Rebound or transformation: What is next for business improvement districts after 50 years?

Abstract

As business improvement districts (BIDs) in the US reach the half-century mark, how prepared are they to handle challenges lingering from the events of 2020: the impact of remote and hybrid work on downtown vitality, resurgence of quality-of-life challenges and, for many, declining assessments as older office buildings empty out? This paper reviews the history and evolution of downtown organisations, primarily in North America, as they have responded to trends that have reshaped urban regions and city centres in the last half-century. It asks if the disruptions triggered by the 2020 global pandemic were just another in a series of challenges for which city centre organisations already have the skills and panoply of programmes through which to respond? Or were the disruptions so profound as to require a complete rethinking of downtown land use and functions? Should BIDs and related city centre organisations simply do more of what they were doing in 2019, securing additional sources of revenue, or must they rethink and restructure their mission, adding new services and different professional staff to fashion new funding sources and programmes to respond to profoundly changed realities and to support the realignment of downtown economies? Based on national research overseen by the author, more than three decades managing and expanding a BID, a review of multiple published policy studies and interviews with several downtown professionals across the US, the paper outlines the types of choices to be considered and implemented by city centre leaders, tailored to the site-specific conditions in their downtown. This article is also included in The Business & Management Collection which can be accessed at https://hstalks.com/business/.