Festival marketplace

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A festival marketplace is a concept of James W. Rouse and the Rouse Company in the United States to revitalize downtown areas in major cities in the late 20th century. Festival marketplaces were a leading downtown revitalization strategy in American cities during the 1970s and 1980s.

In the second half of the 20th century, Rouse and his company became major developers of suburban strip shopping centers and pioneered large shopping malls. In many cities, these were seen as escalating the failure of retail businesses and causing further deterioration of older, downtown core areas.

In the late 1970s, Rouse and his company, who had developed entire planned communities such as Columbia, Maryland, took on some of the inner city dilemmas their earlier work had been accused of exacerbating. Studies had shown such areas were often perceived as both dirty and dangerous. In response, they developed the festival marketplace concept as a way to reverse the negative trends and attract both suburban residents and out-of-town visitors to the downtown areas.

A typical festival marketplace would include local involvement in the creation of a safe and trendy attraction intended to serve as a major catalyst for other redevelopment. Generally, a festival marketplace offers major restaurants, specialty retail shops, and an international food court. Often, there is an exciting nightlife with music, dancing and live entertainment. The more successful projects seemed to benefit from waterfront locations and secure parking.