Communities across the United States have seen the roles of their traditional downtown and neighborhood business districts change. Downtowns, once the retail hub of communities, have changed as new competition and retail developed in areas outside the traditional downtown business district and in neighboring communities. 

The retail marketplace is increasingly competitive. Business districts that have failed to recognize and respond to changes in the market continue to struggle in their efforts to compete: those that are successful are redefining their position in the market and re-asserting the downtown’s important role as part of the community’s economic landscape.

Information and insight gained from DPN market research and analysis services are critical to identifying retail, service and housing opportunities and for establishing meaningful directions for downtown redevelopment, business development and marketing strategies.

DPN consultants have first-hand experience in building and nurturing partnerships to effectively deal with issues and address the challenges that communities and traditional business districts face. We use that experience in our work with communities to perform in-depth analyses and to develop plans and strategies that embrace each community’s values, emphasize its strengths, and capitalize upon its local resources, momentum, creativity and ingenuity.  

Our research techniques are designed to cultivate a keen awareness of the marketplace and local and regional factors that are impacting the business district’s economic performance and opportunities for the future. Market information, data and findings are analyzed in relationship to local downtown revitalization goals and redevelopment concepts to formulate specific strategies that can be implemented at the local level.

DPN market research and analysis services include:

DPN takes a customized approach to performing research and analysis, developed and performed in partnership with each client to focus local resources and energy on a meaningful examination of specific opportunities and strategies that are most relevant to the client or community.

DPN consultants capitalize on their extensive field experience to look beyond existing conditions, raw data and numbers. Our approach works to identify and build on distinguishing qualities, local market strengths and momentum. The resulting products provide sound direction for strategies that target emerging opportunities in the marketplace and for establishing a strong market identity or brand.

The products of DPN market research and analysis projects go “beyond the numbers” to include practical tools and examples to help expedite the transition from research and planning to implementation. This action-oriented approach serves as an extension of past, current and planned efforts and investments and dramatically enhances prospects for the implementation of each study's resulting strategies and products.

Throughout the course of each project, we work closely with local leaders and stakeholders to fully assess the implications of each study’s findings and to involve them in critical decision-making processes. The result of the process, then, is a “plan” that is locally embraced – a reasonable and practical way of moving forward with initiatives that support the community's vision, and one that is rooted in sound market-based economic principles and strategies.

“Non-Cookie Cutter”

“We love DPN's personal, yet very professional and thorough research style. You don't just get numbers, but an understanding how those numbers fit into your individual story and, more importantly, your specific mode of organization. They care and spend big time with you and your citizens and stakeholders.”

Robert Trezise

President & CEO

Lansing Economic Development Corp.

Lansing, Michigan

The Competitive Edge  

Successful downtown and neighborhood business districts are redefining their position in the market and re-asserting their important role as part of the community’s economic landscape.