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Predominantly, downtowns will have a financial, medical, and government district. Government: police, city hall, courthouse, administration for city, county, state, and federal agencies. Medical: usually a major or university hospital with various outpatient services in nearby. Financial: banks, banking services, property and financial services. Typically, just these 3 things were enough to compromise over 50% of commercial downtown properties. We're not even approaching cities that have a major HQ or specialty (manufacturing, tech, media, print). For a lot of cities once a major tenant moved out, they really only had government and medical as the city's economic engines. My city I've watched transform from being a violent, crack infest dump to a very desirable, fair weather place to be. And because of the loss of so much commercial business in the 90s they managed to avoid the glut of commercial properties. We pivoted to residential/mixed-use development in 2003 and it's really paying off now. Our downtown doesn't do anything in particular (except maybe crypto) except be a place for socializing. |