Market Street Arts receives IDA Downtown Achievement Award
Recognition highlights the Mid Market Foundation’s leadership in revitalizing Mid-Market
Mid-Market Business Association and Foundation staff with the IDA award: (L-R) Rob Ready, Megan Garcia, Abra Allan, Fernando Pujals
PRESS RELEASE | SAN FRANCISCO (September 23, 2025) — The Mid-Market Business Association and Foundation (MMBA&F) has been awarded the Downtown Achievement Award of Excellence in the Economic Development category for its innovative approach to downtown revitalization with Market Street Arts. The initiative activated seven previously empty storefronts, created paid opportunities for 250+ local artists, and generated over $500,000 in direct neighborhood investment. By turning vacant spaces into thriving cultural hubs and filling streets with creativity, the initiative has brought new energy, safety, and long-term sustainability to the heart of Mid-Market.
Market Street Arts pioneered an innovative "artenomics" model, which demonstrates how cultural programming directly drives economic outcomes. Rather than traditional development approaches, Market Street Arts builds economic vitality through an authentic creative ecosystem rooted in the neighborhood's historic theater district identity.
“Market Street Arts demonstrates what’s possible when creativity, collaboration, and community come together,” said Fernando Pujals, Executive Director of the Mid-Market Foundation. “By activating vacant spaces, elevating local artists, and creating cultural experiences in the heart of San Francisco, we’re showing that arts and culture can be a driving force for economic recovery and neighborhood transformation.”
Since its launch in 2023, Market Street Arts has been working to transform Mid-Market into a hub of arts and culture, introducing free performances, public art, and new Creative Hubs that filled vacant storefronts, which became local anchors in the neighborhood. UNSTAGED events attracted approximately 2,500 attendees each month, while the initiative delivered 500+ hours of live music throughout 2024. Through supporting artists, small businesses, and community partnerships, the initiative has revitalized the corridor and demonstrated the power of arts-driven economic recovery in San Francisco.
“The Mid-Market Foundation has demonstrated skillful application of urban place management principles with their Market Street Arts project,” said David Downey, IDA President and CEO. “Market Street Arts should serve as a framework for all member communities within IDA.”
The initiative's success has enabled continued expansion, including the launch of the Mid-Market Entertainment Zone in 2025, which allows enhanced programming and community gatherings. The Community Arts Stabilization Trust's recent $7.3 million investment in the historic Warfield Building further demonstrates confidence in the district's transformation, ensuring artists will have a permanent home in Mid-Market.
A jury of peers from across the country carefully reviewed and evaluated all entries in the 2025 Downtown Achievement Awards. The Award of Excellence honors standout initiatives that not only tackle urban challenges with creativity and expertise but also deliver lasting impact for the community. Market Street Arts is recognized within the category of Economic Development. Those recognized in this category have led unique organizational approaches and projects in the areas of business recruitment and retention, market analysis and research, nighttime economy, incubators, and co-working spaces.
IDA will convene this September in Washington, DC, for Interwoven: The Power of Passion, Place & Purpose, a four-day conference to discuss emerging trends in place management. Mid-Market Foundation’s Market Street Arts will be recognized for its award-winning project during the Downtown Achievement Awards ceremony at the 71st Annual Conference & Marketplace, September 24-27, 2025. IDA’s Annual Conference & Marketplace is the premier gathering for professional place managers and urban champions creating vibrant and healthy cities around the world. The conference features educational sessions, Master Talks (short keynotes from industry leaders), marketplace exhibitors, and networking opportunities.
In addition, Market Street Arts will be displayed at the National Building Museum in the City Action Hall, a room within the Museum’s latest exhibition, Coming Together: Reimagining America’s Downtowns. Coming Together explores the lessons learned and opportunities embraced in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. After a period of adapting and reshaping, cities across the country are coming to terms with lasting changes in work, housing, mobility, entertainment, and recreation.
Washington, DC-based IDA is the premier organization for urban place professionals who are shaping and activating dynamic city center districts. Mid-Market Foundation is the urban place management organization representing the interests of property owners in San Francisco.
About the Mid Market Foundation
The Mid Market Foundation (MMF) is a 501c3 established in 2019 to conceive, implement, and manage transformative programs. It launched Market Street Arts in August 2023, creating a uniting vision for the neighborhood. MMF also launched the Tenderloin/Mid-Market Community-Based Safety Program, which is one of the largest alternative community safety programs in the country, providing ambassador services across San Francisco’s Mid-Market, Tenderloin, and SOMA neighborhoods.
About Market Street Arts
Led by the Mid-Market Foundation, Market Street Arts is a multi-year collaboration between the City, neighborhood stakeholders, businesses, residents, private donors, and corporate sponsors to actualize the true potential of Mid-Market. It capitalizes on Mid-Market’s centralized location and creative infrastructure as San Francisco’s historic theater district. Implementation strategies specifically leverage the neighborhood’s larger cultural venues with a fabric of new and existing creative entrepreneurs, arts organizations, businesses, public art, beautification, and events of various scales, serving as a multipronged platform for creative expression, human connection, and economic investment.
Market Street Arts is funded by the Mid Market Foundation, a 501c3 established in 2019 to conceive, implement, and manage transformative programs, in partnership with the San Francisco Office of Economic and Workforce Development.
About IDA
The International Downtown Association is the premier organization for urban place professionals who are shaping and activating dynamic city center districts. Our members are city builders and downtown champions who bring urban centers to life, bridging the gap between the public and private sectors. We represent an industry of more than 2,500 place management organizations, employing 100,000 people throughout North America and growing rapidly around the world. Founded in 1954, IDA is a resource center for ideas and innovative best practices in urban place management. For more information, visit downtown.org.
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