Tag Archives for: International Downtown Association

IDA’s 2018 Emerging Leaders Fellowship Program Attracts Top Urban Champions

April 23, 2018

 

 

IDA’s 2018 Emerging Leaders Fellowship Program Attracts Top Urban Champions

 

 

Fellows to learn essential leadership and place management skills in New York City

 

 

 

WASHINGTON, DC – The International Downtown Association selected 30 of the industry’s brightest professionals for the 2018 Emerging Leaders Fellowship program. These senior staff members hail from 3 countries and 21 provinces or states, including Cape Town (South Africa), Calgary (Alberta), Honolulu, New York City, Anchorage, Sioux Falls, Sacramento, Houston and Denver.

 

Alumni of the IDA Emerging Leaders Fellowship program are fast becoming sought-after leaders for the future of city building around worldwide. In just two years, the IDA program has resulted in at least 20% of its graduates receiving promotions and significant pay increases, including one Fellow who became Chief Executive Officer of his organization. “The success of our Fellowship program, launched in 2016, underscores how critical this training is to our growing industry,” said David Downey, President and CEO of IDA. “This is the only program of its kind created specifically for urban place management professionals. IDA is looking to further illustrate the importance of our industry by elevating leaders with the necessary skills to champion inclusive city building.”

 

The Emerging Leader Fellowship is a week-long experiential program bringing together a cohort of IDA professionals from within the urban district management industry. The fellows learn essential leadership and place management skills and gain practical tools in the areas of place-based economic development, the live-work-play experience, and public-private partnerships.

 

“The International Downtown Association is looking to build the future of our industry, and these accomplished executives are the rising stars of our profession,” said Downey. “With this program, we’re educating and inspiring the next generation of leaders.”

 

The program takes place June 17-22, 2018 in New York City featuring intensive instruction delivered by IDA partners at Baruch College, City University of New York, Times Square Alliance and Coro New York Leadership Center. Professionals from several business improvement district organizations across the city provide technical in-the-field training. The event takes place at various locations throughout Manhattan with field visits provided by several local BID leaders.

 

Congratulations to the 2018 cohort!

 

For a list of other upcoming IDA events, please visit downtown.org.

 

 

About the International Downtown Association

The International Downtown Association is the premier organization for urban place professionals who are shaping and activating dynamic city center districts. Our members are downtown champions who bring urban centers to life, bridging the gap between the public and private sectors. We represent an industry of more than 2,500 place management organizations, employing 100,000 people throughout North America and growing rapidly around the world. Founded in 1954, IDA is a resource center for ideas and innovative best practices in urban place management. For more information, visit www.downtown.org.

 

About the Coro New York Leadership Center

Coro New York Leadership Center is New York’s premier leadership training organization and a community of over 2,300 alumni across business, government, schools, and non-profits that is shaping our city’s future. Coro training helps individuals hone their visions for change and learn how to exercise leadership with greater self-awareness, intention, and effectiveness. We work with leaders, both seasoned and emerging, from many different fields who come to Coro to discover how cities really work and how policy is shaped, while also learning how to collaborate across differences, build culture and community, and make progress on shared challenges. From commissioners and city councilmembers to activists, executives, and entrepreneurs, those who come to Coro build the skills, knowledge, and networks to help them pursue their visions for change with greater effectiveness and impact.

 

Through a series of three leadership training sessions, Coro will provide participants in IDA’s Fellowship with a set of frameworks and strategies to help them develop best practices for leading change. Focusing on the personal, interpersonal and systems-level, each session will examine change-making from a different lens and provide new tools, along with experiential activities to test out these new ideas in action.

 

The Value of U.S. Downtowns and Center Cities Report Released by IDA

January 29, 2018

 

 

The Value of U.S. Downtowns and Center Cities Report Released by IDA

 

While small in size, these dynamic hubs wield substantial regional influence in tax revenue,
employment, housing and retail activity.

 

 

WASHINGTON, DC – Cities and regions have the potential to leverage profound lasting benefits through investment in downtowns and center cities, according to The Value of U.S. Downtowns and Center Cities report released by the International Downtown Association (IDA). From driving tax revenue and business activity to spurring smart development and innovative workplaces, downtowns play a pivotal role in the long-term health of a region.

 

 

The report is the result of an eight-month study by IDA, in partnership with Stantec’s Urban Places team, an interdisciplinary hub joining the global firm’s urban experts, and 13 downtown place management organization members across the United States to create a replicable, accessible and standard methodology to calculate the value of downtowns. The resulting report articulates the mutual benefits of downtown investment to a broad range of relevant stakeholders. This research shows the importance a downtown has on its city and region, thus demonstrating its unique return on investment to help advise future decision making and to increase support from local decision makers.

