Downtown Leadership Initiative
Establishing strong downtown leadership is crucial to the success of this plan and the future of downtown. The tendency for downtown redevelopment typically is to hold the City responsible. The City is a major stakeholder and has often taken the laboring oar in seeking ways to encourage private investment. A strong downtown is in the interest of the whole community. Local government should play a key role in encouraging downtown investment; assuring the proper delivery of services and entering into public-private partnerships to enable redevelopment to move ahead. But government should not be the leader. Downtown leadership should be the role and responsibility of all of those who are invested in the area—property owners, tenants and government.
Four proposals should be considered to share responsibility for downtown improvement:
- Private / Non-Profit Development Corporation
A Private / Non-Profit Development Corporation should be created which has the mission and resources to take a leadership position in the development and management of downtown. Its purpose would be to promote and assist in the revitalization, development, beautification, preservation and advancement of downtown. The Development Corporation would be the “steward” of downtown and have implementation of this plan as its primary mission. Daily activities would be directed by a downtown coordinator who would function in a manner analogous to a shopping center manager. - Marketing and Promotion Corporation
This Private / Non-Profit entity would have as its primary purpose the marketing and promotion of downtown. Its purpose would be to develop a downtown marketing program focusing on business recruitment, customer attraction and image creation. Its purpose would also be to coordinate community events programming and a community performance venue. It is also a key player with the city in marketing downtown as a unique entertainment district. The Marketing and Promotion Corporation could be housed within the Development Corporation or could be a separate entity. - Public / City Downtown Commission
Recognizing that the emergence of an entity like the proposed Private / Non-profit Development Corporation will take time, initial leadership must continue to come from the city. To that end, the City should identify and charge a key staff individual as responsible for downtown development. This charge must also come with a parallel allocation of work time. It would be desirable if this individual had only the downtown as his/her responsibility.
The City must remain a key player in downtown beyond authorizing a staff individual. The importance of downtown must be recognized at the highest levels. Therefore, the City should activate a Downtown Commission, which has the primary purpose of reviewing and recommending downtown plans and projects, TIF redevelopment proposals, façade loans and other incentives, streetscape, parking and other public improvements. This Commission should keep the City Council informed about the status of downtown activities and recommend City investment and regulatory actions to encourage downtown maintenance and growth. It should have formal liaison with the Private / Non-Profit Development Corporation if and when in emerges. This might best be done by having a member of the City Council serve as a member of the Board of Directors of the Private / Non-Profit Development Corporation . - “Downtown is the City” Marketing Program
The Marketing and Promotion Corporation, along with assistance from the public sectorshould organize and implement a downtown marketing program with the following goals:- To assure that all citizens of Urbana recognize the value of downtown to its tax base and community image, support investments in downtown, and use downtown.
- To establish the image of downtown as the food/drink based entertainment center of the region, and an urban area to live as well as visit.
- To make downtown a viable place to locate and invest in new housing, specialty retail and small business development.
- Support for this marketing effort should continue through a designated marketing fund with member support.
