2023 Summer Issue of Urban Land - 65

Aerial view of the
future Downtown
South in Raleigh, North
Carolina.
on the site of the historic Ritz movie theater,
which served Black residents when they had
limited options for watching movies during the
Jim Crow era. Adorned with plaques that tell the
story of the neighborhood's rich Black history, it
is a frequent site of respite for the locals.
Economic Impact
Creative placemaking has an economic impact
on communities because property values often
rise due to proximity of art and culture assets.
Though time will tell, evidence from all six case
studies indicates expectations are that the investment
in creative placemaking will have a positive
economic impact over time. For example,
Christiansted and Nashville, faced with recovering
from a disaster, both decided to lead with art to
restore and activate the devastated areas. This is
a good approach in view of facts about the economic
impact of arts and culture:
According to the Arts and Cultural Production
Satellite Account, released by National Endowment
for the Arts (NEA) and the Bureau of Economic
Analysis (BEA), arts and culture added
$876.7 billion, or 4.2 percent, to the U.S. gross
domestic product in 2020. Arts and culture represent
a larger share of the U.S. economy than
transportation, agriculture, and utilities.
A 2022 report, A New Bottom Line: The Value
& Impact of Placemaking, by the Toronto Metropolitan
University and other partners, including
the Daniels Corporation, found that people are
50 percent more likely to spend time in places
with creative placemaking than those without.
This, in conjunction with the findings cited above,
implies a compounding of the social and economic
benefits of creative placemaking.
Michael Henehan, president of the Bozzuto
Development Company, noted the impact of
Monroe Street Market, a $250 million mixed-use,
transit-oriented development in Washington, D.C.,
with 27 artist studios on the ground floor of two
of its three buildings. In a post-project review,
he was convinced that the decision to focus on
creative placemaking was the right one for the
neighborhood and contributed to faster leaseups,
higher retention rates, and a reduced project
cycle time, speeding up development.
Another example of economic impact can be
seen in the Distillery District on Toronto's Lake
Ontario shoreline. In 2001, Cityscape Holding
Corporation acquired the site of a 158-year-old
distillery, defunct for more than a decade. In
a marvelous example of adaptive use, a Victorian
industrial complex of 47 buildings was
transformed into an arts and culture center that
opened in 2003. The developers blended old
and new, integrating beautiful Victorian-style
buildings with 21st-century design and creativity;
carefully curated a selection of retail spaces,
art galleries, studios, theaters, restaurants, and
cafés; and installed public art throughout the
SUMMER 2023
URBAN LAND
65
PROACTIVE
K ANE REAL T Y C ORPOR A TION
2023 Summer Issue of Urban Land

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of 2023 Summer Issue of Urban Land
