TRAVERSE CITY — Empty streets and storefronts are no longer a problem in downtown Traverse City – but even bustling commercial centers face challenges in growing and maintaining a vibrant business core.
The “Evolution of City Building” was the theme of the keynote address at Thursday night’s “A Toast to Downtown” event at the historic City Opera House.
The annual event, which recognizes and celebrates downtown businesses and property owners, is presented by the Downtown Traverse City Association and the Downtown Development Authority, and includes a presentation of the Lyle DeYoung Award for contributions to the downtown.
Scott and Cindy Hardy honored with DeYoung Award
Keynote speaker David Downey, president and CEO of the International Downtown Association, said the formation of strong working relationships between business groups, civic and governmental organizations and the public is critical for communities in developing strong and sustainable central business districts.
“Local partnerships are key to everything,” Downey said in an interview before the Toast to Downtown event. “There’s no one entity; there’s no one public or private-sector component that’s at the core of city building… It’s all of the public, private, civic and other individuals that come together as inspired leaders shaping their cities.”
The IDA is a professional place management organization based in Washington, D.C., that assists communities and business organizations, including Downtown Development Authorities across the U.S. and Canada. Downey said the origins of DDAs go back 70 years to a merchant organization outside Toronto. The second DDA was launched in New Orleans in 1972.
DDAs have taken on a myriad of challenges over those seven decades, ranging from battling urban decay when commercial centers were gutted by the exodus to urban shopping malls in the 1960s and ‘70s to the economic devastation created by the COVID-19 lockdowns three years ago.
While communities like Traverse City have seen their downtowns overcome those hurdles to again thrive as regional destinations, successful downtowns will have to find answers to other evolving issues. Those issues include housing and workforce shortages, escalating land and development costs and growing homeless populations in urban areas.
“With strong growth, affordability becomes a challenge,” Downey said. “Whether it’s teachers or firefighters or service workers, their ability to live within the community or within a short commute is paramount to long-term success.”
Dealing with industry changes in office management, including more people working from home, is another challenge for downtowns, Downey said, along with public safety and escalating homeless populations. Communities are also working on “Vision Zero” initiatives to make downtowns safer for pedestrian and bicycle traffic.
“These are all of the topics that our members, largely throughout North America – the U.S. and Canada – deal with each and every day,” he said.
The upside is that are numerous communities that Traverse City can look to for help designing local solutions to those challenges. Cities like Norfolk, Va., and Huntsville, Ala., have developed placemaking and entrepreneurial development strategies that can be effective in other cities. Likewise, Downey said, Traverse City has programs and amenities that he will share with other cities. The city’s downtown crosswalk and intersection designs are one example of what other cities should strive for, he said.
“There’s many peer cities that you can look to and emulate,” he said. “We like to say in our industry that ‘R&D’ stands for ‘rip-off and duplicate.’ “
DDA Chief Executive Officer Jean Derenzy said the IDA has been an important resource to help local officials identify best practices for downtown operations based on successes achieved in other communities.
“The (IDA) really opened … us to different opportunities that we’re not in this alone, Michigan is not in this alone – we’re in this together to make great place(s) throughout the United States and internationally, too,” Derenzy said. “We work hard at getting economic placemaking into our communities.”