Practice Area Archives - Page 8 of 11

Times Square Economic Impact Analysis & Retail Strategy

February 10, 2016 / Comments Off

HR&A Partners led New York City and State efforts to reinvigorate Times Square, and begin the process of building its strong brand.

Following World War II, through the 1980s, Times Square, while the heart of New York City’s entertainment district, suffered from crime, urban decay, pornography, social disaffiliation and general economic deterioration. Today, Times Square is the nation’s best example of the successful transformation of a symbol of urban decay into a world class center for entertainment.

HR&A conducted the first economic impact analysis of Times Square on the New York City economy since its transformation in 2007.

Beyond measuring traditional impacts, HR&A quantified how Times Square promotes the City to the world by serving as a tourist destination, global headquarters, premier public gathering space and prime event location. The Times Square Alliance used the study to engage in the City’s PlaNYC process, securing the district’s future as one New York’s most important public spaces and vibrant mixed-use neighborhoods. In 2011, HR&A completed an update of the 2007 impact analysis.

HR&A Partner Kate Coburn created a comprehensive retail strategy for Times Square.

Working with the Times Square Alliance, Kate developed a strategy to diversify the retail tenant mix in the Times Square area extending retail and restaurant opportunities to Eighth Avenue. She created an implementation plan to attract new tenants to the area, outlining a marketing strategy that included public relations, retailer outreach, outreach to area landlords and broker contacts.

Talking Transition

February 9, 2016 / Comments Off

As New York City prepared to greet a new mayor for the first time in 12 years, HR&A managed a project to transform the usual closed-door process between Election Day and Inauguration into an opportunity for New Yorkers to make their voices heard.

HR&A proudly led the design and implementation of Talking Transition, an innovative new model for civic engagement. On behalf of a coalition of ten New York City foundations including: the Open Society Foundation, Atlantic Philanthropies, Brooklyn Community Foundation, Ford Foundation, New York Community Trust, New York Foundation, New York Women’s Foundation, North Star Fund, Charles H. Revson Foundation, and Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Talking Transition transformed the period between Election Day and Inauguration into an opportunity for broad public engagement, bringing together citizens from all corners of New York City to participate in public conversations about the policy issues, ideas and questions that affect their communities.

Over the course of two weeks following the 2013 mayoral election, Talking Transition created a forum for tens of thousands of New Yorkers to communicate their ideas to newly elected officials. A series of live public engagement events were held in a 15,000 square foot open “think tent” on Canal Street that served as the initiative’s Town Hall. Talking Transition also brought the discussion to neighborhoods all over NYC with “mobile tents” and more than 100 canvassers, who employed TalkNYC, a new digital survey experience. As a result, Talking Transition revealed New Yorkers’ sentiments about their neighborhoods and the direction of the city. TalkNYC yielded one of the most expansive public opinion surveys in the city’s history. Nearly 70,000 people weighed in on City services and other quality of life issues over which City government has influence. HR&A aggregated the results of the data in the “Sentiment of a City” report, which showed that the affordability of housing, the ability to find employment, and representation in policy decisions are among New Yorkers’ highest concerns.

As Washington, DC welcomed a new mayor, HR&A worked with a coalition of civic organizations to give Washingtonians a voice in the mayoral transition process.

After the 2014 election of Mayor Muriel Bowser in Washington D.C., HR&A planned and executed a second public engagement survey initiative coinciding with the mayoral transition – Talking Transition DC – on behalf of the Open Society Foundations and a consortium of District-based grantees – including the Urban Institute, the National Institute for Civil Discourse, DC Working Families, and DC Vote. The goal of the initiative was to transform the typically insular, closed-door process that occurs between Election Day and Inauguration day into an opportunity for broad civil discourse, and ultimately a stronger, more equitable democracy.

Talking Transistion DC was an experiment in innovative civic engagement, policy, and grass-roots organizing. To include as many voices, perspectives, and opinions as possible, HR&A designed a survey instrument and oversaw deployment of the iPad-based survey to 8,500 respondents. We developed a canvassing strategy, trained canvasser teams, and worked closely with canvassers to execute the strategy to ensure respondents were representative of Washingtonians. The survey sample was largely representative of Washington, DC today – achieving a key goal of the initiative and ensuring that our findings were representative of a broader swath of DC residents.

