Downtown Areas Across the Country Struggle in the Recovering Economy

Dec. 29, 2010 - PRLog -- Facing a tough economy, downtown organizations have questioned where to spend and where to cut back in order to best survive difficult times. That reorganization of priorities has left everyone a little leaner and a lot wiser.

As part of "Downtown Idea Exchange" newsletter's annual trends report, editor Sheila Grant spoke with industry experts who identified some of the many issues downtown leaders are facing, among them:

* For downtowns operating BIDs, which are reliant on special assessment income, lower assessed values of properties in the next cycle of assessments is of concern.

"Lower assessments could mean less income to those BIDs," says Jim Cloar, interim president of the International Downtown Association. "Ironically, that's at the same time BIDs are probably going to be called on to do more as city government services are cut back because of their declining revenues."

* "I think we are going to see a change in Washington, DC. There are a number of initiatives that the Obama administration had just begun to put into place to help cities and downtowns," says David Feehan, president of Civitas Consultants LLC. "I think it will be difficult for many of those to actually be born or get started. I think there will be a real effort to cut agency funding for things like housing and urban development, transportation and commerce, all of which might have been looking to provide funding and other assistance for downtown and Main Street programs."

Cutbacks at the state level are already threatening the existence of Main Street programs in some areas.

* "2011 looks like a rebuilding year in a lot of ways, but for downtown organizations it will also be about creativity and innovation," says Jamie Licko, president of consulting firm, Centro.

"That will likely mean diversifying programming and tackling new projects. It might also mean taking on new organization structures to play a new role in downtown development and growth."

The full report, "Marketing, funding and operations in the recovering downtown economy" is available online at the Downtown Research & Development Center website, http://www.DowntownDevelopment.com/dixtrends.pdf.

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About the Downtown Research & Development Center

For over 50 years, the Downtown Research & Development Center has acted as the information clearinghouse on practical strategies and tactics for revitalizing the hearts of our cities and towns.

The Group's main activities include publishing the widely influential "Downtown Idea Exchange" and "Downtown Promotion Reporter" newsletters; publishing relevant books and reports; and operating the DowntownDevelopment.com website.

Website: http://www.DowntownDevelopment.com