2024 Fall Issue of Urban Land - 40

to go fully remote or downsize but haven't
had a chance [to] because they've been
locked into their leases. Work from home
[affects] the number of people who are
downtown, so it also affects retailers. Retail
vacancies do not create the vitality we're all
looking for. In Chicago, if we could make the
Loop more interesting after hours or on the
weekends, that's going to help encourage
people to come downtown . . . .
ARBATSKAIA: The biggest obstacle is the
mindset that the general public has toward
downtown. People just don't see [downtowns
as places] they want to go to, maybe
because they have been zoned almost
entirely for office use. And since Covid-19,
office buildings are still largely empty, so
people don't see the need to go downtown,
or they perceive it as empty or dangerous.
We need to shift that mindset. The lack of
public transportation and difficulties finding
parking are also obstacles. Cities should
work with privately owned parking garages
to share the uses. Shared use is a popular
strategy nowadays, but it's still not as fully
integrated into downtowns as it could be.
What key strategies do you feel are too
often left out of the conversation?
ARBATSKAIA: Nature has too often been left
out of the conversation. When developers
are developing land, there's almost never a
conversation with the public sector about the
public realm, unless it's a mixed-use project,
and even then, the conversation is usually
just about retail. Public plazas and spaces
Let's Glow SF is a
free holiday arts
event occurring each
year in downtown
San Francisco, with
digital art projected
onto the façades
of participating
buildings in the
downtown area.
More than 67,000
people attended in
December 2023.
benefit the public. In Barcelona, it was long a
requirement for any developer to either put
some credits toward development of public
spaces or develop public spaces within their
land. Even small pocket parks can work.
ROSS: In Georgia, we recently worked on
several downtown revitalization projects.
During a community meeting, a participant
remarked, " We just need the downtown to
be a soul. Right now, it's an artery, but it
needs to be a soul. " To achieve this, it's crucial
to activate the public realm and leverage
natural assets. For instance, in our collaboration
with the city of Brookhaven, Georgia,
we are capitalizing on the Peachtree Creek
Greenway. By designing buildings to face
the greenway rather than turn their backs on
it, we integrate nature into the urban fabric,
transforming downtown into a place where
people can pause, rather than merely pass
through.
DEMOSS: More cities should be considering
subsidies for retailers to locate downtown.
And not just for local retailers, but for the
national brands, as well. The city of Chicago
touched on it a little bit with the LaSalle
Street Corridor Revitalization program. But
only local retailers could apply, and it was
just for retailers locating within a designated
geographic area within the LaSalle Street
area, not the rest of the Loop. Downtown
retail can't survive with just local retailers.
An incentive program for employees or for
employers to encourage their people to
come downtown would also be great. Some
firms have been trying to do that by relocating
to nicer office buildings with upgraded
amenity packages. That's not necessarily
helping the Class B and C market, however.
COLLIGNON: Leading with entertainment is
important. Starting with entertainment gives
office workers a reason to come back to the
office. Entertainment uses also add to the
vitality of downtown, to help offset some
of the negative perceptions of downtown
that have festered in recent years, and in
doing so, they start to build the market for
other kinds of uses, like residential, education,
and others that diversify the mix of uses
downtown beyond office space. Nashville is
one poster child for adding entertainment
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2024 Fall Issue of Urban Land

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