2026 Webinar: Retail Resilience in Action (March 20)

Persistent vacancies are more than empty storefronts. They reflect untapped potential and present opportunities to rethink space and better align tools with today’s realities. 

Join us for this timely session exploring key insights from the 2025 Top Issues Council: Retail Beyond Pop-Ups report. This webinar highlights how forward-thinking downtown organizations are pairing retail strategies with long-term planning to create more resilient and adaptable retail ecosystems. 

We will explore winning approaches, including the strategies behind a Pinnacle Award-winning Storefront Improvement project and the Downtown Denver Partnership’s “Why Downtown Denver Website,” a GIS-powered business recruitment platform that provides evergreen market data and real-time storefront inventories to attract tenants and reduce vacancies. 

Discover how to leverage storefront improvements, strategic planning and innovative digital tools to transform empty spaces into opportunities for economic growth and vibrancy.  

Learning Objectives:

• Analyze how downtown organizations are effectively integrating retail strategy with capital planning, investment and regulatory reform to address persistent commercial vacancies. 
• Identify actionable strategies and key takeaways from the 2025 Top Issues Council Report and Pinnacle Award-winnings projects, Storefront Improvement and Why Downtown Denver, to reduce vacancy rates in your own district.  
• Learn how to leverage UPMO coordination and strategic planning to transform vacant properties into opportunities for economic growth and community vibrancy. 

Webinar Pricing: IDA Members: Free | Nonmembers: $40

LPM | 1 - IDA LPM professionals can earn credit hours for this webinar. More information about IDA’s Leadership in Place Management certification program can be found here.