitting process.

It should also be noted that as brick-and-mortar retail shrinks its footprint, these kinds businesses are precisely the kinds of uses filling many of the vacant spaces left behind. Yet expensive roadblocks like these make it harder for property owners to fill vacancies. Instead the spaces lie fallow.

While your downtown may not have a permit restricting gyms, you may have other impediments to retail businesses that are interested in locating downtown but may be scared away by permitting or restrictions that will cost them significant time and money.

Breweries, Bakeries and Furniture Makers
Another area of contention are retailers that do light manufacturing of some kind on-site. One of the most common is the brewery. More and more downtown's are seeing breweries as a real opportunity for downtown revitalization. We recently did some work in Morganton, NC, where no less than three popular breweries have set the stage for a full-scale downtown revival.

Brown Mountain Bottleworks
is located in a historic building in
Morgtontown, NC.

However many downtown zoning codes do not allow for this use. This recently happened in the City of New Rochelle, NY.  According to a local councilman, in the past year alone at least three breweries considered opening locations in downtown and all have chosen other locations. Under the prevailing zoning at the time, breweries were relegated to certain industrial zones or in new buildings, which effectively prevented them from locating downtown, which is where many want to be. To remedy the situation, the City Council amended the zoning code to ease regulations for breweries and other artisan shops that also include elements of manufacturing, including jewelers, bakers, furniture makers and coffee roasters.

Educational Establishments
Many downtowns thrive off of the presence of educational institutions that attract students. "Educational" designations can increasingly be applied to retailers who also offer instruction in their stores. In fact, some storefronts are predominantly places for classes that support minor accessory retail, rather than the other way around. In Watkins Glen, NY where we are working on the New York State Downtown Revitalization Initiative, a collective of 19 local knitters purchased a downtown business whose owner was retiring and turned it into Fiber Arts in the Glen, a gathering space for knitting groups, classes, and to a lesser extent the purchase of yarn. In fact, someone who enters the store is often surprised to find that many of the lovely knitted goods are not for sale, they are simply samples to show off the yarn that is being sold.

In some places this is precisely this kind of use that triggers changes parking requirements. Practice Space, a small business in Inman Square found this out the hard way. During our work with the City of Cambridge, MA, we found that when an existing use changes and the new use is thought to increase the intensity of use, additional parking is sometimes required. Practice Space could function in its location as a retail establishment, but when they added classes they quickly found that their location in an older building along a traditional commercial corridor offered limited to no opportunities to add off-street parking. This kind of parking requirement assumes a suburban context and therefore it can effectively kill the kind of new retail concept that many retailers are exploring.

As on-line retail increasingly results in stiff competition for customer dollars, our responsibility to downtown is to make sure that zoning codes and regulations do not stand in the way of innovative retail concepts that will ensure businesses survive and thrive during these challenging times.

The Original Food Hall

Nur Asri is an Associate for Larisa Ortiz Associates

Hawker centers in Singapore go way back. Its history goes back to the 1950s and 60s when migrants took up hawking on streets as a quick and easy means of earning a living. However, the conditions in which street hawking was being carried out were bad – drains were polluted, sidewalks and roads were strewn with trash and as a result, vermin were a common sight. The government became concerned about the state of hygiene in the city and, in the style of Mayor Fiorello La Guardia’s campaign in the 1930s to rid New York City streets of pushcart vendors, began relocating street hawkers to facilities with proper sewers, safe water and electrical lines, and full kitchen and storage equipment in 1971. These are now widely known as hawker centers. Hawker centers are semi-enclosed buildings that house a variety of food stalls serving food, drinks, and desserts that are almost always prepared to order. Sounds familiar, no? Read: The Modern Food Hall 

In fact, there are a number of similarities between the food halls that have recently grown in metropolitan cities here in the US and the over 100 hawker centers in Singapore.

1. Size and Layout

Stalls in both food halls and hawker centers are small in size. At hawker centers, stalls typically measure no more than 80-100 sf each.