The survey asked a wide range of quality of life questions ranging from school quality to job availability and housing affordability to transit access. During and following the survey deployment, HR&A reviewed, validated, and analyzed survey data and conducted a Ward-level analysis to better understand potential geographic differences in responses. Certain issues revealed geographic divisions in the city. For example, HR&A found that, while residents were united in their sentiments that housing in DC is largely unaffordable, residents in the Southeastern Wards tended to respond to questions more negatively than residents living in the Northwest. On questions relating to police-community relations, public safety, and job availability, residents in DC’s Southeast tended to have a much more negative outlook. HR&A synthesized the survey results into a report for public dissemination and presented the findings through a citywide 21st-Century Town Hall meeting. Following the conclusion of the project, the team also presented the report to Mayor Muriel Bowser, meeting with her to discuss the survey’s results and its potential policy implications.

Program Development and Implementation for The Lawn on D

February 9, 2016 / Comments Off

HR&A developed the conceptual programming strategy and business plan for The Lawn on D.

The Lawn on D is a vibrant, flexible, program-driven landscape and event space located along Boston’s rapidly revitalizing D Street Corridor. Since its opening in the summer of 2014, the 2.7 acre park has become a popular, well-loved part of Boston’s Innovation District, drawing over 30,000 visitors from all areas of Boston to experience the park’s high-impact, well-rounded programming. The Massachusetts Convention Center Authority (MCCA), the public-organization that owns the space located at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, tasked a Sasaki-led design team with conceiving of the Lawn on D. HR&A’s role on this interdisciplinary team was to lead the development of a catalytic programming strategy that would serve as an innovative placemaking exercise and driver of neighborhood revitalization. To frame the park as Boston’s new go-to destination for the area’s diverse customer base of residents, workers, and conventioneers, HR&A developed a vision that emphasizes play and leisurely interaction with culture, incorporating interactive playscapes, high-impact art and design, a diverse calendar of events, and local food and drink concessions. The resulting Lawn on D delivers high-quality, interactive programming – within a flexible, experimental event space and traditional passive park – to strengthen the connection of the convention center to the surrounding urban fabric.

HR&A worked with the MCCA to translate this programming vision into an implementable, defined strategy, and devised the planning, implementation, and management strategy for the park’s past four operating seasons. HR&A created a business and operations plan for the MCCA, which outlined a management structure and revenue sources. We also oversaw program concept development and implementation, to ensure its alignment with the MCCA’s vision for The Lawn on D and the surrounding D Street Corridor. This included vendor selection and management. As project manager, HR&A provided ongoing analysis of The Lawn on D’s programming performance and revenue targets to inform the MCCA’s future operations and management of the space.

During its operating seasons, The Lawn on D is open to the public seven days-a-week, hosting a mixture of recurring public programming such as daily morning exercise classes and weekly move screenings, as well as special events and exhibitions, including food festivals, art installations, and ticketed-concerts. Since its opening in 2014, the park has gained notoriety throughout Boston, and the country, as a new model for innovative, high-impact placemaking and received numerous awards for its programming and design.

Awards

2015 Honor Award for General Design, Boston Society of Landscape Architects
2015 National Small Project Award, American Institute of Architects
2015 Downtown Merit Award for Public Space, International Downtown Association
2015 Honor Award for General Design, American Society of Landscape Architects

Images Courtesy of: MCCA

Catalytic Real Estate Development in San Antonio’s Promise Zone

February 9, 2016 / Comments Off

HR&A led a multidisciplinary team to create an inclusive, place-based, and market-guided strategy for economic development in the city’s Promise Zone.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development designated the Eastside, a 22-square mile economically distressed area, as a Promise Zone in 2014, streamlining access to federal programs that could support neighborhood revitalization. San Antonio for Growth on the Eastside a nonprofit steward of the Promise Zone, also known as SAGE, engaged HR&A through a grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration to complete an Economic Development Strategy that aligns Eastside investments with neighborhood goals.

The HR&A team, which included Alamo Architects, Moore Icafano Goltsman (MIG), and Infrastructure Design Solutions Engineering (IDS), conducted a series of analyses to deliver a targeted and actionable strategy for economic development on the Eastside.

