Experts discuss how to rebuild urban cores by bringing the public and private sectors together to create thriving downtowns that entice remote workers to return to the office and broaden the mix of uses.
How can the public and private sectors better work together to revitalize downtowns?
Kate Collignon: One of the most important elements is leadership and the capacity to advance strategy and tactics. That requires having the ability to cut through red tape very quickly and to mobilize significant financial resources, both to advance improvements to the public realm and programming but also to help drive new investment and development. It’s important that city agencies [that] have responsibilities connected to [these things] are not operating in silos, because to produce a coherent downtown you need public works transit, and business services talking to each other. Places that historically have done [so] most effectively have clear leadership within the public sector—a senior person who has the ear of the mayor and who can push decision-making and break down those silos across agencies. Ideally, there is also an entity with capacity and a mandate to focus on downtown, move difficult projects forward, and bring the private sector to the table while coordinating their voices and resources.
Anzhelika Arbatskaia: The most important thing is for them to understand that they work together, not against each other. They should do comprehensive planning together and find common goals that they both will be working toward. Also, communication is the main strategy for any successful relationship, as well as efficient contract management. That will help them keep working toward those common goals. Projects are always changing, especially ones that involve mixed-use development of larger areas. So it’s important to address the needs of all stakeholders, revisiting those needs constantly and establishing trust.
Andy DeMoss: They need to focus on the core issue, which is addressing the work-from-home movement. Anything else is most likely not going to be impactful enough to move the needle. Also, a number of city departments are not fully back in the office yet themselves. They need to push their workforce to be downtown, at least three to four days a week, to set an example for the private sector.
Sheba Ross: For the public and private sectors to effectively collaborate on revitalizing downtowns, it’s crucial to establish a strong foundation of trust and transparency. This starts with inclusive community engagement to ensure that the vision reflects stakeholder needs, shifting from a mindset of one-time development investments to a framework of continuous, sustainable investments over time. Both sectors should leverage their unique strengths: the public sector can provide regulatory support and long-term planning, while the private sector can offer innovation, investment, and efficient execution. By integrating geospatial data, they can better understand current usage patterns, identify areas of potential, and recognize key cultural and historical elements that define the downtown’s character. [Doing so] will enable alignment through a shared vision for the greater good.
Sheba Ross
Partner and global practice director of the Cities and Communities practice, HKS, Atlanta and chair of the Women’s Leadership Initiative ChangeMakers committee and member of the Advisory Board of ULI Atlanta; former chair of the ULI Atlanta Center for Leadership and Mini Technical Assistance Panel program
HKS
What are the biggest obstacles to revitalizing downtowns?
Ross: One major obstacle is that many downtown buildings are designed for limited hours of use each day. We need to find ways to activate these spaces year-round, ensuring they remain safe and enjoyable even without events. We have to plan for every day—not just game day. Additionally, the lack of affordable and market-rate housing is a significant challenge, compounded by parking minimums that restrict diverse housing development. Downtowns need equitable access. We must consider how to transform wide, car-centric roads into more human-friendly spaces that can accommodate light rail, bike paths, and spillover activities from local businesses.
Collignon: The pandemic accelerated the remote work trend, and now there are fewer people on the streets of downtown, adding vitality. They’re no longer buying lunch downtown or shopping. We need to find new uses that can bring people back. The challenge is not only to figure out what those future uses are, but also to seed the market for those uses in a moment when the downtown experience in many places is still very challenging.
DeMoss: The work-from-home movement is the primary obstacle, and a certain percentage of office and retail leases has not even rolled over since the pandemic, so all of the pain hasn’t been experienced yet. If some tenants signed 10-year leases right before the pandemic, then for the next six years we might still be dealing with tenants who want to go fully remote or downsize but haven’t had a chance [to] because they’ve been locked into their leases. Work from home [affects] the number of people who are downtown, so it also affects retailers. Retail vacancies do not create the vitality we’re all looking for. In Chicago, if we could make the Loop more interesting after hours or on the weekends, that’s going to help encourage people to come downtown . . . .
Arbatskaia: The biggest obstacle is the mindset that the general public has toward downtown. People just don’t see [downtowns as places] they want to go to, maybe because they have been zoned almost entirely for office use. And since Covid-19, office buildings are still largely empty, so people don’t see the need to go downtown, or they perceive it as empty or dangerous. We need to shift that mindset. The lack of public transportation and difficulties finding parking are also obstacles. Cities should work with privately owned parking garages to share the uses. Shared use is a popular strategy nowadays, but it’s still not as fully integrated into downtowns as it could be.
What key strategies do you feel are too often left out of the conversation?
Arbatskaia: Nature has too often been left out of the conversation. When developers are developing land, there’s almost never a conversation with the public sector about the public realm, unless it’s a mixed-use project, and even then, the conversation is usually just about retail. Public plazas and spaces benefit the public. In Barcelona, it was long a requirement for any developer to either put some credits toward development of public spaces or develop public spaces within their land. Even small pocket parks can work.
