Reimagining Cities-Disrupting the Urban Doom Loop

lower GDP growth when they had place management organizations. Downtowns with place management recorded total GDP growth of 10.8% compared to 5.8% for those without, a difference of 500 basis points (bps). Since half of WalkUP GDP comes from Downtown WalkUps, and most place management organizations and their spending are concentrated there, it is reassuring to see economic dividends from place management. There are likely to be other dividends we did not study for place management in Downtown Adjacent, Urban Commercial and Urban University WalkUPs, but there was no notable GDP outperformance—in fact, we observed the opposite.

The real estate valuation and inventory analysis we conducted showed that BIDs are not always associated with higher real estate values. In gateway cities, WalkUPs with place management tend to achieve higher PPSF, but this is not true in secondary cities. Further, this analysis reveals that larger place management budgets do not necessarily correlate with higher real estate asset valuations in a WalkUP. Whether looking at the total budget or the budget psf (a better comparison to real estate PPSF), there is no discernable association. For example, Atlanta’s Downtown Improvement District (DID), with an average annual budget of $10.6 million, oversees a WalkUP with 94 msf of real estate inventory valued at $19.2 billion in 2023. In comparison, the Midtown Improvement District (MID) in Atlanta (a Downtown Adjacent WalkUP) has a significantly larger annual budget of $23 million, yet it manages a smaller total real estate inventory of 65 msf, valued at $17 billion. Atlanta’s DID spends one dollar for every $1,811 of real estate valuation, and $2,263 of GDP. The MID spends one dollar for every $739 of real estate valuation and $756 of GDP. Like the results from GDP analysis, Downtown Adjacent, Urban Commercial and Urban University WalkUPs with BIDs underperformed on a PPSF valuation basis. Values are generally down across most commercial property types, while for-sale residential values are generally higher—so underperformance in this instance means that declines in PPSF were steeper in WalkUPs with BIDs. This may be influenced by factors such as the composition of inventory as we clearly see that WalkUPs with BIDs tend to have garnered a higher share of office or Work inventory. The analysis offers good news for Downtown WalkUPs, which are office-centric and even more so in areas with BIDs. Downtown WalkUPs with BIDs recorded smaller declines in PPSF compared to those without a BID. Place management agencies seem to act as a safety net, helping to stabilize Downtowns as they weather economic and social upheavals.

GDP RECOVERY BY WALKUP TYPE AND BID STATUS % change in GDP (2019-2023) by BID status

20%

15%

10%

5%

0%

Downtown

All WalkUPs

Urban University

Urban Commercial

Downtown Adjacent

Has a BID

No BID

Source: Places Platform, LLC, Cushman & Wakefield Research

Reimagining Cities: Disrupting the Urban Doom Loop 59