The team began with extensive outreach to SAGE, its public partners, neighborhood stakeholders, and the broader community to identify the core goals for economic development and opportunities and challenges related to those goals. We then analyzed the existing context of San Antonio’s Eastside to learn about the demographics, physical layout, and strengths and challenges around economic development and reviewed a set of potential policies to advance SAGE goals within this context.

Guided by SAGE’s focus as an economic development organization, we then identified opportunities to realize these policies with new real estate development. We conducted a site analysis of the entire Eastside to identify all vacant, underutilized, and neglected parcels, as well as “prototypical” parcels for which we created illustrative development concepts that reflect both community aspirations and market context.

We then conducted rigorous financial analysis to evaluate the feasibility of each concept. Based on this analysis, we identified existing incentive programs that can support development on the Eastside, as well as new policies that can facilitate a broader range of development uses and locations. Lastly, we developed an organizational implementation strategy to help SAGE prioritize among recommendations and develop the capacity needed to pursue these priorities.

This Strategy lays the blueprint for the next generation of growth on the Eastside, and will form the foundation of SAGE’s work plan in the coming years.

Development Management & Public Financing Strategy for Broadway Station

February 9, 2016 / Comments Off

Broadway Station Partners developed a market-supportable master plan and a public financing strategy to develop one of Denver’s largest and most complex transit-oriented development sites.

CHALLENGE

After acquiring the former Gates Rubber Company plant, Broadway Station Partners wanted to pursue development of one of Denver’s only remaining urban transit-oriented development sites. Located three miles from downtown and directly adjacent to one of the busiest light rail stations in the city, the site could provide much needed housing, office space, and walkable retail in one of the fastest growing cities in America.

Though the site’s location and immediate transit access are inherently valuable, environmental contamination and connectivity challenges associated with a freight and light rail line bisecting the former industrial site required significant capital and infrastructure improvements to make development feasible. To navigate the unique site challenges in the planning process, the landowners engaged HR&A to advise on the balance of infrastructure investment and value-generating development to inform the project’s development strategy, master plan, and public finance strategy.

SOLUTION

Working closely with an engineering and planning team, HR&A advised Broadway Station Partners on strategies to unlock and create value by identifying activating uses, infrastructure improvements, and amenities. The team’s assessment of the local real estate market and financial feasibility of different development densities, typologies, and infrastructure programs informed the master plan, which targets infrastructure investments that improve connectivity and placemaking to unlock potential for development density and value.

To understand the extent of public financing needed for the substantial infrastructure improvements, HR&A analyzed the potential for value-capture tools to fund infrastructure development. To do this, the team assessed the impact of the development program, phasing, local market, and financing structures among other considerations for potential capital sources – including tax increment financing (TIF) and revenues from the site’s metropolitan district, or special taxing district. This analysis formed the foundation of the landowner’s tax increment financing request, financing plan, and negotiations with local public authorities, ensuring that revenues generated by the site are sufficient to finance required infrastructure and help produce market returns for the landowner in the long-term.

IMPACT

The Denver City Council unanimously approved the landowner’s $140 million public infrastructure financing request, including a $90 million tax increment financing package, the second largest approved in the city. Infrastructure development on the site broke ground in 2018.

New York City Tech Ecosystem Study

February 9, 2016 / Comments Off

After creating a landmark study in 2013 that analyzed the size and complexity of the Tech Ecosystem in New York City, HR&A released a new study in 2021 exploring how New York City’s Tech Ecosystem has changed in the last decade.

HR&A worked with a consortium of tech and civic organizations including Association for a Better New York, Tech:NYC, and Google to assess the changing landscape of the tech industry in New York City. Our methodology form 2013 established a new bar for Tech Ecosystem assessments and has been adopted widely in many other cities and has been included in academic literature on the subject. Most Tech Ecosystem studies now use the broader definition we established in 2013, which includes all jobs at tech companies and jobs in tech at companies where tech is not their core business.

READ THE FULL 2022 REPORT HERE

This working definition for the “Tech Ecosystem” divided tech into three broad categories

HR&A used this working definition to estimate the number and distribution by occupation and firm type of tech ecosystem jobs, and to model and evaluate the ecosystem’s economic and fiscal impact to the City.

