I went to the reception last night at the Cabral Station for the Urban Land Institute experts who are in town this week to advise Stockton how to revive downtown and the waterfront in the post-redevelopment world.
First impression: the team of experts is first-class, seasoned and bubbling over with ideas. The ULI has helped revive something like 85 downtowns. Many of its members are themselves developers who have done the very job they consult on. I think they’re going to bring a very fresh and valuable pespective.
A press release says the ULI was here once before, in 1997.
“The City of Stockton implemented many of the initial panel’s recommendations; however, revitalization is still far from complete,” the press release says. “ULI originally advised the city to take an aggressive approach to urban housing and the re-use of its historic structures. However, downtown Stockton still lacks an adequate supply of multi-family housing, interstitial connections, and a significant amount of private investment due to Stockton’s focus on public facilities rather than public-private partnerships.”
In other words, past leaders ignored the ULI. They put entertainment before people downtown. They failed to stress public-private partnerships that would have allowed private sector to identify market opportunities. If say, three big, successful businesses, or business projects, had been established downtown, together with residential housing, the core might have synergized into a healthy neighborhood again.
Another small indication of ULI thinking occurred in conversation at the reception. Local infill developer Mahesh Ranchhod opined the rents charged by downtown apartment builders will have to be lower to attract people from the north. If northside apartments go for $800, downhtown apartments will have to go for $600 to lure tenants.
Which sounds logical. But David Leland disagreed. The head of the ULI delegation and a Portland, Ore. real estate strategist, Leland says he lives in a high-rise in downtown Portland. He pays premium rent. But he does so, and others do so, because they love the downtown experience. The key is putting somethig unique and edgy downtown, Leland said.
From Leland’s perspective, we may be selling downtown short because we see what it is, not what it could be.
I can’t wait to hear the panel’s recomendations.
