Elizabeth Berger

President of the Downtown Alliance The Downtown Alliance, the Business Improvement District (BID) for Lower Manhattan, is a powerhouse of information and statistics. Recently, the Alliance published a report entitled "The State of Lower Manhattan," which showed the numerous ways in which the area has not only recovered but flourished since 9/11. We sat down with Downtown Alliance President Elizabeth Berger to discuss the report and the BID's work.

For those who aren't familiar with the Downtown Alliance, what is it, when and why was it created and what does it do now?

We are a Business Improvement District-the largest one in New York City. We are a BID that services roughly everything south of Chambers Street. We were created in 1995, at a time of high commercial vacancy in Lower Manhattan and high anxiety about the enduring future of Lower Manhattan as a compelling business address. We were one of several initiatives undertaken by the Downtown-Lower Manhattan Association [D-LMA], a group of Lower Manhattan executives founded by David Rockefeller, at a time when some financial services were moving uptown.

Rockefeller [and D-LMA] envisioned the future of Lower Manhattan as a new kind of business district. If you look at what they proposed in the 1950s and 1960s, it is radically striking-the intense mixed uses. [In their plans,] the way to support commercial tenants was by building large institutions like the World Trade Center, the seaport or creating parks and making transportation improvements?things that encourage residential and cultural activity. The other remarkable thing about the original vision was how much of it came true today.

Fast-forward to the early to mid-1990s. [D-LMA] worked very closely with the city on a 1993 plan-one of the things it proposed was the creation of a Business Improvement District. Around the country, BIDs are often formed as an economic development tool. [At that time in Lower Manhattan,] commercial vacancy was high and not many people lived here, so a BID was set about to change that.

There were three initial things that really endured-firstly, supplemental services, which is a key function of any BID. The second was that we encouraged new development based on the theory that residential growth as well as tourism is intrinsic in supporting commercial vitality. The third was to identify Lower Manhattan as a home of innovation, and that happened in the mid- to late 1990s with the creation of the tech district.

Sixty percent of our budget is supplemental services: sanitation, safety, homeless outreach, tourist kiosks-there are four in Lower Manhattan, three of which we run-and transportation. We are the only BID in New York to provide free transportation, a bus which makes a loop around Lower Manhattan.

Another 30 percent of our budget is for economic development research and advocacy around capital projects, leasing incentives and visions and plans for development.

We are a new kind of business district. We were putting up building blocks with the government well before 9/11. When I moved here in 1982, only 10,000 people lived here. In 1990, only 14,000 [did]-but on 9/11, there were 26,000 people living here. There were supermarkets and a new streetscape. There were restaurants and retailers open on the weekend. Lower Manhattan was really emerging as a new kind of district and, of course, the devastation of 9/11 destroyed a lot of that community-building.

But there was this fierce commitment to this community on behalf of business leaders, residential pioneers and politicians to rebuild. Today, we have 309,500 people who work in Lower Manhattan and 56,000 people who live here, which is more than double the population on 9/11.

We have seen diversification of the economy. We have gone a long way to insulate Lower Manhattan-not that we are immune to the ravages of the recession. Government is the No. 1 employer, but we have seen a rise in professional services and creative services.

It is a mature community, more people live in families and 25 percent have children. Forty-seven percent of residents own. They are drawn by the multimobile transportation hub; it is easier to get in and out [here] than in any other region. Thirty percent of people walk to work and 40 percent work in the area. They are drawn to the parks and the waterfront. You have the biggest buildings on the smallest streets. There is a powerful sense of community.

When you put together the 309,500 who work here and the 56,000 who live here, they have a combined buying power of $4.6 billion, and that is clearly reflected in the sophistication of the retail market.

Recently, the Downtown Alliance came out with "The State of Lower Manhattan: A New Report Detailing a Decade of Progress." Could you describe how different the Lower Manhattan of 10 years ago-after 9/11-is from the Lower Manhattan of today?

Ten years ago, there was an unprecedented physical attack on New York City, on the United States and, really, on democratic society. And the results were shown in the staggering images that are seared in the brains of millions of people. We had 13 million square feet of office space destroyed. Utilities were damaged. It was a mess. I think it is incredible how much rebuilding has happened and how many funds have been put into Lower Manhattan. It is amazing how they have attracted visitors-there has been $30 billion worth of reconstruction. It isn't like Lower Manhattan has been roped off.

Your website recently won a Best in Class Award at the 2011 Interactive Media Awards. It is user-friendly and is a great information portal. Why did the Downtown Alliance go in this direction with its website?

We spent a year and a half rethinking and relaunching our site. We really focused on "Who are the main users?" and "What do they want to do?" There was a tremendous amount of research that went into this. We thought the biggest focus should be what to do in Lower Manhattan and what is going on and finding ways to tell the story of Lower Manhattan. We are mobile-friendly to make it easy for people to learn all that Lower Manhattan has to offer.

The Downtown Alliance generates a great deal of information-I'm thinking specifically of the "facts and figures" section of your website.

A part of our mission is to do research and advocacy. We are the single largest source of synthesized demographic and economic information for Lower Manhattan. We compile and aggregate and share in ways that are useful and meaningful.

I think it is fascinating that the number of hotels has tripled, and the number of hotel rooms has grown more than 80 percent. The occupancy isn't just for business-30 percent of it is for leisure. Lower Manhattan is becoming a destination. We were always a tourist attraction, but now we have new architectural icons. People are coming for the old and the new. *Photo Credit: Elizabeth Berger. Photo courtesy of the Downtown Alliance