Coventry City Centre Business Improvement District (BID) 2008-2013

Why Coventry City Centre?

The City Centre had been a ‘BID-in-Waiting’ since 1998 when the City Centre Company (which later merged with Coventry & Warwickshire Promotions to become CV One Ltd) was formed.  Unique in the UK, CV One is now recognized as one of the leading City Centre Management companies in the U.K. and the City Centre BID is used as a model of best practice.  The current 5 year BID has been widely supported by the membership and the city centre lends itself to the BID model, delivering additional projects that promote footfall, over and above what can be afforded under normal funding programmes. The City Centre needs the BID projects to continue to maintain our competitive position within the sub- region.

Why should we further improve the city centre business environment?

In the 1980s & 1990s, when local manufacturing industries declined, the city centre declined too.  Footfall decreased and voids increased – there was a danger of a ghost town.  Together we have avoided that, but there are important new dangers –  local competition continues to grow  rapidly.

The net projected diversion from our city centre to the Touchwood, Bullring and Ricoh Phase 1 developments alone was projected by planners to be 15-20%. This threat has been largely avoided and we have strengthened our fooutfall patterns and promoted the city centre strongly over the last 3 years. More recently there are new major competitive developments in Leicester, Derby and planning applications for extensions at the Ricoh Arena and Cannon Hill Retail Parks.

The current 5 year BID will continue funding a package of measures, which will promote increased  footfall and increased marketing, to proactively resist this strong competition.

Why go down the BID route?

A renewed BID allows Coventry City Centre to stand up to the increased competition over a sustained period of time.  It is not just about raising money, tenants take an active part in deciding how their investment is spent to ensure the City Centre remains competitive.  CV One has the experience of working together with tenants and within a renewed BID format can be trusted to produce tangible results.

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