Reimagining Cities-Disrupting the Urban Doom Loop

Improve governance and place-based benchmarking. Place management organizations must have more rigorous quantitative and qualitative metrics that are continuously measured. There are mixed research findings about the efficacy of place management organizations, which is troubling. This means that current organizations may not be measuring at all, they may be measuring the wrong things, or they are not generating the capitalized worth from their annual budget from taxpaying property owners. We recommend that the underlying metrics should include the following (with comparisons to the rest of the city, the metro/MSA and national benchmarks): • Valuation PPSF increase/decrease over time. This combines rents (what the market is willing to pay), occupancy (how much the market wants to be in the place), NOI (how efficiently the space is being managed), and cap rates (outside of the control of place management but important to the owners, nonetheless). • GDP PSF increase/decrease over time. While not perfect, GDP is the “gold standard” of economic growth measures. • Net fiscal impact for the city budget increase/decrease over time. It is crucial to show public sector partners of the place manager what the WalkUP means to the city budget. Taxes and fees generated in the WalkUP minus the cost of services the city provides equals the net fiscal impact. The reason to do net fiscal impact analysis is: » The more the WalkUP contributes to the city’s net fiscal impact, the more the mayor and city council will listen to the needs of the WalkUPs. » Demonstrating the private sector is a good partner will yield long-term benefits. » Net fiscal impact will bridge the “downtown business versus the neighborhoods” tension every city has. The outcome could be that the neighborhoods understand that when WalkUPs succeed, their neighborhoods directly benefit as well (through improved public safety, schools, libraries, parks, community centers, etc.). » Finally, there should be quantified metrics of quality-of-life issues such as walkability and safety, including crime within the WalkUP and pedestrian safety, etc. These metrics should be those items the place manager has influence, if not, control over.

88 Cushman & Wakefield