Also, the seating layouts of both food halls and hawker centers promote a sense of community. Seating is dispersed throughout both and are not assigned to customers so it works on a first-come- first-serve basis. This means that you might very well be sitting with strangers during busy lunch hours.

2. Tenant Mix

Hawker centers feature food from Singapore’s various ethnic groups – Malay, Chinese, Indian – and is a direct reflection of local inhabitants. In food halls, offerings are also diverse, however, they may be less organic and more curated. Some food halls, for example, brand themselves as chef- driven halls and provide offerings that are completely distinct from local residents’ tastes and preferences.

3. Employment opportunity

Both food halls and hawker centers provide great inclusive employment opportunities. Given the low barriers to entry (presumably the smaller spaces ask lower rents compared to full-service restaurants or cafés), many more aspiring food entrepreneurs are able to enter the culinary field via these facilities.

As reported by JLL, startup costs are much lower and lease terms more flexible in food halls than traditional retail leases. Lease terms for food hall vendors are typically one to two years, much shorter than the five- to 10-year terms that landlords command for conventional full –service restaurant spaces.

4. Social space

With more food halls being located in mixed-use developments and transit-oriented developments, they are also becoming more physically accessible to wide range of customers. This has also been thecase with hawker centers in Singapore. Many are located in residential neighborhoods or near transit stations and therefore has successfully served local residents, workers, and visitors.

As a result, food halls and hawker centers provide a great shared space for informal social gatherings, community events and programs. For years, hawker centers have served as meeting spots for the elderly during the day as they sit and enjoy coffee and toast. Families also gather on weekends to eat together without spending too much money.

However, despite these similarities, the modern American food hall hasn’t quite matched up to the hawker center of Singapore. There are stark differences between the two.

 

1.  Customer

Legacy Food Hall in Plano, TX famously tagged in posts on social media site, Instagram.

While food halls here in the US strive to meet the needs and preferences of a variety of consumers from low- to mid- price points, how many can really show a diverse customer base? Food halls here in the US often have carefully curated brands and marketing materials that, for the most part, appeal to millennials and mid- to high- income customer segments.

Meanwhile, in Singapore, the hawker center is the place where Singaporeans from across income levels and ethnicities gather to eat with purpose at all times of the day. At lunch time, business types, taxi drivers, students, and the elderly are all seen queueing for the very same Chinese noodles or Malay fried noodles. This is largely because price points are extremely low that customers run the whole gamut from blue collar to white collar and even the creative in-betweens. Everybody needs quick and cheap food from time to time.

The main reason that price points remain so low at hawker centers however is due to ownership and management.

2. Ownership/ Administrative Capacity

Today, the Singapore government continues to own the majority of hawker centers across the country.  Prospective hawkers have to bid for available stalls and pay rent to the government at subsidized rates. These subsidies allow product prices to be kept lower than that in shopping mall food courts.

Of course, I’m not saying that food halls should be government- owned and operated to truly achieve the diverse customer base it’s currently seeking but it’s important we realize that the profit motive of private food hall developers and operators are often misaligned with the community, economic, and social benefits that could be attained.

In order to maintain the mission of low cost culinary offerings for diverse customers, partnerships and support from public bodies or non-profit organizations must be built to ensure that food halls resonate with local customers and communities. These supporting bodies may even be able to offer complementary community programs at low cost and therefore attract a wide range of customers from the neighborhood. Diversifying ownership of food halls might just solve its issue of not quite reaching the masses in its current branded state.

Farmers Market as Downtown Revitalization Tool

Nur Asri is an associate at Larisa Ortiz Associates

Fall is upon us and for LOA that means the work on a second round of New York State Downtown Revitalization Initiatives is set to begin. In the past year, our work has brought us to smaller, more rural towns upstate and around the country and with that, came many visits to local farmers markets. Farmers markets, or “multi-stall markets at which farmer-producers sell agricultural products directly to the general public at a central/ fixed location” are not a new phenomenon. In fact, marketplaces have been a key economic, cultural, and social component of villages, towns, and cities for thousands of years. Today, smaller downtowns, are seeing a resurgence of farmers markets as economic revitalization tools, particularly in areas with existing agricultural assets. In this post, we discuss the potential benefits that can be reaped from a downtown farmers market and actions that can be taken to ensure the most effective implementation of one.

