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Alliance Program/Community Relations

What is Alliance Program?

Creating jobs, generating revenue and providing services to the communities they serve, shopping centers like other forms of retails, are undergoing rapid and dramatic change.

Likewise, communities are facing similar concerns as shifting consumer demographics and eroding tax revenues challenge public officials to reevaluate the climate for development in their communities. Increasingly these challenges are being met by innovative public/private partnerships.

In order to meet these challenges, both sides – public and private – must have a global understanding and respect for each other. ICSC has developed the Alliance Program to bring about a greater understanding of the shopping center industry and its economic impact on communities across America.

In this effort, local and regional meetings and deal making sessions serve as a forum to introduce the intricacies of the shopping center industry to state and local governments and community-based organizations.

How Did Alliance Get Started?

In 1996 the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) began exploring ways to create long-term alliances between its members and local officials. During that year, ICSC’s Small Center Committee hosted two symposia. These were held in Long Beach, CA and West Conshohocken, PA. These symposia were designed to encourage local government officials to get more involved in ICSC and to acquaint them with developers and retailers who could bring retail jobs and tax revenue to their communities. An additional Small Center Symposium was held in January of 1997 in Rosemont, IL where ICSC partnered with the American Planning Association and the Chicago Association of Neighborhood Development Organizations. Following the meeting, J. F. Boyle, Jr., City of Chicago’s Commissioner of Planning and Development concluded, "The bottom line is that by matching retailers and developers with the neighborhoods that need their services the most, we are creating a climate in which all sides benefit." Read more.
  
While ICSC and its members have known the value and importance of our Alliance Program for many years, the Alliance Program was recognized for its achievements by being elected to the 2004 "Associations Advance America Honor Roll", a national competition sponsored by the American Society of Association Executives. In addition, ICSC was awarded the 2004 Corporate Citizenship Award by the Council of State Governments for the Alliance publication "Developing Successful Retail in Underserved Urban Markets."