last modified: Monday, December 19, 2005 10:19 AM
Downtown Development Authorities as a Catalyst to
Development: A Case Study of
Local economic development in many communities has focused on either creating
or revitalizing the city’s downtown district. Attracting businesses, shoppers,
and residents to the downtown has become an important part of many cities’ strategy. To
aid in these efforts, many cities have established a Downtown Development
Authority (DDA) to help attract and promote business in the downtown. This
paper looks at the city of
DDA Leads Downtown Revitalization
The goal of any DDA is to increase the business activity of the city. One way to do this is to bring in well-known national chains as a means of spurring growth. However, these chains often have specific criteria that must be matched in order for them to open a new store. These criteria can involve demographic requirements such as population density or income levels, as well as physical requirements like building size or number of parking spaces.
Because of these requirements many of Sheppard-Decius’ early attempts were
unsuccessful. For example, Starbucks and Borders both declined the opportunity
to open in
Sheppard-Decius decided to tap into the local business networks to increase downtown business activity. The DDA played an important role in helping many local business owners through the process of starting their own business. The success of these small, independent stores varied, but as time passed, certain niches began to emerge. Unique clothing and shoe stores, independent record stores, and restaurants and cafes were succeeding, and the downtown slowly came back to life. The vacancy rate dropped from 30% to around 3%.
The revitalization of
According to Sheppard-Decius, it is important to be aware of those differences when targeting potential businesses. A city would not want to bring in a store that is not likely to do well, and likewise a store owner wants to open in a location where it is most likely to succeed.
Building on the success of its downtown, Sheppard-Decius initiated events
to highlight local businesses. The DDA took over control of the annual Dream
Sheppard-Decius’ experiences illustrate two important aspects to creating
an effective DDA. The first is to accept the situation a city finds itself
in, and determine the best way to build off of that. An example is
It is also important to recognize the importance of knowing “who you are” as
a city and using marketing as a way to make it grow. As the downtown took
shape, Sheppard-Decius identified certain groups that frequented downtown
Limitations on a Development Authority’s Effectiveness
It is often noted that determining the effectiveness of economic development programs can be difficult. In this case, it is difficult to gauge how much of a business’s or shopper’s decision is based on the actions of the DDA and what their decisions would be in the absence of any policy.
There are also variable outside the control of the city or DDA that can
have a large influence on the vitality of the local business. Fluctuations
in the national and regional economy play an important role. For example,
the automobile industry’s troubles will have an impact throughout southeast
Sheppard-Decius faces other difficulties as well. The first is the size
of the downtown district. As mentioned earlier, the primary business district
is located along
Another challenge is the buildings themselves. Many of the buildings are older compared to buildings in other communities. While this may allow for lower rents, business owners may prefer to locate somewhere else.