Kyle Carter has earned the newly established designation of Certified Leader in Place Management by the International Downtown Association (IDA).
Carter is the Quad Cities Chamber Vice President, Place Management and Executive Director of the Downtown Davenport Partnership (DDP). The IDA certification recognizes Carter demonstrates the deep knowledge necessary to lead a place management organization. The certification is awarded to those who demonstrate ability and knowledge in seven domains: leadership development; organizational management; economic development; planning, design and infrastructure; policy and advocacy; public space management and operations; and marketing, communications and events.
IDA represents an industry of more than 2,500 place management organizations across the world. Its members bridge the gap between the public and private sector and work collaboratively to solve problems and stimulate economic growth.
Carter joined the DDP team in 2005 and was named Executive Director in 2012. During the formation of the Downtown Bettendorf Organization (DBO) in 2019, he took on regional leadership establishing the Quad Cities Community Partnership and its oversight as Vice President, Place Management. Carter is now also guiding the Chamber’s partnership with the City of Rock Island to explore the creation of a new downtown place management organization.
As a steward between the private and public sectors, Carter and his team work daily with business owners and city governments to build the vibrancy necessary in our urban cores to attract and retain investment, residents, visitors and new businesses. This often involves solving not just daily needs in the district, but guiding placemaking projects from public art to festivals and streetscape construction.
“The act of placemaking has to do with how we leverage the genuine assets of our community to create a vision and a place that people want to be and can engage in that's authentic to them,” Carter said.
“Place management is an entire industry and has to do with details most people don’t notice. Who cleans the streets? Who connects businesses to the services and funding they need? Who works with local government and advocates for stakeholder priorities? We are placemaking often inside the places we manage,” he said. “By providing strategic vision and daily on-street service to our stakeholders, we can greatly increase the likelihood of our entire community’s success.”
Carter said a business improvement district is one of the purest forms of government. “Property owners commit to self-improvement in the district and take part in the governance of how those dollars are spent in order to grow value and build for the greater good,” he said. “To me, it is really unique to work in the gray area between the private and public sectors. With the power of both sectors fully aligned, we can accomplish something bigger and better for our region neither party could do alone,” he said.
“I feel immense pride at what the collective has created, and I’m also deeply proud of our organization’s specific role in guiding downtown development over the decades,” Carter said. “This IDA certification provides perspective and context that we do in fact know what we're doing within place management in the Quad Cities. Our system and work are up to industry standards, and in some cases, our best practices exceed national industry norms, and that feels really good.”
Original source can be found here.
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