The Downtown Report

City Pulse 2026
GENSLER RESEARCH INSTITUTE
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What makes downtown magnetic?
Downtowns are citywide reputation engines. They anchor the tax base, centralize economic growth, and can determine whether a city feels dynamic or stagnant. Our research suggests that improving downtown experience is one of the most effective levers for strengthening a city’s brand, building a thriving economy, and retaining residents. Great downtowns — whether called a Central Business District (CBD), city center, or financial district — make their cities more competitive for talent, businesses, and investments.
How are your CBDs performing?
To better understand how people think about their CBD, we asked 35,000 city residents to rate the statement “My downtown business district feels…” across a set of attributes. The chart below shows the percentage who agree or strongly agree with each description. Click on any city to see its individual CBDs and results, sort by clicking column header or filter by clicking a region name. Click the + button next to a city to compare a custom list of CBDs.
Data collected online from July 8 to November 4, 2025. CBDs with fewer than 100 respondents are excluded.
Key Finding

Although most people like their downtowns, they rarely visit.

Nearly 75% of city residents say their CBD offers a great experience. However, fewer than half visit their CBD weekly, and fewer than a third spend leisure time there. This gap between perception and behavior is the defining tension of today’s city centers. Downtown is treated as a destination for purpose-driven visits, not leisure-driven ones, with residents more likely to visit for a cultural event or errand rather than dining, exploring, or socializing.

Nearly three quarters of people believe their CBD offers a great experience, but only a quarter linger.
The percentage of respondents who agree that their central business district offers a great experience compared with the percentage who report choosing to spend more time than is necessary downtown.
Key Finding
Time spent downtown matters more than number of visits.

How long someone stays matters more than how often they come — dwell time, not visit frequency, is the strongest predictor of whether a resident feels their CBD delivers a great experience. The value of a downtown area grows as more people choose to be there, and their presence itself becomes the draw. Vibrancy and dwell time reinforce one another in a positive feedback loop. More people make a place feel safer. A safer place feels more welcoming. A more welcoming place attracts more people, who stay longer, who make the district feel safer still. Directed investments into urban vibrancy, streetscapes, and active ground floors can therefore produce compounding returns on investment.

People spend more time in the most vibrant CBDs.
The percentage of respondents in each city who agree that their downtown/business district is “Vibrant” compared to the typical reported length of a visit to their CBD.
Key Finding
Downtown needs more than just offices to survive.

CBDs that function as mixed-use neighborhoods rather than nine-to-five office centers are better positioned for stronger absorption, higher rents, and more durable long-term real estate value. The districts where people stay longest and visit most often are the ones with the richest mix of uses beyond the workday. The message is clear: Residents want CBDs to be focused less on work and more on everything else.

City residents want business districts that offer more than just “business.”
The percentage of respondents who selected each option in response to the prompt “Imagine your downtown/business district in 10 years. Which of the following best describes your ideal vision?”
Implications
The measure of a successful downtown is simple: Do people linger?
Urban vibrancy is generated by dwell time, not solely by how many people visit downtown. Cities that understand this move from prioritizing throughput to experience, creating spaces vibrant enough to turn an errand into an afternoon stay. In this way, the CBD can evolve from a business district into a living room for the entire city. Mixed-use density, activated ground floors connected to the street, and safe, walkable pedestrian areas create the conditions for urban vibrancy. Downtown design choices are never purely local decisions; their benefits extend across the entire city. The most successful cities of the future will be those that invest in their CBDs to foster an environment that encourages residents and businesses to stay.
 
Methodology
The City Pulse 2026 survey was conducted online from July 8 to November 4, 2025, via an anonymous, panel-based survey of 35,000 urban residents in 75 global cities recruited by third-party research firm Qualtrics. Respondents were required to live within the city administrative boundaries, except for Los Angeles, where residents were required to live within the county administrative boundaries. Respondents were demographically diverse across gender, age (18+), income, and education levels. The survey included a total of 133 CBDs. The margin of error for the sample is +/- 1%.
CITY PULSE 2026
GENSLER RESEARCH INSTITUTE
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Download Gensler’s City Pulse 2026: The Downtown Report to learn how thriving central business districts can make cities more magnetic.