Where to next?: Urban Land Institute returns to Stockton to think up ideas/The Record

By Scott Smith
Record Staff Writer
February 07, 2012 12:00 AMSTOCKTON - David Leland, a Portland, Ore.-based real estate strategist, stepped off a bus in downtown Stockton on Monday morning.
So far, he had soaked in part of the beleaguered city center, and his mind started to reel.
"I see some opportunities already," he said, leaving a little mystery for a public report to come Friday. "Frankly, we've just gotten into town."

Leland chairs an elite team of downtown revitalization specialists from some of the nation's most vibrant cities. The economic development experts and public transit gurus flew in from places such as Atlanta, Boston and Seattle.

Stockton city leaders invited them through the Urban Land Institute, an internationally recognized organization that researches and advocates progressive municipal development.

This week, the national experts are putting their collective minds to work on Stockton's beleaguered city center.

Their charge is to suggest how the community can make its downtown a beehive of life - like it once was.

After a storm of nonstop activity all week, they'll have looked around at the core business district, interviewed about 70 residents and gone behind closed doors for a brainstorming session on what might turn around the city.

On Friday morning, they'll make a preliminary report of their findings and then a few weeks later send a detailed analysis. The Stockton City Council will then study it and decide what's next.

"There's always alternatives," he said. "Of course, one of the questions will be: How fast? What's the timing going to be? We'll be looking into that too."

This is not Leland's first visit to Stockton.

In 1997, he was part of the first strike team sent to town by the Urban Land Institute to delve into the nitty-gritty problems and recommend many of the changes that today make downtown Stockton a destination.

He's back 15 years later.

"Of course, the challenges are different," Leland said. "We're in a global recession, and Stockton, not unlike a lot of cities, is feeling the impact."

Stockton's Deputy City Manager Mike Locke, who spearheaded the Urban Land Institute's visit, said the mix of experts on the team is key to its success.

They know how to build homes around public transit stations - like the Robert J. Cabral Rail Station.

In this year's renewed effort, the experts will devise how to put private developers - and not the city - back in the driver's seat, unlike past efforts that built Stockton's arena and marina with public funding.

The team in town this week has the know-how, Locke said.

"Some of them are investors. They've done their own development," he said. "They're very familiar with what it takes to make things happen."

THE STRIKE TEAM
The Urban Land Institute strike team at work in Stockton this week:

David Leland, Chairman
Managing Director
Leland Consulting Group, real estate developer
Portland, Ore.

Heather Alhadeff
Senior Transportation Planner
Perkins Will, urban design
Atlanta

Zachary Greene
Vice President, Real Estate
MassDevelopment
Boston

Kamuron Gurol
Director of Community Development
City of Sammamish
Sammamish, Wash.

Scott Hall
Business Development Coordinator
Virginia Beach Economic Development Department
Virginia Beach, Va.

Robert M. Lewis, AICP, CEcD
Principal and President
Development Strategies
St. Louis, Mo.

David Scheuer
President
The Retrovest Companies
Burlington, Vt.

Ross Tilghman
Director
Tilghman Group
Seattle

Annie Finkenbinder-Best
Director, Education and Advisory Group
ULI — the Urban Land Institute
Washington, D.C.

Caroline Dietrich
Logistics Manager, Education and Advisory Group
ULI — the Urban Land Institute


Contact reporter Scott Smith at (209) 546-8296 or ssmith@recordnet.com. Visit his blog at recordnet.com/smithblog