Whether on a downtown street, at a lifestyle center, or within a resort locale, collections of shops and restaurants help create gathering places that draw people in and inspire them to return. The Downtown Works team has created retail strategies that help cities, organizations, developers, and universities foster vibrant, people-drawing retail scenes.

Midge McCauley

Midge McCauely has been at the forefront of the urban retail industry since her days working with legendary retail developer and real estate visionary Jim Rouse. If she hasn’t worked in a market in the U.S. the odds are pretty good she’s shopped there.   



Kelly Kost

Kelly Kost teamed up with Midge McCauley in 2008.  Together they develop and implement retail strategies, while Kelly also conducts merchandising training and works one-on-one with individual operators to help them reimagine and refresh their spaces.



Our team conducts retail market analyses and develops strategies for commercial districts large and small, and for individual developments.  We guide our clients in the launch of recruitment programs and help ensure their successful implementation.  In many cases we recommend a Retail Advocate be engaged to steward the strategy for a given place.  Our competencies include:

Market Analysis

▪︎ enabling environment assessments

▪︎ trade area definition, demographic and psychographic analyses

▪︎ existing operator assessments

▪︎ competition evaluation

Strategy Development

▪︎ merchandise mix plans

▪︎ leasing plans

▪︎ prospecting stratgies

▪︎ proformas

Implementation

▪︎ prospecting

▪︎ stakeholder relationship building

▪︎ Retail Advocate identification, training, ongoing support

▪︎ operator consultation on branding/merchandising/display

  Representative clients:

City of Coral Gables

University of Washington

Beacon Capital

Downtown Austin Alliance

Nashville Downtown Partnership

Chestnut Hill Business Improvement District

Chattanooga River City Company

Urban Villages

Wright Runstad & Company

City of Tacoma

George Washington University

Friends of Waterfront Seattle

Downtown Seattle Association

Pioneer Square Alliance