The entrepreneurial-planning approach
By Howard Kozloff and Ben Donsky
Public parks are often caught between providing accessible amenities and programs for the community and finding ways to generate revenue for upkeep and maintenance. Today, many conservancies and a smaller number of municipal and county parks departments are moving toward a more business-minded approach, away from the traditional user-fee model. This shift represents a fundamental change in how park systems operate, focusing on creating diverse revenue streams that can advance broader community priorities while maintaining their core public mission.
The entrepreneurial-planning revenue model centers on generating income through programming, events, and amenities that give people compelling reasons to visit and stay in public spaces. Rather than charging users directly for these services, such as yoga classes or outdoor movies, parks can use them to create indirect revenue opportunities through food and beverage sales or corporate and philanthropic sponsorships. Through comprehensive market analysis, park managers can determine the feasibility of these revenue-generating opportunities based on existing infrastructure and market conditions.
Developing A Plan
First, park managers and consultants must evaluate their goals. Value isn't only measured in dollars and cents; it can also mean advancing programs or other community goals. This may include strengthening arts programming, promoting public health, providing after-school options for teens, or supporting local business development. Underscoring these initiatives, creating an emotional attachment between people and place is what drives these endeavors further. When community members feel connected to a park, they're more likely to visit regularly, participate in programming, host events, and support ongoing initiatives.
Once goals are identified, a comprehensive market analysis must be conducted to examine community demographics and potential competitors. Demographic analysis will produce findings such as the percentage of people with traditional work schedules, households with children, average age ranges, and income levels. Competitor analysis should extend far beyond other parks to include any other place in which people choose to spend their leisure time, such as shopping malls, restaurants, and entertainment venues. A successful lunch program, for instance, competes with office cafeterias, food delivery services, and nearby restaurants.
Understanding these baseline conditions helps determine possibilities and gaps in the market while identifying opportunities and how they can be implemented. Activation through programming provides much of the foundation for entrepreneurial-revenue generation. Programs such as art classes, salsa dancing, ping pong tournaments, and similar activities offer compelling reasons for people to visit and remain in park spaces. These programs should be offered for free or at minimal cost to maximize participation and community impact. High attendance creates multiple, indirect revenue opportunities, such as concession sales, while demonstrated community impact attracts corporate and philanthropic sponsorships. An activation develops proof of concept through participation numbers for potential sponsors. These relationships often grow over time—initial partnerships may be modest, but success breeds expanded opportunities as sponsors see tangible community impact and positive brand association.
Existing facilities should be evaluated for revenue-generating potential, as each park’s physical infrastructure (in combination with its surrounding context) will determine which opportunities are most feasible. Can buildings host private events? Are there opportunities for concessions or food trucks? What covered spaces exist for weather-dependent activities? For example, in Buffalo, N.Y., the Inner Harbor waterfront operated a hot dog stand out of a small shed. By bolstering the facility with a new seating area and nearby programming, the food stand nearly quadrupled its revenue for the park.
Land-use and real-estate context analysis help determine the viability of various revenue streams while identifying which private owners might benefit from new public investments, creating additional opportunities for value capture.
Potential Challenges
One of the most significant challenges in implementing entrepreneurial-planning strategies is addressing stakeholder concerns about commercialization. However, there are ways to incorporate sponsorships without disrupting the overall park experience.
The key is keeping the visitor experience at the center of all initiatives. For example, a yoga class "brought to you by" a healthcare sponsor creates value for participants while generating revenue for the park. Most corporate sponsors understand the sensitivity required when entering public spaces and are willing to work within appropriate guidelines. Demonstrating this benefit to park users is essential to stakeholder education. Earned-income opportunities can strengthen community programming, promote public health, and build social connections—benefits that extend far beyond simple commercial transactions.
Proof-of-concept requests can be challenging when programs launch. Sponsors want to see demonstrated impact before investing, but creating that impact often requires initial sponsorship. This often necessitates upfront investment from park systems or partner organizations. Staff capacity and skills may also present constraints, as traditional parks and recreation departments may lack experience in sponsorship development and event programming.
The Entrepreneurial-Planning Approach In Action
195 District Park in Providence, R.I., demonstrates how state agencies can successfully implement entrepreneurial-planning strategies. Understanding that maintaining public spaces would be important to attract and retain new businesses and residents, and with no dedicated funding stream for the new 195 District Park, the 195 Redevelopment District created a plan to generate revenue while the park was designed and built.