Farmers markets are community porches

Many of the farmers markets we have observed in our work, whether intended or not, have evolved into the “front porch” of the community and function as key gathering places. Residents and visitors from various walks of life convene at the market through a common interest for fresh, local produce resulting in unique social interactions.

Morganton Farmers Market at the retail core. Photo: LOA

In some cases, farmers markets have also been key in activating formerly underutilized spaces downtown and turning these into active public spaces. From old warehouses to underused parking lots and vacant land, farmers markets have the power to activate these spaces by introducing a new public use and attracting new users of the space.

In Morganton, NC, for example, hosts a mini farmers market every Wednesday in the warm months on a field that was simply sitting vacant by the retail core of the downtown. Meanwhile, in Springfield, OR, a year-round farmers market is hosted in a former church property that was purchased and refurbished with a 3,000 SF event space.

Farmers markets promote health and wellness

The seasonal freshness of fruits and vegetables sold at farmers markets, the in-built nutritional value of goods sold, and the direct linkage made between food producers and consumers, makes the markets fitting platforms for health promotion and nutrition education.  In addition, consumers around the world are also gaining a new appreciation for and connection to their food producers, so farmers markets are the much-needed platforms to further grow support for local food systems.

In addition, farmers markets that offer SNAP programs also expand low-income households’ access to healthy foods, ensuring that all local residents are able to reap benefits from the healthy offerings at the markets and raising nutritional levels among low-income households. Additional free programming such as cooking and nutrition classes offered at farmers markets can often expand the accessibility of healthy local produce by educating those households that are unfamiliar with preparing fresh, wholesome meals.

Now, for the economic benefits.

Farmers markets are visitor attractions

Farmers markets are also great downtown anchors that attract hoards of residents and tourists for hours weekly. Naturally, this raises foot traffic that may otherwise be lacking in smaller downtowns. In Springfield, OR, for example, the famers market attracted an estimated 30,000 people and more than 40 regular vendors in its first year of opening alone.

In a smaller, rural downtown, this regular stream of pedestrian traffic to the farmers market translates to foot traffic into neighboring stores and restaurants, especially when the farmers markets are held on weekends and customers dwell times are more flexible.

Farmers markets add to downtown retail mix

With more traditional farmers markets that host fresh produce and specialty food vendors, these markets essentially act as the local grocery store. In more rural parts of the country where the grocery store is typically a big box Walmart or Wegmans or Food Lion that requires driving 15 minutes outside of downtown, the farmers market can be a solution to bridging a hyperlocal retail gap.  Its location, typically in a downtown parking lot, means that it is far more convenient for residents in the area to grab a carton of milk or spare eggs. Not to mention, the freshness of pastries and bread sold at the farmers market compared to the large grocery store.

As consumer preferences shift, even grocery stores are replacing their aisles with even more fresh, local produce and organic goods – goods that are already filling the wooden crates at farmers markets. In 2008, local food sales were estimated to be close to $5 billion and farmers markets are naturally aligned to leverage the growth in this demand (if it's not already being met!).

Farmers markets function as business incubators and accelerators

From Farmers Market vendor to.....

Finally, and most importantly, farmers markets cut the middlemen who typically distribute farmers’ and artisans’ goods, therefore raising profit margins for the producers. The markets also act as business incubators by providing the opportunities for producers and makers to first test products directly with consumers and get real time feedback thru product samples – all at a much, much lower cost than either setting up a storefront or selling online. The Fresh Friday Farmers Market in Allentown, PA, for example, has provided increased business opportunities for local farms and food businesses proliferating in the LeHigh Valley.

