Downtown boards spend months developing vision plans and strategic documents. Then they spend years talking about implementation. But most boards never measure whether anything is actually working [1].
The problem is not laziness. It is that measurement requires discipline. Meaningful metrics take work to gather. They force boards to face uncomfortable truths. A board can celebrate six new businesses opening downtown. Measurement reveals whether those businesses are sustainable or whether they are replacing failed businesses at a similar rate. The pattern matters more than the headline count.
Measurement forces you to diagnose problems rather than ignore them.
Most downtown boards operate on assumption and hope. We think our streetscape project is creating activity. We hope our event strategy is building foot traffic. We assume our incentive programs are attracting the right businesses. Without measurement, assumptions are all we have.
The cost is massive. Boards spend public money, staff time, and board attention on strategies that may not be working. They fail to spot problems until they become crises. They cannot evaluate whether to continue or modify their approach. They cannot prove their work to skeptical elected officials who control their budgets.
Good measurement solves all of this.
The Core Metrics
Your board should track three categories of metrics: property and development metrics, business and tenant metrics, and usage and activity metrics. Not all metrics matter equally. Property metrics matter most.
Property metrics include average property value, property value trends by block or sector, number of properties for sale, time on market, property tax base growth, and vacancy rates by property type. These metrics tell you whether private investors believe downtown is worth money.
If property values are rising and vacancy is declining, revitalization is working. If not, your strategy needs adjustment.
If property values are rising and vacancy is declining, revitalization is working. Investors are buying properties and occupying them. That creates jobs, tax revenue, and activity. If property values are flat or declining and vacancy is rising, the opposite is happening [1].
Your city assessment office can provide most of this data. It is not glamorous, but it is reliable.
Business and tenant metrics include number of occupied ground-floor retail spaces, number of operating businesses, business formation rate, business failure rate, and average business tenure. This tells you whether businesses are able to sustain themselves.
Usage and activity metrics include foot traffic counts at key intersections, vehicle counts, event attendance, residential population in downtown, and late-evening activity. These metrics tell you whether downtown is getting used.
The mistake most boards make is focusing on usage metrics alone. They count event attendance and celebrate foot traffic. But traffic without property value growth and business sustainability is empty activity. Measure usage, but treat it as a secondary indicator, not a primary measure.
Gathering the Data
Property and business metrics are easier to gather than you might think. Your city assessor has property value and tax data. Your chamber of commerce or business tax office can track business formation and operation. If you maintain a downtown property inventory, you already track occupied and vacant spaces.
Usage metrics require more effort. Many boards buy foot traffic counter equipment that identifies body heat or motion and logs counts continuously. These cost $5,000 to $15,000 per unit but provide reliable baseline data. Place them at key intersections, not just at events. Baseline traffic matters as much as peak traffic.
For event attendance, count it seriously. Do not estimate. Use actual gates or ticket scans. Ask attendees where they came from to distinguish local from regional attendance. Event attendance that only draws existing locals is less valuable than attendance that brings new people downtown.
For business metrics, build a spreadsheet. Track every ground-floor retail space in your target district. Note the tenant, the rent rate if available, the lease start date, and notes on the business. Update it quarterly. This gives you a live database of business activity rather than guesses.
For residential population, track building demolition, conversion, and new construction. Many city planning departments can provide this data. Know whether downtown residential population is growing or declining.
Establishing Baselines and Targets
Do not just measure randomly. Before you start, establish a baseline. What is the current property value? What is the current vacancy rate? How many businesses are downtown right now? Document this formally.
Then set targets. If current property value is $500,000 average per property, what do you want it to be in three years or five years? If vacancy is 20 percent, what is your target vacancy rate? If you have twelve operating businesses today, what is your target number in three years?
Targets should be realistic and ambitious. They should connect to your strategy. If your strategy is to increase residential population, your target might be fifty new residential units over five years. If your strategy is to eliminate ground-floor vacancy, your target might be zero vacant ground-floor space.
Write down the baseline and targets. Make them public. Revisit them annually. Adjust them if your strategy changes.
Reporting and Accountability
Measurement matters only if you share results. Your board should publish an annual dashboard showing progress against targets. Make it public. Share it with elected officials. Use it in grant applications and funding requests.
The dashboard should show the three categories of metrics: property value and vacancy, business metrics, and usage metrics. Show trends over time, not just snapshots. Include comparison to targets. If you are ahead of target, note it. If you are behind, note that too and what you are doing about it.
Reporting forces accountability. If vacancy is rising and business formation is stagnant, the board cannot hide behind optimistic narratives. You have to address the real problem.
What Metrics Should Not Be
Avoid vanity metrics. Event attendance matters if the events are generating business revenue and attracting new customers. But event attendance alone without business impact is not meaningful. A downtown that hosts packed events but has stable or rising vacancy has an entertainment problem, not an economic development solution.
Avoid surveys and self-reported satisfaction unless they track specific behavior changes. Asking downtown visitors whether they “feel safe” is less reliable than tracking whether violent crime is declining. Asking merchants whether they are “satisfied” is less reliable than tracking whether business tenure is increasing.
Avoid mixing short-term activity with long-term outcomes. A spike in foot traffic on event day is a short-term metric. Property value growth and business sustainability are long-term metrics. Report both, but understand which one actually matters for your strategy.
Using Metrics to Drive Change
Measurement has one real purpose: using the data to make better decisions about strategy.
If your property value metrics show that growth is concentrated in one block but stalled elsewhere, that tells you where your redevelopment effort should focus. If your business metrics show that retail is being replaced by services and entertainment, that tells you about changing market demand. If your vacancy metrics show that certain space types are harder to fill, that tells you where incentive programs should target.
A board that measures quarterly and makes strategy adjustments based on data outperforms a board that measures annually or not at all.
A board that measures quarterly and makes strategy adjustments based on data is going to outperform a board that measures annually or not at all [2].
Questions Your Board Should Ask
What is your current average downtown property value? If you do not know, find out this week.
What is your current downtown vacancy rate? For ground-floor retail specifically.
How many ground-floor retail businesses were in downtown five years ago? How many are there now?
Do you track foot traffic? If not, should you?
Have you set explicit targets for the next three years? Are they written down and public?
Bottom Line
Measurement is unglamorous work. It does not produce headlines or community celebration. But it is how professional boards operate. Measurement tells you whether you are working toward your goals or just working. It forces you to diagnose problems rather than ignore them. It builds accountability internally and with elected officials.
A downtown board that measures rigorously, reports transparently, and adjusts strategy based on data is a professional organization. A downtown board that does not measure is just spending money and hoping for the best. The difference in long-term outcomes is stark.
Frequently Asked Questions
Property value and vacancy rates are the leading indicators. If property values are rising and vacancy is declining, revitalization is working. Foot traffic and event attendance can grow without sustained economic impact. Property value captures whether private investors believe in the downtown's long-term viability.
Quarterly at minimum, annually with a formal report. Some metrics like property values change slowly. Others like vacancy rates can shift with seasonal variation. Establish a regular cadence and stick to it. Consistency matters more than frequency.
That is the entire point of measurement. If vacancy is rising or property values are flat, your current strategy is not working. You need to diagnose why. More events and marketing will not fix a downtown with poor walkability or deteriorating buildings. Measurement forces you to address real problems.
References
- Georgia Department of Community Affairs. (2021). Tax Allocation District (TAD) Basics and Best Practices. State of Georgia. https://dca.georgia.gov/search/results
- Georgia Department of Community Affairs. (2022). Technology Implementation and Vendor Management for Municipalities. State of Georgia. https://dca.georgia.gov
