Today, with downtowns all across the country being revitalized, those interested in turning their downtowns around no longer need to be pioneers. Instead, they can define effective revitalization strategies by calling on the successes of others. One of the roads to downtown success involves using the ten secrets outlined below.

Secret #1:

For downtown's future to brighten, both the public and private sectors must become involved in the enhancement effort. Neither sector can — or should try to — transform its downtown alone. Instead, the public and private sectors need to come together in partnership in order to make decisions together and ensure that each sector carries its weight to reinvest in and reinvent downtown.

Secret #2:

Today, successful downtowns are those that are vision-driven. This means that a wide variety of constituents have been brought together to define a clear, shared vision of where they want to go. The defined vision must be realistic and shared by the business community, the civic community, the local government, and the citizens. The shared vision must answer a fundamental question — what is the very best our downtown can be five years from now? The next two secrets of success — a market analysis and business plan — are essential in ensuring that the vision is realistic and aggressively pursued.

Secret #3:

Conducting a downtown market analysis is THE critical first step for success. A realistic market analysis is an economic tool that you cannot succeed without. It is a tool that developers of shopping malls, retail centers, outlet malls, power centers, etc., would not do business without. And, to compete on a level playing field, investors — which include business owners, property owners, real estate developers, and city hall —must have the same information at their disposal.

Today, the most successful enhancement efforts are more bottom-line oriented and business-like. Taking a business-like approach to the future means conducting a market analysis that defines:

• Who downtown's customers are;
• Who POTENTIAL customers are;
• What goods and services these customers and potential customers want today;
• What will they want tomorrow; and
• The niche downtown can fill in providing those goods and services.

Secret #4:

Businesses that operate according to a business plan are more successful than those that don't . . . and the same is true for business districts. The most pro-active, business-like partnerships are starting their programs by defining a clear course of action that is aggressively implemented in a timely manner. The business plan spells out a course of action that will enable downtown to attain the defined community vision of success and capture the economic opportunities revealed in the market analysis.

August 1995 / Illinois Municipal Review / Page 7

To succeed economically, downtown must create, carve out, and become known for a particular niche in the marketplace. It cannot compete head-on with the malls or with the discounters and expect to win. Instead, it must pursue an economic niche that will allow it to successfully co-exist with the mails and the discounters — by being different and unique.

More and more, this has come to mean that downtown must create its own "economic themes." The goal is to make downtown distinct so that it will stand out in the mind of the customer.

Economic themes are created by clustering together businesses — such as apparel or antiques or restaurants or home furnishings, etc. — that appeal to particular customer groups. By clustering similar businesses near each other, these businesses become more convenient for customers and downtown becomes known for those businesses. In this way, downtown takes on an economic theme — or focus — that makes it distinct and distinctive.

Secret #6:

In all but the smallest of communities, the downtown area is physically too large to revitalize in one bite and the issues are too numerous to tackle all at one time. And, in every community, advocates and skeptics alike want to see visible improvements occur in downtown immediately.

Because of this situation, the most successful enhancement programs are those where limited resources — time, energy, money, staff, volunteers, etc. — have been focused in well-defined target areas. Concentrating resources in target areas breeds success because it makes revitalization of the entire downtown seem manageable over time. Issues seem less overwhelming when they are resolved one at a time and tangible results can be clustered so that they become more visible more quickly.

Secret #7:

The days of first looking outside your community for a savior — whether that be a new business, anchor,

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investor, or funder — are over. Instead, to be successful, local officials must learn to become self-reliant and resourceful. This means that downtown partnerships, professionals, and local government officials must become adept at spotting and nurturing local entrepreneurs and getting them to locate downtown. In addition, these same constituents must also "put their money where their mouth is" when it comes to financing their enhancement effort — rather than expecting funders from outside the community to bankroll their downtown's future.

Secret #8:

The most successful downtowns in America are — and will continue to be — those that have realized that their strength lies in doing business the old-fashioneds way. This means a return to personalized customer attention; providing value for money; standing behind your products; promoting the special, historic appearance of downtown; promoting it as the community's social, cultural, entertainment, residential, professional office, and family center; and stressing the community pride that results from a healthy downtown.

Secret #9:

Within any given community, business owners and real estate developers have many options when looking for a location in which to invest. For downtown to be the investment location of choice, the local government must be pro-business. This means revising regulations that make it hard to operate a business or invest property in downtown. Being pro-business also means streamlining government processes (codes, planning, licensing, etc.) so that investors can go into business as quickly as possible.

While being pro-business is essential to downtown's success, it must go hand-in-hand with being pro-quality. This means that local government should not —and must not be pressured to — forego quality in order to attract investors. Instead, city hall and the business community must jointly convey the clear message that downtown welcomes quality business owners, property owners, and real estate developers —those who will operate quality businesses, maintain quality properties, and reinvest in these investments.

August 1995 / Illinois Municipal Review / Page 9

While our downtowns should not try to — and are not able to — compete head-on with malls and win, the most successful downtowns are those that have learned and borrowed the best management techniques from malls. These include the Five M's described below.

• Management — The downtown partnership should function much as a shopping mall management company does.
• Market Knowledge — The enhancement program should be based on a market analysis that identifies downtown's niches and targeted customers.
• Marketing — The enhancement program should include a multi-faceted marketing campaign that allows downtown and its businesses to communicate with the targeted customers.
• Maintenance — Downtown must be appealing by keeping high standards of maintenance for both private and public property.
• Money — A goal of the enhancement program should be to create a financing mechanism that ensures adequate, predictable, and reliable funds with which to implement the downtown revitalization effort.

Dolores P. Palma is the president of Hyett Palma, Inc., the only national consulting firm that specializes in the economic renaissance of business districts. Based in Alexandria, VA, the firm has served business districts in all 50 states. The firm's work has been featured in numerous publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, American City & County Magazine, Public Management Magazine, Parking Magazine, and Nation's Cities-Weekly. In addition, the firm's work has received awards of excellence from the American Planning Association, National Capitol Area Chapter, and the Virginia Downtown Development Association.

Left to right: David Karel, Lil Key,
First Lady Brenda Edgar and Bob Neal.

Operation Baby Buckle, a program of the Safe America Foundation, is seeking corporate and community sponsorship to help purchase child safety seats. The people in the photo represent some of the groups who are part of this public/private partnership, including Primerica Financial Services, the national sponsor, St. Anthony Hospital, and the Illinois Department of Transportation. In addition, the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, the University of Illinois at Chicago Emergency Medicine, General Motors, UPS, Century Products, the Odyssey Cruise line, and Hanna-Barbera, among others, are all supporting the project. There are also Kiwanis and Lions clubs signing up to help out.

First Lady Brenda Edgar is Honorary Chairperson for Operation Baby Buckle in the Midwest.

Goals of Operation Baby Buckle include raising funds to purchase and then distribute child safety seats to families who might not otherwise be able to afford them. This is a nationwide effort, and the ultimate goals is to distribute 100,000 seats by 1997. In addition, partners in this project will help educate the public on safety issues.

$1,000 will allow you to be a 'sponsor' and will purchase 50 seats.

For information about how to become part of this group, contact Michael J. Evans, National Sales Director, Primerica Financial Services, 2105 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago. Illinois 60616. or call 312-791-1995.

Page 10 / Illinois Municipal Review / August 1995