King of Prussia Business Improvement District

Visit the King of Prussia Business Improvement District's Website

The owners of more than 445 commercial properties in Upper Merion Township have agreed to form a Business Improvement District (BID) under Pennsylvania’s law (The Neighborhood Improvement District Management Act) shaping these organizations. The resulting nonprofit corporation may prove to be the world’s largest BID in terms of the total square feet of retail, hotels and offices served.

There are more than 1500 of these districts worldwide, popular with business interests because they are planned and managed by private sector people who benefit from partnership arrangements among themselves and with the local governments which must approve them. Within this region, BIDs have been operating for more than a decade in Ardmore and West Chester, PA and in Center City and Manayunk, Philadelphia. A BID of comparable scale to Upper Merion’s is located in Hampton, VA.

The King of Prussia Business Improvement District (BID) is authorized to impose an assessment on benefitting properties which, together with grants expected to be solicited, will provide funding for five years. The priorities set by the planners include: marketing the entire area; improving the area’s appearance; providing services to employees of affected businesses and working with the Township on land use and taxation improvements. State law allows BIDs to be reauthorized after five years if the sponsors desire.

The King of Prussia BID program encompasses five principal activities: 1) Marketing and Market Research; 2) Physical Improvements; 3) Communications; 4) Stakeholder services; and, 5) Public Policy Research and Advocacy. In the first year the BID will be surveying the business community, to strategize marketing, starting physical improvement planning and studying land use and taxation issues.

For more information, please contact Rob Loeper, township planner, at 610-265-2606 ext. 102.

Meetings
October 15, 2007, General Business Land Owners Meeting
Agenda | Meeting Summary | Presentation

November 29, 2007, Steering Committee Meeting
Agenda | Conditions Survey and Results | Priorities Survey and Results

June 10, 2008, Steering Committee Meeting
Agenda | Meeting Summary | Steering Committee Mapping Survey | Presentation

February 26, 2009, Steering Committee Meeting 
Agenda | Meeting Summary | Presentation

April 16, 2009, Land Owners Meeting
Agenda | Meeting Summary | Presentation