As Michigan retailers reopen after the COVID-19 shutdown, customers will have new expectations for their dining and shopping experiences. This fast-paced session will explore the new opportunities for downtown shopping districts to offer the goods and services desired and needed by families, millennials and empty nesters.  Best practices for branding, experiential shopping, merchandising and store planning will be illustrated with numerous case studies calibrated for the Birmingham-Bloomfield will be discussed.

Robert Gibbs, FASLA, AICP is a global authority on city planning and urban retail development.  Gibbs teaches at Harvard University and is the founder of the Gibbs Planning Group, based in downtown Birmingham.  He has co-authored Birmingham’s 2016 Plan with Andres Duany and is presently part of the DPZ group that is completing the City Wide Master Plan.  Gibbs is also the director of the Urban Retail Institute, host of the Michigan Planning Today cable show and has authored numerous books including Principals for Urban Retail.  Prior to forming GPG, Gibbs was the director of planning for the Taubman Company and an urban designer for the Smith/JJR Group.

*Session will be recorded