...Storefront! This is Cedar Rapids Whiskey Sauce Co. in Ely

Upon finessing and growing the demand for their products and services, many farmers market vendors have then grown big enough to be able to set up brick-and-mortar stores downtown. For downtowns that lost retail tenants in the last economic downturn, this business incubation function of farmers markets may be ideal to helping fill those storefront spaces. For example, in Richmond, VA, a vacant storefront that was formerly occupied by a bakery was recently bought over by a pastry chef who sells pastries and baked goods at the local St Stephens Farmers Market. Although the owner will essentially be replacing goods that were already on offer by the previous tenant, the farmers market start has enabled her to refine her merchandise selection based on early consumer feedback.

Other examples of farmers market vendors that have moved on to brick-and-mortar include Blacksauce Kitchen that made its start at the JFX Farmers' Market in Baltimore before recently opening a shop that serves customers one day a week. In Iowa, Cedar Rapids Whiskey Sauce Co last year opened a shop on Dows Street in small downtown Ely after making its start at local farmers' markets and several HyVee grocery store locations.

How to ensure farmers markets really become downtown revitalization tools:

Unfortunately, not all farmers markets have been powerful downtown revitalization tools. There are a number of steps that need to be taken to ensuring that the benefits we discussed above can be achieved.

Site your farmers market in or near your retail core

Geneseo, NY Farmers Market off Main Street by local theater.

Firstly, the location of the farmers market is crucial to driving spillover foot traffic from the market to downtown storefronts. If the market isn’t located in the retail core of downtown, shoppers are unlikely to stop by adjacent storefronts after perusing the market. In Morganton, NC, for instance, before introducing a mini market on Wednesdays on an empty field at the retail core, hosted its weekly farmers market 0.5 mile away, far away enough (given the hotter climate and elevations) that customers passing through the farmers market would have to get in a car before being able to get to downtown. And we all know, once your customer gets in the car, they’re as good as lost. The farmers market wasn’t quite an anchor for downtown businesses until it was introduced right smack in the retail core.

Locating farmers markets in the retail core will be especially crucial for downtowns that have residential uses located at the retail core or within walking distance of downtown. Having direct and easy access to a large residential shopping demand is crucial to the success of vendors, and of course if vendors succeed, they are likely to return to sell goods, maintaining the critical mass of vendors needed to attract customers and ensuring overall sustainability of the farmers markets.

Provide supportive transportation infrastructure

City of Palo Alto installed bike racks on the
street used for weekly farmers market.

If your downtown is dense and walkable and the bulk of your customers are residents who already live in the vicinity, then supportive infrastructure to help customers get to the farmers market might include wide sidewalks, pedestrian crossings, wayfinding signage, bike lanes and bike parking facilities, and bus stops.

On the other hand, if your downtown is small and much more rural with most customers only able to arrive by car, then convenient and well-maintained parking lots should also be made available to support a “park once” downtown for customers and vendors to visit the farmers market and other businesses all at once without having to worry about moving their cars.

Complement the market with programming

Portland, OR Market Music event showcases local acts.

Educational community programs and local music acts are some activities that accompany farmers markets across the country and these are great ways to further engage local residents and visitors that pass through. The best way to find out what types of programs the local community needs is to simply carry out an intercept consumer survey.

At the same time, programs should also be organized to help vendors grow their business and following. The Neighborhood Economic Development Corporation in Springfield, OR, organizer of the downtown farmers market is an owner of properties downtown. Once vendors at the market reach a stage of expansion that requires a larger and more regular storefront, NEDCO is able to rent spaces it owns at lower rates to support these businesses.

Operate the market during accessible hours

Depending on the downtown and the number of major employers in the area, it may be effective to hold farmers markets on weekdays. In such cases, vendors may leverage the existing daytime worker market demand during lunchtime. On the other hand, if the weekday daytime population downtown doesn’t exist, then a weekend market would make more sense. 

Actively brand and market

Strong local campaigns to bring awareness to and promote the farmers market are crucial to establishing a new downtown anchor. In Livingston County, NY, (where we’re about to embark on a Countywide Commercial District Assessment), a Find It In Livingston campaign encourages shoppers to seek local produce and goods by actively announcing where and when downtown farmers markets happen on the county economic development website. The Charles City Downtown Farmers Market similarly participates in the ‘Buy Fresh, Buy Local’ campaign, a comprehensive marketing program for farmers selling directly to consumers, restaurants, grocery stores and other institutions.