Tech jobs are increasingly prevalent across all sectors in New York City, including in industries not traditionally associated with “tech.” While 65% of tech ecosystem jobs are in tech industries, a notable 35% share of jobs are in non-tech industries. Nearly 1.5X more tech workers are employed in non-tech industries (131,000) than in tech industries (89,000), particularly in sectors that are key to the city’s current and future economic health – healthcare, film and media, finance, and advertising. About 60% of the tech jobs in non-tech industries can be considered “high-tech,”* focused on the creation and management of sophisticated tools, products, systems, and support services, such as network and computer systems administrators, data administrators, information security analysts, and computer and information system managers. In today’s fast-changing world, these digital skills and jobs that leverage technology will only continue to grow in importance in every sector.

New York City’s tech ecosystem generates significant economic and fiscal impacts for the city. The direct, indirect, and induced impacts of the tech ecosystem account for a total of 809,000 jobs, $291 billion in economic output, and $3.63 billion in fiscal revenue for the city and the state.

Tech jobs have larger multiplier effects on employment compared to other industries. The 369,000 direct jobs in the tech ecosystem contribute 440,000 additional multiplier jobs in New York City, representing 15% of the city’s total workforce. In 2013, this share was 13%. Every 1 tech ecosystem job creates an additional 1.2 jobs, considerably higher than other top industries in the city like Finance and Insurance or Professional Services.

The city’s tech ecosystem generates $109 billion in worker earnings from direct and multiplier jobs, equivalent to 16% of the city’s total worker earnings. Of that, $66 billion is generated from direct jobs and $43 billion from additional multiplier jobs. In other words, for every dollar of earnings within the tech industry, an additional $0.65 in earnings is created within the city’s economy.

Economic output from the tech ecosystem accounts for 28% of the city’s overall economic output. This is twice the share of the tech ecosystem’s output in 2013. The tech ecosystem’s $195 billion in direct economic output contributes an additional $96 billion in multiplier effects. In other words, tech ecosystem investments drive additional spending in the New York City economy: every $1 spent in the tech ecosystem supports an additional $0.49 in economic output.

New York City’s tech ecosystem workers also contribute billions of dollars to City and State fiscal revenues in the form of sales and income taxes. In 2021, the tech ecosystem was responsible for $696 million, or 8% of the City’s sales tax revenue, and $1.10 billion or 9% of the City’s income tax revenue. Similarly for New York State, the city’s tech ecosystem generated $677 million in sales tax collections and $1.15 billion in income tax collections. Overall, the tech ecosystem generated $1.80 billion and $1.83 billion in taxes for New York City and New York State, respectively, in 2021, contributing a total of $3.63 billion in fiscal revenues.

Manhattan serves as the nucleus of the tech ecosystem in New York City. Adding 73,000 jobs over the last decade, the borough now contains nearly three quarters of the city’s entire tech ecosystem workforce. Manhattan provides the advantage of density in businesses, workers, and office space and benefits from historic investments in tech incubators, accelerators, and other programs that grow the tech ecosystem. The remaining jobs are distributed across the outer boroughs, of which Brooklyn has the largest share with 12% of tech ecosystem jobs.

Brooklyn experienced the largest percent growth in tech ecosystem jobs of all the boroughs in the last decade. The unprecedented growth of Brooklyn’s tech ecosystem can be attributed to investments in the Brooklyn Navy Yard and the Brooklyn Tech Triangle over the last ten years. By contrast, Queens, which held a similar share of jobs in 2012, has only added 3,000 tech ecosystem jobs in the last decade. The Bronx and Staten Island have seen no meaningful growth.

The report has been featured in:

The City

The Brooklyn Daily Eagle

READ THE FULL 2013 STUDY / READ THE 2017 UPDATE

Water Street POPS Upgrading Study

February 9, 2016 / Comments Off

HR&A studied the economic potential of improved privately owned public spaces in Lower Manhattan.

HR&A teamed with Beyer Blinder Belle Architects (BBB) to develop concepts for the improvement of privately owned public spaces, or POPS, along Lower Manhattan’s Water Street. POPS are spaces that are provided and maintained by a private developer or company for public use in exchange for zoning relief. Due to the large quantity of office building stock and its key location between the East River waterfront and the Financial District’s core, Water Street’s competitiveness and brand as a commercial corridor is crucially important to Lower Manhattan’s future.

