Keyword

Albania, business improvement district, economic development, public-private partnerships, tourism improvement district, urban regeneration.

Abstract

As a form of a public-private partnership with local authorities, the business improvement district (BID) is created when most businesses or business property owners agree through balloting to manage a delimited commercial area with prior authorization by the local authority. The district is managed through a non-profit organization that provides additional public services such as security, maintenance, infrastructure improvement, and marketing, to improve decaying commercial and residential areas. BIDs have been praised as engines for urban development, filling the need gap between the public and private sector by providing entrepreneurial local public management and augmented public services for socioeconomic revitalization. The business improvement districts (BIDs) and similar forms of a public-private partnership, as a new mechanism for urban renewal and economic development, have emerged in North America five decades ago and quickly adopted in many cities worldwide.

Since 2011, the model has been applied in 8 districts in Albania, contributing to improved business life, infrastructure improvements, and enhanced general public services. This time is considered long enough to offer insights regarding their evolution and transformative effects. This study aims at exploring the adaptation of the business improvement district (BID) model in urban areas in Albania and, at the same time, point out its characteristics, operational and functional activities, accountability, and contribution to business development and area revitalization.

The methodology used in this study adopts a qualitative method, including a case study approach to data gathering Primary data sources include semi-structured interviews with BID association members, administrators, and consultants in Albania, businesses, local government officials, and lawyers. This study will contribute to a more robust contextual understanding of the establishment and effectiveness of BIDs in developing economies

The findings presented demonstrate BID’s transformative role for area regeneration, economic and social development. Furthermore, this study provides additional insights regarding the effects of development organizations’ involvement in this public-private partnership model for area regeneration. The results have important implications for Albania’s public and development policies and provide practical lessons for practitioners in these fields. Furthermore, it contributes to the international literature on BIDs, including evidence of this model applied in a developing economy.


Full Text : PDF
References
  • AADF (2019). Project Evaluation report. Internal document. Unpublished
  • Baxter, P., and Jack, S. (2008). Qualitative Case Study Methodology: Study Design and Implementation for Novice Researchers. The Qualitative Report, 13(4), pp.544-559.
  • Becker, C., Grossman, S., and Dos Santos, B. (2011). Business improvement districts: census and national survey. Washington, D.C., International Downtown Association.
  • Billings, S., and Leland, S. (2009). Examining the Logic Behind the Self-Help, Self-Taxing Movement: Business Improvement District Formation. Public Budgeting and Finance, 29(4), pp.108-124.
  • Briffault, R. (1999). A Government for Our Time? Business Improvement Districts and Urban Governance. Columbia Law Review, 99(2), pp. 365-477.
  • Cook, I. (2009). Private sector involvement in urban governance: The case of Business Improvement Districts and Town Centre Management partnerships in England. Geoforum, 40(5), pp.930-940.
  • Costela-Sánchez, Á. (2018). German Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) as a model for Spain. GIGAPP Estudios Working Papers, No. 80. pp.33-48
  • Didier, S., Morange, M. and Peyroux, E. (2012). The Adaptative Nature of Neoliberalism at the Local Scale: Fifteen Years of City Improvement Districts in Cape Town and Johannesburg. Antipode, 45(1), pp.121-139.
  • Eick, V. (2012). The co-production of purified space: hybrid policing in German Business Improvement Districts. European Urban and Regional Studies, 19(2), pp.121-136.
  • Grossman, S. 2008. The case of business improvement districts: Special district public-private cooperation in community revitalization. Public Performance & Management Review, 32 (2), pp.290–308.
  • Hoyt, L (2003). The Business Improvement District: An Internationally Diffused Approach to Revitalization. [Online] Available at:
  • https://www.researchgate.net/publication/237569027_The_Business_Improvement_District_An_Internationally_Diffused_Approach_to_Revitalization  [Accessed August 15, 2020].
  • Hoyt, L. and Gopal-Agge, D. (2007). The Business Improvement District Model: A Balanced Review of Contemporary Debates. Geography Compass, 1(4), pp.946–958.
  • Levy, P. (2001). Paying for public life. Economic Development Quarterly, 15 (2), pp.124–131.
  • Means, T. (2013). Review of Business Improvement Districts in Wales. [On‐Line] Available at:
  • https://www.themeans.co.uk/sites/default/files/bidsreview_0.pdf [Accessed 18 October 2020].
  • Michel, B. and Stein, C. (2014). Reclaiming the European City and Lobbying for Privilege: Business Improvement Districts in Germany. Urban Affairs Review, 51(1), pp.74-98.
  • Mitchell, J. (1999). Business improvement districts and innovative service delivery. New York: The PricewaterhouseCoopers Endowment for the Business of Government.
  • Morçöl, G. and Wolf, J.F. (2010), Understanding Business Improvement Districts: A New Governance Framework. Public Administration Review, 70(6), pp.906-913.
  • Peyroux, E., Pütz, R. and Glasze, G. (2012). Business Improvement Districts (BIDs): the internationalization and contextualization of a ‘travelling concept’. European Urban and Regional Studies, 19(2), pp.111-120.
  • Richner, M. and Olesen, K. (2018). Towards business improvement districts in Denmark: Translating a neoliberal urban intervention model into the Nordic context. European Urban and Regional Studies, 26(2), pp.158-170.
  • Robson, C. (2002). Real World Research: A Resource for Social Scientists and Practitioner-Researchers / C. Robson.
  • Stalevska, M, Kusevski, D. (2018). Business Improvement Districts and their role in the Swedish context. In: Baeten, G, Björk, F, Edvik, A, Parker, P (eds) Reports from Urban Studies Research Internships 2017. Malmö: Malmö University, pp.14–51.
  • Valli, C. and Hammami, F. (2020) Introducing Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) in Sweden: A social justice appraisal. European Urban and Regional Studies, p.0969776420925525.
  • Ward, K. (2006). 'Policies in Motion', Urban Management and State Restructuring: The Trans-Local Expansion of Business Improvement Districts. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 30(1), pp.54-75.
  • Ziebarth, D. (2020) Local Improvement Districts as Political Participation Signals, Political Studies Review, p.1478929920965789.