“The relocation of the highway provided us with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to build a new neighborhood in an old city, and the seven acres of set-aside open space gave us a focal point around which to develop,” says Caroline Skunk, Executive Director of 195 District. “We have been guided by a mandate to contribute to economic development, and we’ve followed best practices learned from other public parks to guide our placemaking to attract investment and build value while supporting the community. We have been intentional about early investments in infrastructure, requiring that our redevelopment projects contribute financially to the park. This financial support ensures that the park will be maintained—even without public funding—making it a valuable asset in an urban neighborhood.”
Today, approximately one-third of the park's revenue comes from earned income and another third from mandated contributions from surrounding property owners, in addition to traditional public-funding sources. The district is currently constructing a new park pavilion, which will house food and beverage tenants; the new restaurants are expected to further reduce the need for any subsidy from the public agency.
Offering a different perspective, Atlanta's Piedmont Park Conservancy illustrates how public-private partnerships can develop earned-income streams in service of enhancing both programming and park maintenance and operations. The conservancy is empowered through its agreement with the City of Atlanta to host and produce private and ticketed events in the park’s buildings, operate a summer camp, and pursue corporate sponsorships, among other revenues. To realize this income, the conservancy built in-house capacity that mirrors for-profit venue managers. Recognizing that changing market conditions present new opportunities and challenges, the conservancy commissioned a comprehensive business plan to target substantial revenue growth through appropriate venue development, adding food and beverage opportunities within existing infrastructure, expanding opportunities for corporate and philanthropic sponsorships, and planning site-specific activations. The Conservancy has also recently completed a new master plan for the Olmsted-designed park and is exploring how it can leverage its real estate to finance park improvements, among other anticipated funding sources.
“Increasingly, revenue diversification is vital for non-profit organizations to identify new sources of income and weather increasing uncertainty. Most organizations lack the time, knowledge of adaptable models from elsewhere, and the objectivity necessary to undertake such a strategic analysis. Given the limited resources for making new investments and the need to reduce risk of potential ventures succeeding, engaging a knowledgeable, trusted, and invested partner is critical to make strategic decisions to diversify and grow our operations and investment in the park we serve,” says Doug Widener, President & CEO of the Piedmont Park Conservancy.
Eastern Wharf, a new mixed-use development on the waterfront in Savannah, Ga., demonstrates how private-sector developers benefit from a similar approach. Regent Partners and The Mariner Group developed a plan to activate a new riverfront park through programming to attract locals, seasonal residents, and tourists alike, including an indoor-outdoor restaurant built from shipping containers (guests can watch similar containers float by on large ships while they eat). This will, in turn, attract people to live in Eastern Wharf’s apartments and townhomes, stay in its hotels, and draw businesses to lease space in office buildings throughout the district as it is built.
"We understood that Eastern Wharf Park could help build a distinct identity for our project, and by offering free activities like fitness classes and performances that attracted the public, create the vibrant environment that we knew future residents and visitors desired," says Andrew Allman, Principal of Development Services for Regent Partners.
Leading To Long-Term Community Benefits
The entrepreneurial-planning approach to revenue development offers significant long-term benefits for park systems, cities, and community members. By diversifying funding sources, public spaces become more resilient and capable of expanding programming, improving facilities, and serving broader community needs.
Additional revenue can be deployed strategically to benefit entire park systems, not only the facilities that generate income. This approach enables cross-subsidization, where successful revenue-generating parks support programming and improvements in underserved areas that may lack similar earning potential.
The model also creates opportunities for local business development. Rather than operating agency-owned concessions, park departments can lease space to local entrepreneurs, strengthening their place-based relevance and creating economic opportunities while generating rental income that can be reinvested for public benefit.
This model offers only one approach toward value creation for the public sector. Park systems can choose between enterprise approaches that keep earned revenue within specific facilities, general fund approaches that distribute income broadly, or hybrid models that balance both strategies. The key is maintaining flexibility to adapt approaches based on community needs, political realities, and market opportunities.
When done thoughtfully, this approach strengthens the financial sustainability and community impact of public parks, creating spaces that truly serve as cornerstones of healthy, vibrant communities.
Howard Kozloff is Founder and Principal at Agora Partners, and Ben Donsky is Principal at Agora Partners.