DOWNTOWN REVITALIZATION STRATEGIES

Product: Downtown Napa Tourism Marketing Plan
Client: Napa Downtown Association
Property owners in downtown Napa hired E&A and Placemaking Group to develop a strategic approach and marketing platform to encourage Napa Valley visitors to extend their stay with a stop for meals and lodging in downtown Napa. The goal was to inform travelers of downtown’s outstanding dining, diverse accommodations, entertainment and shopping. Also it was important to relay the fact that Napa is the closest wine-tasting experience to San Francisco, and a stress free alternative to the wine-country gridlock of Highway 29. The project included extensive input from an advisory committee of tourism, business, government and community leaders. An informal retail survey and in-depth market analysis led to the creation of a five-year marketing plan that underscored the promotion of the best of downtown’s existing offerings and recommended cost-effective improvements and additions for future tourism growth. Key branding messages were integrated into every element of the marketing communication program: newly designed Web Site; email marketing and advertising; and a publicity program focusing on wine-tasting, dining and related events.

Product: San Luis Obispo Downtown Strategic Business Plan
Clients: The San Luis Obispo Downtown Association and the City of San Luis Obispo
E&A developed the five-year Strategic Business Plan as a tool to guide sustainable economic development. Requiring extensive public input and consensus-building, the plan documents downtown's competitive position in the marketplace, identifies strategies that will help maintain and strengthen the vitality of downtown and the Downtown Association, and sets benchmarks for monitoring the ongoing health of the downtown. The plan is designed to do this while achieving the community's overall vision for downtown and preserving the unique quality of life that is enjoyed by SLO residents. E&A is currently working with the City and the Downtown Association to update the plan for 2007-12.

Product: Davis Downtown Strategy Report
Clients: The City of Davis, The Davis Downtown Business Association, The Local Government Commission, and the California Main Street Program
E&A researched and wrote the Downtown Strategy Report as a user-friendly tool that organizes the City's vision and plans for a healthy downtown into one master document. The Strategy Report summarizes the downtown-relevant portions of several recent planning documents, celebrates past accomplishments and current revitalization activities, and serves as a workplan for the future. It involved using existing visioning data collected by the community, and new information collected by us through public meetings and merchant and visitor surveys.

Product: Richmond Main Street Initiative Assessment
Clients: The City of Richmond Redevelopment Agency, The Richmond Main Street Task Force, Local Initiative Support Corporation and the California Main Street Program
E&A's on-site assessment analyzed the organizational, physical, economic and promotional building blocks that the community can assemble to initiate a successful Main Street™ program. Through a comprehensive process of meetings with diverse public and private sector stakeholders, we identified the resources that the community will need to commit and offered practical advice for capitalizing on strengths and overcoming weaknesses.

Product: Rio Vista Downtown Marketing and Design Study
Clients: The City of Rio Vista and the Rio Vista Chamber of Commerce
This market-based strategy includes a marketing plan, heritage tourism recommendations, building and streetscape designs and a business retention and recruitment strategy to keep the downtown competitive in the face of rapid regional growth.

Product: Fairfield Downtown Strategy Implementation Program
Client: The City of Fairfield and the Fairfield Downtown Association
E&A was under contract with the City of Fairfield from January 2000 to January 2002 to build Fairfield's 30-year old business improvement district into a strong Main Street™ organization that is an advocate for, and key implementer of, the city's Downtown Strategy. Emphasis has been on reinvigorating confidence, enthusiasm and involvement in the program in order to recruit volunteers and increase the effectiveness of revitalization activities. This process included a formal assessment of the downtown management organization, a series of revitalization training programs, a public visioning and workplan development process, newsletters, "on-the-street" merchant contact, and volunteer recruitment. Jeff Eichenfield then served as contract staff to help the association implement its workplan, and prepared a business retention and recruitment strategy. Results include dozens of new volunteers, the hiring of permanent staff, and the accomplishment of promotion and design activities that produced immediate results and good PR for the organization and downtown.

Product: Huntington Park Downtown Strategic Plan
Clients: The City of Huntington Park
Eichenfield and Associates (E&A), in conjunction with Urban Transformation (UT), prepared Huntington Park’s 2005 Downtown Strategic Plan. The Strategic Plan acts as an economic development tool that documents downtown's competitive position in the regional (Los Angeles) marketplace and identifies strategies the downtown Business Improvement District can implement to cement downtown’s role as an authentic Latino cultural experience. Developing the plan involved extensive, bi-lingual public input in the form of focus group interviews, merchant interviews, public meetings, a shopper survey and formal visioning sessions with the project's Downtown Task Force. Recommended activities covered downtown management and organization, beautification and public amenities, promotion and marketing, economics and business mix, cleanliness and security and parking and transportation.

