Link to Penn State Home Page

 
Seeking to reverse years of decline, many communities are initiating downtown revitalization programs.

Welcome

A thorough understanding of your local retail market is a crucial aspect of any revitalization effort. This site offers the following tools to help communities assess the strengths and weaknesses of their local retail market.

Planning Tools

  • A Manual for Small Downtowns 1.8 MB PDF.   A comprehensive 'how to' manual for revitalization efforts in small places. The manual emphasizes volunteerism, organization and small scale projects. (exec summary)

Related Sites
*The tools available here are used mainly for comparison purposes to help communities assess growth or decline. These tool, however, do not tell us why growth or decline occurred or what a community can do to alter the situation. The community needs to conduct further analysis after they have used this basic information. These other analyses might include consumer surveys or more advanced market analysis services that are provided by consultants.
 
     
 

| Home to Retail Markets | Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology |
| College of Agricultural Sciences | Penn State |
Site Contact:  webmaster
Copyright © 2010, The Pennsylvania State University. All rights reserved.
Penn State is committed to affirmative action, equal opportunity, and the diversity of its workforce.
| Nondiscrimination Statement | Equal Opportunity Policy | Privacy |