Blacktown City Council believes it can meet the challenge.
Council’s opinion is that it can attract the required investment and jobs to provide a stronger and more successful identity for the lacklustre city centre.
This could be accomplished by focussing on specific industries and providing activities targeting young people within these industries.
“Health and education are two industries where opportunities exist to facilitate jobs growth in the Blacktown City Centre,” a council report said.
Council said research confirmed that attracting such groups of people required “place activation” focused on providing regular activities, such as night markets and themed events.
“We are in the process of developing place activation initiatives for the Blacktown City Centre as a first step.”
The basis for council’s confidence is based on the findings of an initiative, Magnet Cities, undertaken by finance and consulting firm KPMG, in the United Kingdom.
The 300-page document looked at reinvention programs which government organisations around the world were doing to attract people to their cities, and the types of people who could stimulate a local economy
“The Magnet City concepts are useful as we move to establish a stronger identity for the Blacktown City Centre as part of our overall vision,” the council report noted.
This [Magnet Cities] philosophy tells us that capital works infrastructure, in itself, will not attract the specific groups of people we want experiencing and contributing to the city centre.
“We need to understand and make some decisions on our comparative economic advantages with the objective of strengthening the presence of an industry sector in our city centre.
The $700 million expansion of Blacktown Hospital was a catalyst creating opportunities to use education to specialise in specific forms of health service/care and to facilitate jobs growth in the CBD.
“There is a strong link or correlation between having a strong and powerful city image and reputation, and the success of a place in attracting entrepreneurs, visitors, tourists, students and securing new investment.”
Council said this was a strategy component it had yet to implement, but had identified as part of its planning.