The Value of U.S. Downtowns and Center Cities is informed by experts and downtown leaders from around the country, encompassing over 100 key data points, 33 guiding benefits and five principles (economy, inclusion, vibrancy, identity, and resilience). The project examined 13 American downtowns and center cities and was modeled after the award-winning project, The Value of Investing in Canadian Downtowns (2013).

“This project is the most significant body of research IDA has ever produced. It is our first quantifiable study of downtown performance, and its release marks the beginning of our new research division,” said David Downey, CAE, Assoc. AIA, President & CEO of IDA. “I couldn’t be more pleased with the third-party evaluation we have delivered to our 13 member organizations and the new standard IDA has established for the urban place management industry.”

This initial downtown pilot group underscores the powerful impact of these downtowns far beyond their limited physical footprint with a city.

Among its key findings:

Downtowns average just 3% of citywide land, but account for 31% of citywide tax revenue. This means for every 1% of citywide land, downtowns contribute approximately 10% of citywide tax revenue.
Despite the uncertain future of retail, downtown retail is still a significant presence – averaging 16% of citywide retail sales and retail offerings. On average, downtowns generate nine times more retail sales than their citywide counterparts.
Downtowns continue to serve as major employment centers, accounting for 30% of citywide jobs and 40% of citywide office space. They are also adapting to workplace trends, containing 60% of citywide co-working space, 39% of citywide creative jobs, and 31% of citywide knowledge jobs.
Residents aren’t just moving to cities – they are moving to downtowns. Downtown residential is increasing much faster than the rest of the city (38% compared to 5%). Downtowns also saw a 27% increase in residential housing units from 2010-2015, compared to the city’s average of 6%.
Downtowns are multi-modal hubs. Downtowns consistently had higher Walk Scores, Bike Scores and Transit Scores than their greater cities (85-90 compared to 52-57), had higher rates of non-single-occupancy vehicle (SOV) commuters (43% compared to citywide 28%).

The research in this study will empower local leaders to work with the public and private sectors at multiple levels to encourage investment and support the continued evolution of downtown. Investing in a strong downtown is crucial for a successful city and region.

“This report, and all the great data that underlies it, helps to quantify what we’ve known for decades—that a vibrant downtown disproportionately supports the success of any great city. In terms of economic, social, and cultural vitality, downtowns punch orders of magnitude above their weight,” said Craig Lewis, Principal of Stantec’s Urban Places. “Our team is proud to have contributed to this piece of vital research. We look forward to our continuing partnership with the International Downtown Association to help downtowns and business districts—especially IDA members—tell the full story of their importance to city and regional economic performance.”

This year, the partnership between IDA and Stantec’s Urban Places will build and expand upon current research related to successful urban revitalization programs and apply the data towards the development of the first Downtown Vitality Index. This annual index will score urban districts and center cities on key economic, social and environmental factors of downtown vitality using these new data standards and methodology. This novel tool will standardize the value assigned to a downtown as a place for a range of stakeholders; create a useful set of tools for replicable, data-driven measurement; and define a baseline for progress assessment and peer comparison.

In 2018, IDA will work with a second cohort of 12 downtowns to further standardize and benchmark the value of American downtowns.The Value of U.S. Downtowns and Center Cities complete report is now available as a free download on downtown.org.

IDA thanks participants in the following cities for their cooperation in this research: Downtown Partnership of Baltimore (Maryland); Charlotte Center City Partners (North Carolina); Downtown Grand Rapids (Michigan); BLVD Association (Lancaster, California); Miami Downtown Development Authority (Florida); Downtown Norfolk Council (Virginia); Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership (Pennsylvania); Downtown Sacramento Partnership (California); Centro San Antonio (Texas); Union Square BID (San Francisco, California); Downtown Santa Monica (California); Downtown Seattle Association (Washington); and Wichita Downtown Development Corporation (Kansas).

About International Downtown Association

The International Downtown Association is the premier organization for urban place professionals who are shaping and activating dynamic city center districts. Our members are downtown champions who bring urban centers to life, bridging the gap between the public and private sectors. We represent an industry of more than 2,500 place management organizations, employing 100,000 people throughout North America and growing rapidly around the world. Founded in 1954, IDA is a resource center for ideas and innovative best practices in urban place management. For more information, visit downtown.org.

About Stantec

Communities are fundamental. Whether around the corner or across the globe, they provide a foundation, a sense of place and of belonging. That’s why at Stantec, we always design with community in mind.

We care about the communities we serve—because they’re our communities too. We’re designers, engineers, scientists, and project managers, innovating together at the intersection of community, creativity, and client relationships. Balancing these priorities results in projects that advance the quality of life in communities across the globe. Stantec’s Urban Places team is an interdisciplinary hub within the firm bringing together leaders in planning and urban design, smart mobility, resilience, development, mixed-use architecture, smart cities, and brownfield redevelopment. We work in downtowns across North America—in cities and suburbs alike—to unlock the extraordinary urban promise of enhanced livability, equity, and resilience. Learn more at www.stantec.com/urban-places.