Ross: In Georgia, we recently worked on several downtown revitalization projects. During a community meeting, a participant remarked, “We just need the downtown to be a soul. Right now, it’s an artery, but it needs to be a soul.” To achieve this, it’s crucial to activate the public realm and leverage natural assets. For instance, in our collaboration with the city of Brookhaven, Georgia, we are capitalizing on the Peachtree Creek Greenway. By designing buildings to face the greenway rather than turn their backs on it, we integrate nature into the urban fabric, transforming downtown into a place where people can pause, rather than merely pass through.
DeMoss: More cities should be considering subsidies for retailers to locate downtown. And not just for local retailers, but for the national brands, as well. The city of Chicago touched on it a little bit with the LaSalle Street Corridor Revitalization program. But only local retailers could apply, and it was just for retailers locating within a designated geographic area within the LaSalle Street area, not the rest of the Loop. Downtown retail can’t survive with just local retailers. An incentive program for employees or for employers to encourage their people to come downtown would also be great. Some firms have been trying to do that by relocating to nicer office buildings with upgraded amenity packages. That’s not necessarily helping the Class B and C market, however.
Collignon: Leading with entertainment is important. Starting with entertainment gives office workers a reason to come back to the office. Entertainment uses also add to the vitality of downtown, to help offset some of the negative perceptions of downtown that have festered in recent years, and in doing so, they start to build the market for other kinds of uses, like residential, education, and others that diversify the mix of uses downtown beyond office space. Nashville is one poster child for adding entertainment to the downtown mix, which is not to say that Nashville doesn’t still struggle with office space, but it feels very different in downtown Nashville now than in other downtowns.
What successful downtown revitalization efforts might provide useful models?
Ross: More people should know about the downtown revitalization of small cities. It is the small, consistent strides that need to be celebrated. For example, in the city of Fayetteville, [Georgia,] which celebrated its 200th anniversary [last year], we modernized the city’s zoning by consolidating 28 districts into eight, enabling small businesses to coexist with residential areas and fostering a more integrated community. Collaborating with the Southern Conservation Trust, we preserved large natural areas by prescribing compact building footprints. This balanced approach of development and conservation transformed Fayetteville into a vibrant, sustainable downtown, [one that offers] a model for other small cities. It demonstrates how thoughtful zoning and strategic partnerships can create thriving, sustainable urban centers without the need for grand gestures.
Collignon: Post-9/11 New York is an interesting example. 9/11 was very different from the pandemic, but it was a substantial shock to the downtown system. What proved successful in driving dramatic change was having a deputy mayor who had the ear of the mayor and was explicitly charged with rebuilding, so they could create cross-agency collaboration and decision-making that would drive downtown revitalization. Also, the state and the city formed the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, which provided a vehicle for building up staff capacity and funneling different funding resources to the projects that needed to happen. The Downtown Alliance, the business improvement district for lower Manhattan, brought the private sector’s voice and leadership in prioritizing reinvestment in downtown, in addition to serving as a vehicle for additional external fundraising and advocating for downtown.
Arbatskaia: One of my favorites recently is Cincinnati’s Over-the-Rhine development. It’s a public/private partnership where the private partner is 3CDC, a nonprofit real estate development and finance organization. 3CDC has acquired a lot of land over the years and has put an emphasis on preserving and revitalizing the downtown’s historic German settlements. That provides a reason for tourists to visit. Developing affordable housing in the area has brought diversity and more density, and 3CDC has also revitalized several parks. Over-the-Rhine has more than 365 events per year. It’s been very successful, and now private developers are interested.
DeMoss: In Chicago, the Fulton Market District is the one that everyone would point to. It completely transformed itself from a meatpacking district into a 24/7 live/work/play environment over just a decade. It might serve as a model for the Central, East, and West Loop, if they can take that playbook and replicate it in some capacity.
What other trends or strategies are you excited about?
DeMoss: In Chicago’s Central Loop, we’re watching the LaSalle Street and Monroe Street office-to-residential conversions very closely. Those will take office spaces offline, which is badly needed right now, while creating more of a 24/7 live/work atmosphere and sparking a retail upswing. All that will potentially coincide with Google taking occupancy of the nearby Thompson Center, which is being redeveloped into Google’s Chicago headquarters. If all those [things] did coincide, that would create a brand-new atmosphere in the Central Loop. On a smaller scale, there are building sales currently playing out across the central business district, with low-occupancy office buildings attracting potential hotel and multifamily buyers.
Arbatskaia: Transit-oriented development is an exciting strategy. MiamiCentral in Miami, where the Brightline [intercity rail route] was built recently, is booming, and it’s bringing walkability, livability, and vitality to the area.
