Heather Arnold
Heather is the Managing Director of the Public Sector at Streetsense and specializes in retail market analysis, incentive planning, and merchandising mix strategies for downtown environments. Heather leads a multi-disciplinary team on the Vibrant Streets™ project, an initiative that provides neighborhoods the tools and framework necessary to create vibrant retail communities, regardless of population, ethnic composition, location, income, or budget. This initiative stemmed from Heather’s brainchild, The Vibrant Streets Toolkit, which has been implemented in several cities and numerous neighborhoods, namely Washington, DC and 11 of the neighborhoods therein. The toolkit can be used by retailers, businesses, merchants’ associations, government agencies, neighborhoods, and community groups to make incremental, measured improvements in their commercial districts to attract shops and restaurants.
Heather has conducted market analyses for urban downtowns across the country, including the University of Pennsylvania and University City District in Philadelphia, 2000 Penn for George Washington University, and the Capitol Riverfront Business Improvement District in Washington, DC. In 2010, she completed an extensive Retail Market Strategy for downtown Durham, North Carolina. For Washington, DC, she prepared unmet retail demand analyses for 10 neighborhood districts that guided city planning efforts to create retail tax-increment financing (TIF) districts. Her study of the Manassas, Virginia, downtown commercial area revealed a disconnect between the community’s ambitions and market realities. The conclusions of this study bridged this gap and resulted in thriving sidewalks and fewer ground-level vacancies.
Heather has an undergraduate Architectural History degree from the University of Virginia and a Master’s of City and Regional Planning from Cornell University.