NEIGHBORHOOD COMMERCIAL DISTRICT REVITALIZATION

Product: West San Carlos Street Economic Development Strategy
Client: City of San Jose, CA
E&A partnered with an urban design firm, land use economists and traffic consultants to develop a revitalization strategy for one of San Jose's most important commercial corridors. Through multiple rounds of data collection and community meetings, the team formulated strategies for improving the image, identity, and accessibility of existing business nodes along the corridor. One important element of the strategy was to identify business district management and marketing recommendations for the City of San Jose and the West San Carlos Street Neighborhood Business Association. To that end, Jeff Eichenfield conducted an organizational assessment of the association, developed staffing and funding recommendations for the association, identified different market niches for business and nodes along the corridor, and developed marketing and promotions strategies for these niches and nodes. Marketing recommendations included new brochures, banners and a web site for an antiques business cluster; a joint open house and motorcycle show for nine motorcycle businesses; joint advertising for used car dealers; joint advertising for youth-oriented "hip/alternative" businesses; and a restaurant guide and Taste of the Avenue promotion for food related businesses.

Product: Sacramento Neighborhood Business District Trainings
Client: The City of Sacramento Department of Economic Development
Working in 2001 with a coalition of city officials, neighborhood associations and business organizations, Jeff Eichenfield developed a commercial revitalization training series for the city's 19 commercial corridors. Topics included: organizing for success, program funding, marketing, multi-cultural promotions, building rehabilitation, "taming the auto strip," and assessing market potential.

Product: Lincoln Avenue Willow Glen Main Street Strategy
Clients: The City of San Jose Redevelopment Agency and the Willow Glen Business and Professional Association
E&A has partnered with three other consulting firms to prepare an economic development strategy for the Willow Glen business district in San Jose. Following a series of public meetings and visioning sessions, the team will provide recommendations related to urban design and streetscape, parking and traffic, economic and market position, marketing and promotions and business association/business improvement district operations. E&A is also providing contract staff assistance to the Willow Glen Business and Professional Association.

CITY AND STATEWIDE COMMERCIAL REVITALIZATION PROGRAM EVALUATIONS

Product: City of San Antonio Neighborhood Commercial Revitalization (NCR) Program Assessment
Client: City of San Antonio, TX
The City of San Antonio hired E&A to work with program staff to develop and implement an assessment process that would evaluate the NCR program's performance, make recommendations for improvements and identify possible resources and partnerships for implementing improvements. The work included reviewing background data on the NCR program and each district it serves; touring each district; meetings with key stakeholders including merchants and city officials; documenting existing conditions; outlining the best methods for facilitating economic development in each district; identifying the best way to utilize the skills of NCR staff; and presenting findings to city officials. E&A also designed an event to celebrate the program's accomplishments and kick off the program assessment. Final recommendations included streamlining program administration, modifying district boundaries, and providing more customized revitalization services based on each districts' unique needs. The city is currently implementing the findings.

Product: City of San Jose Neighborhood Business District Program Evaluation
Client: The City of San Jose Redevelopment Agency
The Redevelopment Agency hired Eichenfield & Associates in September 2002 to investigate ways in which the city can maximize the services its Neighborhood Business District Development office (NBD) provides to nine officially designated neighborhood business districts. The work, being done by Jeff Eichenfield, includes conducting training sessions for boards and staff on business district management, reviewing background data on each district, touring each district, meetings with key stakeholders including merchants and city council staff, documenting existing conditions, identifying the best methods for growing the capacity of the business associations and the best way to utilize the skills of NBD's program managers, and presenting findings to city staff and the associations' boards of directors. The city is already using preliminary findings to modify the way in which it provides services.

Product: City of San Francisco Neighborhood Main Street Initiative Reconnaissance Team
Client: The San Francisco Redevelopment Agency and the San Francisco office of the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC)
Eichenfield & Associates was hired by the Redevelopment Agency (SFRA) and the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) in May of 2002 to help these agencies explore the possibility of jointly launching Neighborhood Main Street initiatives in San Francisco. Jeff Eichenfield worked with LISC and the SFRA to develop a consultation process that brought together stakeholders from four neighborhoods and Main Street professionals with extensive experience in initiating Main Street programs. The process provided information to community members about the Main Street Approach™; made recommendations as to whether and how the Main Street Approach could contribute to and complement existing and planned revitalization efforts; collected information about neighborhood interest and capacity to manage a Main Street program; and recommended a course of action for each district if it wanted to proceed in establishing a Main Street program or, if Main Street was not a "good fit," another type of revitalization program. Eichenfield led team interviews, made programmatic recommendations and was responsible for writing up the team's recommendations. The SFRA is currently reviewing the report and discussing next steps.