Ensure strong administrative capacity

As with all downtown economic revitalization initiatives, administrative capacity and resources are required to sustain farmers markets. In addition to support from the City, buy-in from local residents is essential to carrying out a successful market. While the City is able to support the market in procuring a vacant site or supplying sanitation facilities and power, support from local businesses and individuals will ensure sustained customer traffic and vendor participation.

The non-economic and economic benefits of farmers markets might tempt you to implement one downtown. However, they must not be assumed to be simple revitalization tools. Farmers markets are complex efforts that often require the cooperation of a wide range of stakeholders (existing business owners, residents, community leaders), thoughtful planning, extensive programming and marketing, and of course funding! Who knows what this second round of funding from New York State will bring to the downtowns we’ll be working with this Fall but we will be keeping a look out for those farmers markets and keeping our eyes peeled for what works for them!

If you already have a farmers market downtown and are looking to assess its impact, take a look at this economic impact study of the farmers market in Downtown El Paso: http://downtownelpaso.com/economic-ripples-felt-from-downtown-artist-and-farmers-market/

IDA Session Post-Mortem: The Future of Physical Retail in the Age of Online

Larisa Ortiz is a Principal at LOA

Last week I had the pleasure of speaking on a panel at the International Downtown Association Conference entitled The Future of Physical Retail in the Age of Online with colleagues Mike Berne of MJB Consulting and Tony Hernandez, Director of the Ryerson University Centre for the Study of Commercial Activity. I may have been a panelist, but I was as enraptured as the audience by both presentations. Each shared insight into their own research and offered some enlightened perspective on the future of downtown retail for attendees.

Tony Hernandez helped put the changes he has seen in context. Retail is always changing. Consider this - Outlet Centers started making waves in the 1990’s and have only grown in size and scale since then. But if you consider who the major shopping center tenants were in 1996 and now, you will find that the majority of those tenants no longer exist. Hey, no one said retail was an easy business. So when viewed from a historical perspective, today’s concerns about the impact of on-line shopping are part of the normal cycle of “creative destruction” that leads to innovation and improvement, not necessarily the end of the world. And while e-retail may be a small portion of sales at the moment, Tony made the point that on-line influenced sales are what we should really be talking about. Research by the JC Williams group found that 86% of Canadians researched their purchase online before cutting a check.

Mike Berne added that while the news is chock full of an impending “retail apocalypse”, pure play retailers still account for only 4.5% of market share. The future, Mike said, belongs to retailers who pursue omni-channel strategies. He suggested the Amazon’s purchase of Whole Foods was because Amazon needed Whole Foods, not the other way around. As he has written for this blog in the past, the Whole Foods acquisition was a response to the “last mile” challenge. The fact that Amazon has yet to turn a profit on e-commerce and makes nearly all of its profit on cloud computing suggests that e-commerce still has a ways to go before dominating the retail landscape. When you consider that the “last mile” challenge – i.e. the ability to get to and from the last point of distribution to someone’s home – is incredibly expensive and that off-price chains like T.J. Maxx have been doing quite well at getting customers to do that for them – Mike thinks the retail apocalypse concerns might be overblown.

My contribution to the conversation was targeted to the practitioner. How do we turn the data into something actionable? What should Business Improvement Districts and Business Improvement Associations (as they are known in Canada) do in light of this information? I suggested a few policy prescriptions and actionable interventions, much of it based on recent work we completed with the City of Cambridge, MA.

The first is to drive experience. It may sound cliche, but people are searching for things they can’t get on-line, so BIDs will increasingly need to activate streets and public spaces with activities that cannot be replicated on-line. That means making sure public spaces are well designed and maintained, and that those spaces allow for public gathering, activities and events. We simply must make our public spaces work harder for us. In San Francisco, the City has spearheaded an effort to engage local non-profits as formal stewards of public plazas, giving them the ability to generate revenue from activities and events. New York City has a similar program. These programs allow for the formal oversight of a public space by an entity that is best positioned to drive pedestrian traffic to an area.

