ICIC's Inner City Economic Forum to Target Inner City Retail Opportunities; New Study Will Identify Leading Inner City Retailers and Examine Successful Models of Retail Penetration in Urban Markets.

ATLANTA -- A broad coalition of corporate, civic and academic leaders from around the country will gather in Atlanta today at the fourth annual Inner City Economic Forum (ICEF), the nation's premiere U.S. forum focused on market-led inner city revitalization.

The highlighted focus of the 2006 ICEF Summit will be on the dynamics of emerging inner city retail markets. New research shows that some national retailers and selected indigenous companies have discovered the opportunities available in the long-underserved inner city neighborhoods and others are beginning to follow. ICEF members - a group that includes corporate CEOs, university presidents and mayors, among others - will examine successful models of retail penetration in urban markets and develop strategies for applying these lessons across the country.

ICEF was founded by the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC), a national, non-partisan, not-for-profit organization founded in 1994 by Harvard Business School Professor Michael E. Porter. The ICEF, modeled after the World Economic Forum, brings together business and civic leaders and marshals their resources to promote adoption of ideas and actions that accelerate inner city economic development.

Porter, chairman and founder of ICIC, will present, "REALIZING THE INNER CITY RETAIL OPPORTUNITY: PROGRESS AND NEW DIRECTIONS", based on comprehensive research of inner city retail markets in 100 of the country's largest cities. The research, conducted jointly with The Boston Consulting Group (BCG), an ICIC partner, shows that over the last eight years retail development has been robust in a significant number of inner cities. Developers and national retailers, working closely with community organizations and city governments, have adapted their models to suit densely populated urban markets. The result has been multiple benefits for cities and urban residents and profits for developers and retailers.

"We found that many retailers no longer question the viability of inner city retail markets," explains Carl Stern, BCG Co-Chairman. "The questions now involve how to develop sites in the inner cities and how to adapt operating procedures to conditions in densely populated urban areas. Our research uncovers and explores many examples of success."

Yet, despite the progress made over the past decade, Professor Porter notes, inner city residents in many cities are still under-served. The gap between retail supply and demand in the 100 largest inner city markets is estimated at $42 billion, a situation that is both a challenge and an opportunity.

"With the suburbs saturated with stores, and retailers searching everywhere -- including overseas -- for expansion sites, the inner cities present an ideal domestic market that holds huge opportunities," Professor Porter says. The challenge for retailers, he adds, is to adapt their operations - and on occasion, product mix - to the requirements of inner city customers.

"Main Street America is accustomed to serving the largely homogeneous populations of the suburbs, but the future lies in the heterogeneous populations of urban markets," adds Stern. "Those who understand inner cities today will get an edge in developing products and delivery mechanisms to serve America's growing ethnic micro-markets. Not only is the future consumer in the US increasingly non-white, but non-white consumers globally is explosion. The question is who will be ready to serve these millions of new consumers?"

One session of the two-day forum will bring together retail analysts and CEOs of national retail chains on a panel to discuss their experiences adapting to inner city markets. Commercial real estate developers, urban planners and political leaders will describe how inner city retail cites are assembled, remediated, stores built, tenanted and operated. In virtually every case, successful projects were made possible by a combination of close public/private cooperation and creative financing.

"Attracting retail businesses to inner cities is a goal with multiple benefits," says Dorothy Terrell, president and CEO of ICIC. "Retail businesses that adapt to inner city conditions can be highly profitable. For city residents, new retail businesses mean easy access to quality products at reasonable prices. They also mean jobs. And new retail development is often the catalyst for other development and overall neighborhood uplift."

An important component of realizing inner city retail opportunities is finding ways to change long-held misperceptions about conditions in inner cities. To that end, ICIC will discuss how to counter the pervasive negative images about inner cities.

"In many inner cities the incidents of crime and violence are no greater than elsewhere in the city or even the suburbs," explains Terrell. "Yet, the perception among the general public is the inner city is a more dangerous place to live, shop and work. With this marketing campaign, we will begin the process of changing those erroneous perceptions that, among other things, can stifle business development."

Atlanta, the host city, will play a prominent role at the 2006 Forum. ICEF members are invited to take a bus tour of revitalizing Atlanta neighborhoods. Mayor Shirley Franklin will offer welcoming remarks, and introduce a case study of an initiative to increase the participation of Atlanta CEOs in the city's economic development efforts.

In addition to Mayor Franklin and Professor Porter, ICEF speakers include former HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros, and Victor MacFarlane, a pioneer investor in inner city real estate projects.

For more information about the 2006 ICEF visit www.icic.org.

About The Initiative for a Competitive Inner City

The Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC) is a national, non-partisan, not-for-profit organization founded in 1994 by Harvard Business School Professor Michael E. Porter, following several years of pioneering research on inner-city business and economic development. ICIC's mission is to promote economic prosperity in America's inner cities through private sector engagement that leads to jobs, income and wealth creation for local residents. ICIC brings together business and civic leaders to drive innovation and action, transform thinking and accelerate inner city business growth and investment. For more information, please visit our web site at www.icic.org

About The Boston Consulting Group

Since its founding in 1963, The Boston Consulting Group has focused on helping clients achieve competitive advantage. Our firm believes that best practices or benchmarks are rarely enough to create lasting value and that positive change requires new insight into economics and markets and the organizational capabilities to chart and deliver on winning strategies. We consider every assignment to be a unique set of opportunities and constraints for which no standard solution will be adequate. BCG has 61 offices in 36 countries and serves companies in all industries and markets. For further information, please visit our Web site at www.bcg.com