Product: California Main Street Program Evaluation
Clients: The James Irvine Foundation, the Local Government Commission, and the California Main Street Program
As part of its work to promote livable communities, the nonprofit Local Government Commission (LGC) received a grant from the James Irvine Foundation in December 2001 to conduct a study that would assist California Main Street (CMS) in evaluating and maximizing its effectiveness as an economic development program. LGC contracted with Eichenfield & Associates to design the evaluation, conduct the study and prepare the results. Jeff Eichenfield studied existing performance data collected by CMS from its local programs, created a survey instrument to collect other quantitative data as well as non-numerical "qualitative" data on the programs' impacts on the communities, conducted interviews on reasons communities left the state program, and gathered data and conducted interviews to determine the capacity of the California Main Street program to serve local communities. Eichenfield then compiled the results (which demonstrated significant local benefits) into written reports, and worked with a graphic designer and writer to turn the results into a marketing brochure for CMS. The reports and brochures are being distributed to state officials, legislators, local communities and the media, and are being used by the state to develop future workplans for CMS. Copies can be found at lgc.org; the title of the report is is "Strategies for Revitalizing Our Downtowns and Neighborhoods: Evaluating California Main Street Programs."

ECONOMIC RECOVERY ASSESSMENTS

Clients: 20 communities in nine Midwestern states
As the National Trust for Historic Preservation's Midwest Flood Response Program Coordinator, Jeff Eichenfield organized and conducted economic recovery assessment visits and workshops to flood-damaged downtown and tourism areas. Clients included Des Moines, Iowa; Hannibal, Missouri; the Amana Colonies, Iowa; St. Genevieve, Missouri; and the Katy State Trail Park rails-to-trails tourism region. Jeff prepared written team reports and public presentations of findings, and provided recommendations for marketing, heritage tourism development, building rehabilitation, organizational development, fundraising, land development, streetscape improvements, and working with disaster relief agencies. Community results include development of formal workplans and marketing plans, organizational restructuring, improved tourism infrastructure, improved promotional activities, and increased visitor counts and sales.

Clients: Cities of Aptos, Hollister, Los Gatos, Salinas, Santa Cruz, and Watsonville, California
Jeff Eichenfield conducted on-site disaster recovery assessments of downtown business districts that were damaged by the Loma Prieta earthquake, providing community leaders with organizational and marketing recommendations that facilitated their economic recovery.

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND REDEVELOPMENT EXPERIENCE

Position: Development Specialist for the City of Alameda, California
As Development Specialist, Jeff Eichenfield administered a $200,000 grants program funding commercial revitalization. He developed a facade grants program, and consulted with merchants and property owners on more than 75 storefront rehabilitations, as well as counseling business associations on revitalization strategies. He also organized public forums to obtain community involvement in redevelopment plans, provided extensive input into redevelopment strategy reports, and developed a business retention plan for an auto row commercial district.

MAIN STREET™ PROGRAM MANAGEMENT

Position: Executive Director, Alameda (CA) Main Street Program
As Executive Director, Jeff Eichenfield managed an organization charged with the economic revitalization of two central business districts and 15 neighborhood commercial areas. Jeff developed and coordinated workplans, special events, retail promotions, and business retention and attraction activities. He organized a successful farmers market and implemented a business improvement area assessment district (BID) that generates $70,000 annually for revitalization efforts and significantly increased merchant involvement in business association activities.

Position: Project Manager, Livermore (CA) Main Street Program
As the first project manager for the Livermore Main Street Program, Jeff Eichenfield served as a liaison between business and property owners, city government and planning consultants on a $3 million downtown streetscape project. He also coordinated and provided design assistance on 30 building rehabilitation projects, and developed and coordinated special events, promotions, and merchant educational programs.

HISTORIC PRESERVATION EXPERIENCE

Position: Executive Director, California Preservation Foundation
At CPF, Jeff Eichenfield helped communities develop historic preservation and disaster recovery ordinances, establish historic preservation incentive programs, create historic districts, and perform environmental reviews. He also performed grantwriting and fundraising activities, organized workshops and conferences, and produced publications. He served on the California Register of Historical Resources Committee, the California Heritage Fund Committee, the California Department of Transportation Enhancements (TEA) Advisory Council, and as an alternate to the California State Historical Building Safety Board.

All contents © 1999-2009 Eichenfield and Associates.

jeichenfield @ sbcglobal.net