Downtown Boston property owners are engaged in a campaign to become more competitive with other business neighborhoods by taking charge of the commercial environment and setting new standards for cleanliness, safety, and friendliness.
The downtown streets hum with activity as 200,000 people traverse the area daily. Everything needed for urban living is at hand, from employment to shopping, from residential properties to leisure activities and green space. Downtown Boston is a vital cog in the city’s economic machinery, yet it is clear to property owners and patrons that this historic area must be made cleaner and safer.
A core group of property owners has laid the groundwork for a Business Improvement District (“BID”) petition. The BID is seen as a vehicle for unleashing private-sector creativity and capital for the purpose of increasing property values and providing clean and safe streets.
BIDs have been transforming urban commercial districts across North America in cities large and small. The momentum for a BID is growing throughout Downtown Boston – from South Station to the Boston Common, from the Theatre District to the Old South Meeting House.
Property owners are working with area businesses, residents, and cultural groups to preserve and protect Downtown Boston’s unique blend of easy accessibility, striking architecture, and its historic reputation as an exciting place to live, shop and work.
A professionally managed BID will bring private-sector maintenance standards to the city streets and public spaces, and help keep Downtown Boston competitive with the Back Bay, the emerging waterfront, and suburban business districts.
In implementing a management plan, the BID will allow visitors and residents to experience a bright, safe and clean Downtown Boston. It will declare war on graffiti and cigarette butts, emphasizing the creation of a safe, welcoming environment.
Professionally managed and trained staff will care for the streets day and night, with friendly, uniformed ambassadors offering guidance to visitors, making themselves available to answer questions, and simply creating a watchful presence.
When people enter the BID service area, they will immediately notice that they are in a different environment, with a new, higher level of comfort.
Experience in other cities has shown that well-managed BIDs lead to an increase in business and residential tenancies, which further energizes the service area and increases property values.
The goal is simple: To reestablish downtown as a place that businesses, office tenants, residents and visitors want to be.
One key aspect of a BID is that it creates a dependable and equitable mechanism for funding and managing improvements in commercial areas, with the ultimate goal of promoting business activity and enhancing property values.
Through the Downtown Boston BID, property owners will create and implement strategies and services that will transform the business improvement district, to the benefit of all.
The BID will undertake a variety of activities:
The BID will become a powerful advocate for property owners, developing positive working relationships with city agencies, including Inspectional Services, the Police Department, and Public Works.
The City of Boston has no intention of curtailing the basic services it already provides and is currently compiling data on those services. With this data in hand, Downtown Boston stakeholders can determine what additional services are needed to move the commercial area back to prominence.
Property owners within the BID pay an assessment, collected by the City of Boston, then distributed to the BID management entity.
The assessments are based on each property’s value. The total revenue is based on the BID improvement plan, which details the supplemental services and programs to be offered under the BID.
Boston is heavily reliant on its property tax base to fund services, yet it is a city where there is much tax-exempt property. The city’s non-profit universities, hospitals, and cultural institutions are wonderful assets, and a BID is a creative way to get all institutions involved in the betterment of the area, by entering into voluntary support agreements to further the activities of the BID.
A board of directors representing property owners, retailers, residents, and businesses will manage the BID, receive the assessment funds and implement district improvement plans. While the City of Boston supports the Downtown Boston BID effort, the BID activities will be entirely controlled by the BID board.
The organizations working on the BID plan to implement it in July 2010. In the meantime, the City of Boston’s Downtown Crossing Economic Initiative and the work of the Downtown Crossing Partnership have given the neighborhood a taste of what a BID could accomplish.
By beginning to act like a BID, the Downtown Crossing Partnership has drawn support from across the neighborhood by serving as an advocate for the community, and a liaison to City government, organizing special events, coordinating holiday decorations and working with homeless agencies. DCP has also increased communication and marketing efforts.
While the effort began with Downtown Crossing, the BID encompasses a broader service delivery area. The selected area is large enough to make a transformational impact for office workers, residents and businesses, but small enough to actively manage. The entire Downtown Boston BID service area will benefit from improved safety, cleanliness, activity, and business promotion.
For more information, please contact:
Rosemarie Sansone, President
Downtown Crossing Partnership
101 Arch Street, Suite 160
Boston, MA 02110
617-482-2139
617-482-1932 fax
rsansone@downtowncrossing.org
A business improvement district, or a BID, is a designated area in which property owners vote to finance supplemental services above and beyond the city’s baseline of services in the district. These supplemental services will greatly improve Downtown Boston through cleaning, marketing, maintenance, public safety enhancements, capital improvements, advocacy and special events.
A BID creates a stable organizational structure that provides a reliable funding source for the revitalization and long-term maintenance of Downtown Boston. Benefits include:
All of the services outlined in a BID Operations Plan supplement municipal services. City services will not be curtailed once the BID is created. The BID will work in partnership with existing municipal services to provide additional benefits to the area.
The BID is controlled and financed by the property owners of the district. The Board of Directors, which will be comprised of property owners and businesses within the district, will make all personnel, program and budget decisions.
A BID Steering Committee has been formed consisting of property owners, the Downtown Crossing Partnership, city officials, area business owners, residents, and local institutions. They have laid the groundwork for this petition to start a BID in Downtown Boston. This group has been meeting over the past year to discuss the needs of the area, its future and best practices from other cities.
The proposed assessment formula for the Downtown Boston BID is:
In order to create the critical mass required to make real improvements, the service area includes the core shopping district on Washington and Tremont Streets, parts of the adjacent Financial District and the Theatre District.
Owner-occupied residential properties are exempt from the assessment fee, although they may choose to voluntarily participate, as several of the residents have agreed to do.
Due to the not-for-profit nature of these property owners, the fee for such properties will be determined through individual participation agreements that provide for contributions of cash and/or in-kind services to the BID.
Based on the current assessment formula and the service plan, approximately $5,000,000 will be raised annually for the BID. It will be collected by the City of Boston on a quarterly basis with property tax bills.
BIDs vary depending on the size of the city and services provided, but the committee has looked at case studies from all around the country to see what other BIDs do, and what would be most appropriate for our unique city. The revenue which our assessment will raise is consistent with other urban BIDs.
Within 30 days following declaration of the district by the municipality, any property owner within the BID may elect not to participate by notifying the municipal clerk in writing. By “opting-out” a property owner is neither subject to the BID fee nor eligible to receive any of the benefits or services provided by the BID.
The Improvement Plan specifies a five-year renewal period for the BID. Every five years, property owners can vote to renew the BID to continue its services or decide to disband it.
Over the past 25 years, BIDs have been a proven tool in over 1,000 small, medium, and large communities across the United States. Local examples of BIDs include the small cities of Burlington, VT and Portland, ME, and the larger cities of New York, Philadelphia, and Washington D.C. In fact, in New York City alone there are over 60 distinct BIDs. They have been very successful in improving the areas wherever they have been enacted.
There are currently 4 BIDs in MA. Hyannis and Springfield have been in operation since 1998 and have had very positive impacts on their districts. Westfield was created in 2007, and Northampton was recently created in 2009.
Please contact the Downtown Crossing Partnership at (617) 482-2139 or info@downtowncrossing.org if you have any questions or would like to be involved in the campaign for this BID petition.
