The Brookings Institute has an interesting publication out concerning downtown redevelopment. Check it out at
http://www.brookings.edu/dybdocroot/metro/pubs/20050307_12steps.pdfI found the following blurb from that report about Albuquerque's "Catalytic Development Company" the most fascinating. This is a hot idea. Does Tulsa have something like this in the works? Tulsa needs it. If it can work for Albuquerque it can work for Tulsa.
Albuquerque
Since 1945, 31 studies have been conducted on how to turn downtown Albuquerque
around. Every one of these studies focused on one or two “solutions,” such as a new convention
center, a civic plaza, streetscape improvements of the main retail street (redone
twice), a pedestrian mall, and so on.
None of these “magic bullets” worked.
Then, in 1998, the newly elected Mayor Jim Baca made revitalizing downtown his number
one priority, …a catalytic development company, the
Historic District Improvement Co. (HDIC), was identified to help re-introduce private real
estate development to downtown, where there had not been a private-sector building permit
in 15 years.
…HDIC has developed over $50 million in new projects between 2000 and 2004, including
a 14-screen movie theater, restaurants, specialty retail, office, and for-sale housing. It
has an additional $60 million in the planning pipeline, which is primarily housing.
In the past two years, there have also been a number of new developers attracted to
downtown Albuquerque. HDIC has provided these prospective developers access to its
market and consumer research, introductions to their investors and bankers, and partnerships
on parcels HDIC controls. HDIC has recently acted as the land, or horizontal
developer, partnering with a building or vertical developer for 109 units of new rental
housing. After critical mass is achieved in downtown, it is probable that HDIC will go out
of business, leaving the field to private developers attracted to the then proven market, and
it will eventually return the capital, hopefully significantly appreciated, to the McCune
Foundation.
In 2003, National Public Radio’s Smart City program called downtown Albuquerque
“the fastest downtown turnaround in the country,” due to the implementation of its complex
strategy for downtown. To date, there has been over $400 million of new public and
private sector development in downtown Albuquerque since the development and initial
implementation of the 1998 strategy.
