Reimagining Cities-Disrupting the Urban Doom Loop

7 The Play category matters, a lot. This category includes sports,

entertainment, museums, theaters, retail, restaurants, convention, hotels and more, and is currently 14.3% of all WalkUP inventory and 13.9% of all WalkUP valuation. There is a large foot traffic bang for the buck for destination sports/entertainment real estate; roughly a fourth of visitors frequent these venues which only occupy 1% of WalkUP real estate inventory. While the smallest of the three Live/Work/Play categories, Play is crucially important and more so in the future experience economy. Visitors spend money and provide more eyes, ears and smiles on the sidewalks, therefore generating real economic benefits as well as positive externalities. Urban Universities are now major economic anchors. While urban universities have been major export earning anchors for many decades, that economic development was often confined to the boundaries of the campus and an adjacent student focused retail/housing concentration. Many urban universities used to turn their back on their neighborhoods, not being concerned if the neighborhoods deteriorated or not. Today, more urban universities are now embracing their neighborhoods, many times actively redeveloping them. Urban universities are also major economic development anchors in the knowledge economy. At their economic development highest levels, urban universities are spawning Innovation Districts which include office, R&D and lab space that is commercializing the research findings of the university into commercial enterprises, as well as housing and retail. The best example in the country is the Kendell Square Innovation District, adjacent to MIT.

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Almost 70% of foot traffic within WalkUPs is generated by visitors—not residents or employees. This figure is perhaps the clearest signal of the importance of tourism to WalkUPs and urban tourism to their cities. This finding also highlights the important role of Play real estate in creating a draw for people to come into WalkUPs. These visitors returned faster post-pandemic than residents and workers. This is consistent with the 2023 Downtowns Rebound research by the Philadelphia Center City District research, focusing on 26 Downtowns (not the other three categories of WalkUps).

Reimagining Cities: Disrupting the Urban Doom Loop 81