Shreveport’s economic development director Bill Sabo now wants to untie the downtown gordian knot that the taxpayer-funded Downtown Development Authority (DDA) has largely ignored for over 15 years—developing a strategic retail plan to revitalize Shreveport’s downtown area. At his direction the city (and the DDA) has entered a three-year $135 thousand consulting agreement with Retail Strategies, LLC.
 
The contract has ambitious goals that if achieved could have a meaningful impact despite the fact that many studies/reports funded with taxpayer dollars gather dust on shelves of bureaucrats only to be pulled out as reference points for the next studies that are deemed “needed” to re-address a long-standing civic issue.
 
A key to the consulting agreement's success will be Sabo serving as the Point of Contact (POC) for Retail Strategies.
 
The contract sets forth the POC responsibilities while conditioning Retail Strategies' performance on the full and timely cooperation and assistance of the POC. This brings up the question of Sabo's long-term employment by the City, at least through the three-contract term, which will most likely depend on the successful re-election bid of now mayor Arceneaux.
 
Here is the timeline in the consulting agreement:
 A. Discovery Phase
     Partnership Kick-off & Onboarding
     Strategic Visioning Workshop
     Market Analysis
B.  5-Year Downtown Strategic Action Plan Deliverable

C.  Implementation Jumpstart

D.  Year 2—Implementation Support
      Monthly Office Hours
      Technical Support
      Collaboration Calls
      Expansion of Local Action Teams
E.  Year 3 –Implementation Support
      Same as year 2

Buy-in by stakeholders, both in the downtown area and throughout the business community, will be critical as will active participation throughout the process. Many efforts of this nature get off to a good start but interest often fizzles over time. The sustained effort by Sabo and the assembled group will be critical.