Water Street’s commercial corridor is characterized by inconsistent and underused retail that is set back from the street. HR&A worked with New York City Economic Development Corporation and New York City Department of City Planning to develop strategies that use POPS to incentivize private investment in retail and the public realm throughout the Water Street Corridor. HR&A analyzed the retail and restaurant offerings around Water Street, and devised a high-level, stabilized-year cash flow model for new retail space at several POPS to inform a financially viable plan. HR&A also estimated the additional value generated by the proposed upgrades for commercial property owners. With an overly wide street and underused public spaces, Water Street also has one of the largest concentrations of POPS in New York City. See the full presentation here.

Staten Island Storefronts: The Race for Space Competition

February 9, 2016 / Comments Off

HR&A designed and advised on the implementation of a competition to attract catalytic retail businesses and build a neighborhood brand for Downtown Staten Island.

The competition, Staten Island Storefronts: The Race for Space!, addressed high vacancy rates in the Downtown Staten Island area. This innovative economic development initiative, conceived by the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC), was designed to fill existing storefronts with businesses committed to the neighborhood and invested in its future; enhance retail offerings for local residents and visitors; and capture spending potential from the 2-million annual tourists and 70,000 daily commuters that pass through the area. The competition also builds on the momentum of other planned projects in downtown Staten Island, including the world’s largest Observation Wheel, a new city incubator space, and more than a thousand new housing units planned for the New Stapleton Waterfront.

The competition was run on a first come, first served basis, awarding prize money to all qualified applicants until the $425,000 prize pool was exhausted. HR&A advised NYCEDC on program design, recommended program guidelines and incentives, terms of leases, and award criteria. The competition yielded a diverse mix of businesses, which were required to sign their leases within three months of being designated winners and open their businesses within six months of the commencement of their lease.

In December 2013, NYCEDC awarded the prize money to nine winning businesses, totaling $425,000 to support leasing and capital improvements and leveraging the City’s support toward a total of $11 million in private investment. Together, the nine winners are estimated to occupy over 40,000 square feet of vacant storefront space in Downtown Staten Island, energizing the area and infusing critical economic activity into the waterfront neighborhoods. The winning businesses anticipated hiring 34 full-time and 83 part-time employees and opened their doors in summer of 2014, at which time they received their prize money.

Images Courtesy of: NYCEDC

Center City Strategic Framework

February 9, 2016 / Comments Off

On behalf of Centro Partnership of San Antonio and the City of San Antonio, HR&A created a Strategic Framework Plan to bring new economic and cultural vitality to Center City.

HR&A began by assessing the City’s goals set forth in its ambitious SA2020 plan, leading community workshop sessions for over 500 residents and conducting extensive stakeholder outreach. During this time, HR&A also worked closely with senior City staff, the Mayor and Council to prepare a plan for the next decade and guide public and private efforts in Center City. Through this initial effort, HR&A recommended a “housing first” keystone strategy focused on attracting residential development to revitalize a downtown long associated with convention and tourism uses.

In collaboration with local planning and design firm Alamo Architects, HR&A then developed physical, financial, and policy approaches to attract new residents to Center City, grounded in extensive market analysis, physical site assessment, and community and stakeholder consultation. Our recommendations included target neighborhoods for new residential development; priority infrastructure investments; and neighborhood-based development typologies that reflect market conditions and the existing neighborhood fabric.

Next, through a series of related efforts, we developed an implementation strategy for Centro Partnership and the City of San Antonio to realize these recommendations. We conducted rigorous development financial analysis to identify recommended residential development incentives that were calibrated to different building typologies and locations throughout Center City.

To support these incentives and the recommended range of infrastructure investments, we developed a funding strategy by drawing upon public and private resources and the opportunity to leverage new value created to create an enhanced level of downtown investment. Finally, we identified organizational and managerial changes to both Centro and the City of San Antonio to create the capacity required to oversee a transformation at this scale.

