Yesterday we released new research all about companies that are moving to walkable downtowns. Core Values looks at why companies want to be in walkable places, and what they look for when choosing these locations.
To kick off this research and to hear more about the issues firsthand, we invited representatives from three companies included in our survey to join us in Washington, DC yesterday for a panel discussion. If you weren’t able to watch the live stream of the event, a recorded version is now available above.
Amy Ronneberg of Be The Match, Jim Reilly of Panasonic, and Jack Riley of Fifth Third Bank discussed how a walkable downtown location has helped their businesses thrive. ”We started with 65 possible locations and finally decided on the one downtown,” Ronneberg explained of Be The Match’s search in Minneapolis. “It became very clear that this was going to be an enormous opportunity for us to attract and retain talent.”
Cities, for their part, can learn from this. Michael Deemer of the Downtown Cleveland Alliance, Brad Lacy of the Conway, AR Chamber of Commerce, and Mark Fisher of the Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce explained how they are working to create the kinds of places these companies seek. “For us, having three colleges in town is our biggest advantage,” said Lacy, “if we create the type of city that’s attractive to 21 or 22-year-olds when they graduate. That’s really why we’ve grown as fast as we have over the past five years.”
More information about all of this is available in the full report. Visit that page to also see a list of all the companies included in our research and an interactive map of where they moved.
Thank you to everyone who joined us for yesterday’s event—on our panels, at the Newseum, and online. We’re looking forward to continuning this work in the months to come.