America's aging downtowns have retained their allure for empty nesters looking for a pedestrian-friendly lifestyle and young professionals who want around-the-clock action, studies reveal.

Redeveloping downtown is, however, not without obstacles created by the economy, preservation issues, changed retail buying habits, NIMBYists (not-in-my-back-yard) and a host of other factors that get in the way of returning to those city core glory days of yore when everybody in the block knew your name.

Fortunately, along with those who want to live in a downtown urban setting, an influx of immigrants looking to open small businesses, the Old World appeal of street-front retail for consumers, the saturation of suburban malls and associated sprawl, a decline of inner-city crime in many regions, and increased public incentives for real estate investments in urban settings are more and more often combining to cast a favorable vote for a new and improved Main Street.

To help make it so, the Urban Land Institute (ULI) has prepared "Ten Principles For Rebuilding Neighborhood Retail," a treatise designed to help communities overcome some of the odds stacked against urban neighborhoods and retail redevelopment.

"The challenges of rebuilding persist not only in low-income neighborhoods, but in other urban locations where retailing never recovered from the shift of buying habits that led people to suburban shopping centers," the report says.

Blocks of neighborhood storefronts have been "forgotten or purposely avoided" by retailers and developers, often due to preconceived notions regarding the insufficient purchasing power of urban residents, assumptions that retail opportunities are greater in other areas and the difficulty in solving safety and security problems, the publication notes.

"Rebuilding neighborhood retail streets differs significantly from developing a suburban shopping center ... so innovative strategies must be employed," the booklet says.

ULI bases its ten principles on an examination of three neighborhood shopping streets in Washington, D.C. conducted in June, 2003. Evaluating the streets were teams of commercial developers, public planners, nonprofit developers, architects, economic consultants and property advisors.

Often focusing on the needs of the residents, the principles are:

1. Find champions. Every revitalization project needs someone or some entity to initiate the process, ensure it is done right and to follow through to completion.

2. Have a vision. Successful rebuilding will be incremental, so it must be based on a shared vision that provides a strategic framework for imagining, analyzing, judging and implementing each step.

3. Think residential. Successful retail needs a captive audience -- successful residential neighborhoods. Where residential growth and revitalization is occurring, retail will follow. It will not occur the other way around. Don't put the cart before the horse.

4. Honor pedestrians. Build for people, not cars. Recognize that street patterns affect walkability. Construct parking to enhance the pedestrian experience rather than detract from it. Encourage multiple entrances to serve pedestrians as well as those driving to the area.

5. Parking is power. Size the street's parking requirements realistically and recognize that parking needs change. Provide on-street as well as off-street parking through innovative designs in accessible, user-friendly locations.

6. Merchandise and lease proactively. Attract and retain the right tenant mix to preserve a street's unique character and to provide diversity among the retailers.

7. Make it happen. In many communities, market conditions that caused neighborhood commercial streets to decline are still in place, and it takes an aggressive commitment by the public and private sector to address negative influences before sustaining retail revitalization.

8. Keep it clean, secure and friendly. If neighborhood shopping is clean, safe and friendly, customers will be drawn to it even though the street may still be in transition.

9. Extend day into night. Don't roll up the red carpet at dusk. Longer hours equal stronger sales, and strong sales define a successful shopping street. Identify, plan for, and tap multiple markets to keep the cash register jingling throughout the day and after the sun goes down.

10. Manage for change. Rebuilding a neighborhood retail street is a long reinvestment process and market realities will change throughout its evolution. Be prepared to support change in perpetuity.

Published: January 7, 2004

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Broderick Perkins parlayed a career in old-school journalism into a contemporary digital news service that really hits home. The award-winning consumer journalist, originally from Wilmington, DE, is founder, publisher and executive editor of the bootstrap DeadlineNews Group, a Silicon Valley-based editorial content and consulting service specializing in residential real estate, consumer news and related editorial consulting services. The DeadlineNews Group includes the Web site, DeadlineNews.Com, offering real estate editorial content and consulting services, and its back shop, the Deadline Newsroom, an open house on news that really hits home. Perkins obtained his formal journalism education from University of Delaware and a journalism boot camp, the Institute of Journalism Education at the University of California-Berkeley. He went on to 20 years of service as a daily newspaper journalist at the Wilmington, DE News Journal and San Jose, CA Mercury News. Perkins covered housing on the San Jose Mercury News reporting team which earned a General News Reporting Pulitzer Prize in 1989 for coverage of the Loma Prieta earthquake. He has also produced real estate, consumer and small business content for the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, RealtyTimes.com, Nolo.com, Better Homes and Gardens, the National Association of Realtors, Homestore/Move and Intuit/Quicken among more than three dozen publications. In addition to managing the DeadlineNews Group, Perkins most recently served as chief editorial consultant for "Nolo's Essential Guide To Buying Your First Home" (Nolo $24.99) and writes real estate television scripts for RealtyTimes.com.