The second is to build capacity of the organizations upon which all of this activity depends. Without organizations with capable staff and sustainable revenue sources, the ability to activate space, build brand recognition, and promote both activities and businesses is seriously hampered. In Cambridge we shared the example of Coro Neighborhood Leadership Program in New York City that trains 20-30 BID leaders every year and has created a network of well-trained advocates for place management. This highly trained network of practitioners now collaborate and cooperate on a regular basis, sharing information about best practices for everything from fundraising to leadership skills. 

The third intervention involved taking a deep dive look at the regulatory and zoning barriers that are making innovation by retailers and new business concepts much more difficult and challenging. Consider the small business that wants to start making some of their products on-site and triggers a change in use permit. Or a brewpub for whom there is no retail classification (who had heard of brewpubs forty+ years ago when the regulations were written?). Or the business that wants to offer in store educational classes and is now considered an “educational institution” with higher threshold building code and parking requirements. These rules and regulations are particularly vexing for small businesses with limited capital – precisely the kinds of businesses that many communities want to support. Another issue that falls under this heading is the fact that restaurants and eating establishments, one of the healthiest and growing sectors of the retail economy, are particularly hampered - higher parking regulations for eating establishments are not uncommon and can make opening a location in some cities nearly impossible. Add to this things like sidewalk cafes, which are proven profit drivers, yet these too require another layer of permitting that can be overwhelming for the small business owner. Overcoming these issues is critical to enabling new business ventures that will be so critical if downtown is to sustain a competitive advantage.

As my last point, I discussed the need to fill gaps in the pedestrian experience as the inevitable market corrections will result in vacancies. BIDs are well positioned to ensure that vacancies do not undermine the local pedestrian environment by advocating and supporting pop-up retail or pop-up temporary art installations (like those of New York based non-profit No Longer Empty). These are important stop gap measures that will help existing businesses. In the long term, softening demand for retail spaces may require a wholesale rethinking of how we manage downtown tenant mix. As retail spaces get taken up by less dynamic economic activity, including offices and services, how will we maintain a sufficient concentration of retail in close enough proximity to ensure corridor success?

I want to thank my fellow panelists and the fantastic IDA members who participated in our discussion. Clearly that this issue will not be going away anytime soon!

Follow us on twitter @cdadvisor and Facebook (cdadvisor) where we share timely articles and news related to downtown retail. 

New York City Department of Small Business Services issues Commercial District Needs Assessments

We are thrilled to share the release of the City of New York's Commercial District Needs Assessments (CDNA's). These six neighborhood assessments set a tremendously high bar for the kind of information that government entities can collect and share on behalf of local communities. The assessments give neighborhoods a powerful tool that they can use to encourage investment and advocate for the improvements they want and need. They allow neighborhoods to communicate not only strengths, but also make clear the kinds of enhancements that are needed to improve quality of life and business opportunities for both residents and businesses alike.

Our connection to this project is quite personal. Over a year ago, the New York office of the Local Initiative Support Corporation provided funding for our firm, Larisa Ortiz Associates, to develop the framework for what eventually became the CDNA approach. In coming months we will be working with LISC  to turn the methodology in a practical 'how to' manual so that other communities can benefit from - and perhaps even replicate - the approach.

Our philosophy has always been that communities - particularly underserved urban communities - cannot and should not be understood by market data alone. The syndicated data that is available is often inaccurate. So when retailers or investors use it to understand urban markets they are often misled to believe there is limited opportunity for new business. To combat that perception we have developed an approach, honed over many years, that considers four key areas of inquiry as follows:

• Business environment - in particular locations of high retail density, as well as the quality and type of retail offerings
• Physical environment - including the conditions of the public realm (i.e. streets, sidewalks, and public spaces) and the private realm (buildings, and privately owned assets) as well as the degree to which the corridor is easily accessible the the resident and non-resident customer base
• Market and demographic data - not just for residents, but also for non-residents, including employees and visitors to the community who may alter the customer profile
• Adminstrative capacity - which reflects the organizations, institutions and local leaders whose engagement is critical to the success of commercial revitlaizaiton efforts. 