The Strategic Framework Plan has become the driving agenda for Centro Partnership since its Board adopted the Plan in February 2012. The Plan has also become the governing framework for downtown policy since San Antonio’s City Council officially adopted the plan for implementing growth and development in the City’s Center City in June 2012. The Council unanimously passed one of the Plan’s key recommendations, a clear and consistent incentive policy for downtown housing, which has resulted in the planned development and construction of 5,000 new units since 2011.

HR&A has continued to support the implementation of the Strategic Framework Plan through a variety of related efforts. We developed a downtown retail strategy to bring new activity to the street level, as well as a strategy to attract a new grocery store downtown to serve the emerging residential population. HEB opened a new downtown grocery store in December 2015. We have also supported key downtown planning efforts – including for a downtown fixed-rail streetcar service and the revitalization of Hemisfair Park. Most recently, HR&A conducted a five-year market update to refine Center City’s incentive policies and continue to support new development in Center City with an ever-increasing focus on density, activity, and diversity. Additionally, HR&A completed an economic development strategy for San Antonio’s Eastside, a historically distressed area of the city. The goal of study and subsequent real estate analysis was to improve economic conditions on the Eastside and likewise ensure that the area is able to participate in new opportunities for growth across San Antonio.

Image Courtesy of: Zereshk

Rebuild by Design Competition

February 9, 2016 / Comments Off

HR&A developed winning resiliency solutions for Hurricane Sandy-affected regions through the Rebuild by Design Competition.

In addition to the disaster recovery grants awarded to the winning designs, our proposal for the Red Hook neighborhood in Brooklyn resulted in a $100 million joint commitment by New York City and State for the development of an integrated flood protection system.

Launched by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Rockefeller Foundation in response to Hurricane Sandy’s devastation in the Northeast United States, Rebuild by Design leveraged public input and cross-sector collaboration to encourage scalable, regional, and implementable development proposals from an iterative design process. HR&A led one design competition team and participated in two additional teams, which were all selected from a first round of 150 applicants to participate in two phases of effort and focused on:

Pilot initiatives for the resiliency and vitality of commercial corridors;
A comprehensive urban water management strategy;
A peninsula-wide resiliency strategy, including a perimeter levee and independent district energy grid.

The HR&A led a team, supported by architecture and urban design experts, including Cooper, Robertson, and Partners, to develop the Commercial Corridor Resiliency Project focused on the resiliency and vitality of commercial corridors and retail destinations throughout the flood-impacted areas of the northeast. Pilot initiatives were developed in Red Hook, Brooklyn, the Beach 116th Street corridor in the Rockaways, and Asbury Park on the New Jersey Shore. The team’s proposal included physical design proposals to enhance commercial resiliency from the individual business to neighborhood scale, and outlined programs to support capacity-building and technical assistance for businesses.

On the Office of Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) team, HR&A provided economic and policy advisory support for the development of four design opportunities as part of a Comprehensive Strategy for Hoboken, New Jersey:

Enhanced resiliency and disaster response communications and information systems;
A regional development framework;
An infrastructure-anchored development vision for JFK Airport and the Jamaica Bay; and
A comprehensive resiliency and community development strategy.

As the competition progressed, HR&A continued to support the OMA team in developing a comprehensive resiliency strategy for the City of Hoboken. In June 2014, Secretary Donovan announced the OMA team as one of the winning recipients of funding for the Rebuild by Design competition. HUD announced a $230 million award for implementation of the first phase of the proposal for a Comprehensive Urban Water Management Strategy to defend the community of Hoboken and neighboring areas in Weehawken and Jersey City.

HR&A also provided economic and policy analysis to support the team co-led by PennDesign and OLIN, which developed Hunts Point Lifelines. In the second phase of the competition, HR&A developed an analytical framework to assist the team in shortlisting cities and towns in the coastal Northeast that are susceptible to abandonment or declining economic value due to sea level rise and increased storm activity. In June 2014, HUD announced a $20 million award for further study of “Hunts Point Lifelines,” for which HR&A provided market and economic analysis. “Lifelines” envisions a peninsula-wide resiliency strategy, including a perimeter levee that incorporates recreational access to the waterfront, a network of cleanways that function as both stormwater mitigation and roadway improvements, and an independent district energy grid that ensures continued food access during storm emergencies.

In 2015, Rebuild by Design published a book telling the story of the competition.