Reimagining Cities-Disrupting the Urban Doom Loop

Downtowns in particular play a disproportionate role in the economy of cities and MSAs. Despite being only 0.02% of MSA land mass and 0.6% of land mass of cities (even smaller in physically larger cities), Downtown WalkUPs contributed 9.2% of MSA GDP, almost as much as the non-WalkUP share of the rest of the city. This was especially notable in gateway cities where Downtowns account for 10.9% of total MSA GDP. For moderate secondary cities, the WalkUPs are a smaller proportion of MSA GDP; but the 7.9% contribution of Downtowns is still notable. Large secondary cities had the lowest share of GDP attributable to Downtowns at 5.7%.

METRO GDP COMPOSITION BY GEOGRAPHY TYPE Change in WalkUP vs Non-WalkUP share of metro GDP (2019 vs 2023)

100%

75%

50%

25%

10.9%

9.2%

7.9%

5.7%

0%

Gateways

Large Secondaries

Moderate Secondaries

All Cities

Downtown

Downtown Adjacent

Urban Commercial

Urban University

Rest of City Metro ex City

Source: Places Platform, LLC; Cushman & Wakefield Research

WalkUPs are extraordinarily productive, creating significantly more GDP per acre of land mass or square footage of real estate stock than other parts of the MSA. For example, Downtowns get market share at a rate that is more than 100 times that of land outside of the WalkUPs. Downtown Adjacent and Urban Commercial WalkUps also demonstrate productivity premiums, as seen in the table on the prior page. (Note this is also true of real estate stock where Downtowns get GDP market share per square foot of real estate at five times the rate of the rest of the city.) From a GDP growth standpoint, trends vary by market. In eight of our 15 markets, WalkUPs increased their GDP market share from 2019 to 2023. For example, WalkUPs in San Francisco gained 1.1% of the MSA’s GDP market share, and the rest of the city gained another 0.5%. This means that the share of GDP being produced outside of the city declined by 1.6%. In other cities, such as Dallas, Phoenix and Austin, the non-city portion of the MSA gained GDP market share.

44 Cushman & Wakefield