This approach results in a much more comprehensive profile of opportunities and needs - and helps put communities behind the steering wheel when it comes to advocating for the investments that they want and need. We couldn't be more excited to share this with the field. Congrats to the amazing team at SBS for the hard work that went into creating these wonderful tools!

To download the assessments and to find out more about the great work that the Department of Small Business Services is doing click here. 

Do you have what it takes to lead a commercial district or downtown organization?

At this years International Downtown Association (IDA) annual conference I had a chance to sit in on a session on recent IDA report on "High Performing Distict CEO's". The report is part of a deep dive research effort by IDA, DHR International (a national placement firm), and Somerville Partners, Inc. (a leadership consulting firm). I attended the session because I have seen the challenges associated with managing urban districts - and have seen how difficult it can be to find the right person to lead an organization whose job is to lead and manage change. Panelists David Smith and Martita Mestéy gave an excellent presentation on the qualities of a CEO - I noted that many people in the audience were furiously taking notes!

The report itself is a fascinating analysis of leading CEO's throughout the nation. Fifty leaders in downtown management were asked to participate in a detailed online self-assessment instrument designed to identify leadership styles. The analysis then looked at CEO's with different staffing levels, budget sizes and CEO experience. While the entire report is worth a read (click here to download), what I found quite interesting was the comparison between CEO's running large organizations and those running medium-sized organizations.

Does size matter? 
In a nutshell, the answer is yes. Those running large organization's were more likely to collaborate with partners, rather than be the sole driver of major downtown initiatives. This made alot of sense to me, in part because the urban ecosystems associated with BIDs in large cities are likely more comlicated and therefore require partnerships to make progress.  These CEO's were also more "distant" over friendly or "succoriant" - perhaps reflecting the need for a professional and distant demeanor in a big city environment. They were also more generally focsed on the "big picture" and more likely to delegate work than CEO's from smaller mid-sized organizations.

CEO from mid-sized organizations, on the other hand, were often more "free-wheeling", prefering to wing it over establishing order. My guess is that bigger budgets require more systems in place to manage funds and activities. It takes a different kind of person to keep these systems humming. Mid-sized CEO's were also less "traditional minded" and more into the details when implementing projects, perhaps because a smaller staff means less opportunities to delegate?

In both cases however, high performing CEO's were flexible and creative in their approaches. Downtown management after all is a challenging field, requiring partnerships with a variety of actors over whom the CEO has no control. Succeeding in this environment at any level requires an ability to main interpersonal relationships and stay focused on a goal with persistance.

The report is available for download free to IDA members and $75 for non-members.

Round Up: Community-Run Commercial Space, City Power, Crowdfunding Green Space, NYC Kiosks Makeover, Detroit Small Business Growth

The Quest for Community-Run Commercial Space
England has pubs,  Paris has bookstores, so why can't New York City have state-sanctioned commercial spaces in an era of high commercial vacancy, especially in lower Manhattan, and shuttering of stores that are intricate to the cultural fabric of the city. The Real Estate Investment Cooperative steps in where the city is slow to form a plan.

Cities are powering the rebound in national income growth
For the most part we have recently seen headlines regarding a national income rebound. Much of the economic drive comes from US's thriving city economies.

Greening Urban Space through Crowdfunding
This a quick and simple example of using the power of community to green an urban space. Crowdfunding is not totally new but this short article sheds light on its usefulness to update a small derelict parcel of land for community enjoyment.

Free Wi-Fi Kiosks Were to Aid New Yorkers. An Unsavory Side Has Spurred a Retreat.
A new accessory to the streets of NYC has gone awry. These multifunctional units came to replace the underused or unusable pay telephones on the street but apparently came with too much functionality as people have begun to basically spend hours on end at them. This new NYC streetscape feature had good intentions and will be modified to ensure that those intentions are met for good. How is your district meeting technological needs?

Detroit Small Businesses Get Room to Grow
Grant money is giving Detroit business owners chance to grow. Does your city offer similar funding sources to help the entrepreneurial drive?  Big gains were noted in a follow up article "Entrepreneurship Fund Touts Big Gains for Metro Detroit."

What comes after streetscape improvements? One Caribbean island tries to figure out what's next for its centuries old historic district.

Last week I had the opportunity to tour the Ciudad Colonial, or the "colonial city" of Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic. The tour was led by the Inter American Development Bank (IDB), one of the leading funders of downtown revitalization throughout Latin America. I was thrilled to be back in my element. Almost twenty years ago I spent a year traveling around the world as a Watson Fellow (quite honestly the best gig I have ever had!). I puddle jumped my way through thirteen countries to study downtown revitalization as it was being practiced in Spain and former Spanish colonies. Yet despite all of my travels, this was my first visit to Santo Domingo.

The downtown is of modest size - 9,000 residents - and is about 5 km square. As one of the first Spanish colonial outposts in the New World, the city follows the Law of the Indies. These were the planning ordinances that the Spanish Crown set for its colonies. These laws were themselves modeled on Roman planning practices that were developed during the expansion of the Roman Empire in Europe.

I was thrilled to see the effort to revitalize the City Center taking shape. The effort has received significant support from the IDB and according to my guides, almost $30 million dollars has been invested in streetscape improvements intended to both beautify and make the very narrow colonial streets safer for pedestrians. The improvements were quite impressive and certainly have made an impact on the street.

But challenges remain. As the IDB team and local stakeholders look to graduate their efforts from capital and physical improvements, the road ahead can be rocky. Capital funding is generally easier to secure than the resources - both human and financial - that are often critical to keeping up the momentum.  Now that the streets are in great shape, the work of getting people there, and ensuring that the offerings of housing, hospitality, culture, retail and entertainment keep them there as either visitors, businesses or residents, is the next step. 

In thinking this through, I am reminded of the "Retail Ready" Hierarchy that we speak about at LOA quite frequently. 

"Retail Ready" Hierarchy

The first step involves "who" is going to get things done. The individuals, organizations and institutions who lead and execute the effort. The second phase involves focusing on the fundamentals, making sure the physical environment is comfortable, clean, accessible and safe. While you never really move on from Phase II - maintaining improvements over time is as important as getting them constructed int he first place - you need some of the basics in place before moving on to the advanced stages of revitalization. Phase III is about building the customer base through a variety of methods. For some communities, it can mean increasing the number of residents who form the basis of stable market demand. In a district like the Ciudad Colonial, with a 70% upper vacancy rate, repopulating the downtown is one potential strategy. These residents subsequently become a stable source of demand that support local businesses through the ups and downs of tourism. In communities whose economies are driven by tourism, there is the additional need to ensure that visitors have enough to see and do, from retail offerings, to events and activities, to make a stay worthwhile. These offerings need to be simultaneously marketed through thoughtful promotion and innovative partnerships that help attract visitors to the district - and ensure they stay as long as possible.   

Nearly 18 years ago I wrote about this strategy in Habitat Debate, a United Nations publication, in a piece entitled "Rehabilitating Historic Districts through Public-Private Partnerships" (which amazing can still be found on-line!). The premise of those findings still hold. In both Santiago, Chile and Quito, Ecuador, non-profit or public-private partnerships were first formed to improve the physical environment, attract investment and development new housing - i.e. grow the customer base - for downtown goods and services. Both efforts have had great success and have been lauded as models for other Latin American countries. These lessons have clearly made it to Santo Domingo and it will be exciting to see what happens next!

Here are a few pics from my visit...enjoy!

Thank you to my wonderful hosts! And to my son for being rather patient as him mom takes him on urban planning tours. 

A quaint residential block in the historic district

Tourists can rent bicycles for an easy ride around town. 

Paseo Conde is the main pedestrian corridor. 

Directional Signage/Maps for tourists dot the Paseo El Conde

The IDB is funding some development projects that promise to bring more people to the district.
The building clad in black scaffolding is one such project.