Cities of the Future: Tracy Sayegh Gabriel of National Landing Business Improvement District On How to Create Cities That Are More Productive, Efficient and Sustainable
An Interview With Dina Aletras
Celebrate Diversity and Inclusion: Community leaders need to ensure that investment and development benefit all residents in order to create a well-balanced and inclusive community. At the National Landing BID, we look to steward growth in ways that achieve greater equity and representation. We have celebrated diversity through intentional planning, business attraction, open dialogue, policy advocacy, programming, storytelling and campaigns.
As urbanization continues to accelerate, the need for cities to become more productive, efficient, and sustainable has never been greater. Innovative approaches and technologies are essential to address challenges such as resource management, transportation, and quality of life. How can we design and implement strategies to build the cities of the future? As a part of this series, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Tracy Sayegh Gabriel.
Tracy Sayegh Gabriel, President and Executive Director of the National Landing Business Improvement District On How to Create Cities That Are More Productive, Efficient and Sustainable
Tracy Sayegh Gabriel is a planner and urbanist focused on helping communities shape and implement plans for neighborhood and downtown vibrancy, inclusive economic development, capital investment, and programming. Tracy currently serves as President and Executive Director of the National Landing Business Improvement District, leading placemaking and promotion for the DC region’s fastest-growing downtown district located in Arlington, VA. She is stewarding the urban reinvention and transformation of National Landing, an innovation district which is being fueled by the development of Amazon HQ2 and billions in public and private investment. Tracy’s career has spanned public and private sectors and includes management of some of the most complex and high-profile public plans and development initiatives in New York at the NYC Economic Development Corporation and Washington, DC at the DC Office of Planning.
Thank you for joining us! To start, can you share a bit about your early background and how it influenced who you are today?
At my core — I’m an urban planner and neighborhood builder. My childhood in New York City birthed a passion for cities — their form, function, energy and people. From an early age, I have been interested in the way people interact with their community and their environment, which evolved into a passion for urban planning and how to build well-balanced, sustainable and equitable neighborhoods. After receiving my undergraduate degree in international affairs from The George Washington University, I pursued my Master’s in city planning from MIT, and was a Fulbright Scholar in economic development in Damascus, Syria — one of the oldest consistently inhabited cities in the world.
What inspired you to pursue a career in this field, and can you share the story behind your decision?
I spent a good deal of time during my childhood gazing out my bedroom window on the 21st floor of a Manhattan apartment building enamored by the cityscape. I loved the interplay of buildings, the energy on the street, the confluence of people, and the freedom that living in a city granted me from a young age. I knew that I wanted to be part of shaping cities and urban policy, and advancing the wellbeing of communities. Then, when I later discovered urban planning, it was like finding all of my passions bundled into one profession.
What’s the most intriguing or memorable experience you’ve had since starting your career?
Timing is everything. Six years ago, I left directing neighborhood planning for the government of the District of Columbia to head up the (then) Crystal City Business Improvement District. Within three months of my arrival, Amazon announced that they selected my business district as the home for their HQ2, which was a game-changing economic development win following an epic competition between cities and communities across the country. That announcement was like turning on a light switch for our downtown area — not only were we now in the spotlight, but that project served as a major catalyst for transformation, unlocking other investment, bringing plans to life and validating market perceptions. It was a first-hand career experience with a massive accelerator.
As a successful leader in the industry, which three character traits have been key to your success? Can you provide a story or example for each?
Passion. My passion for cities and the work of urban planning and place management helps me lead with enthusiasm and set the vision in ways that build buy-in and excitement from stakeholders and the public. At the National Landing BID, I see my role as Storyteller-in-Chief, conveying my enthusiasm for the area and our vision. This has led to success as a spokesperson with extensive media coverage and industry interest.
Entrepreneurship. My willingness to push boundaries, embrace change, and champion growth has helped me bring an entrepreneurial perspective to the world of urban planning and place management in both the public and quasi-public sectors. At the National Landing BID, this mindset enabled me to take risks and lead stakeholders to expand our district’s geographic boundaries, double our budget, triple the size of our team, and create a new name and visual brand identity within the first two years of my tenure.
Empathy. Leading with empathy has been a hallmark of my success and my leadership style. It’s important to work hard, dream big and aim for excellent results, but you can’t realize visionary work or do any of that without a strong team, relationships and collaboration. People want to be inspired and accomplish great things but there is more joy when you can bring your humanity to your work. That’s how you build trust and a sense of security in the workplace. At the National Landing BID, we were able to not only transform our neighborhood but also the culture and foundation of our organization by leading with our values and modeling authenticity, respect and grace.
What innovative technologies and practices do you believe will be most critical in enhancing the sustainability and efficiency of future cities?
As an urban planner, I feel we have a duty to grow our communities sustainably while enhancing livability and workability and fostering innovation for the business and residential community.
If you look at National Landing as a model, we’ve integrated a number of technologies into our community, including creating the first 5G-enabled smart city at scale and introducing next-generation transportation initiatives that reduce our footprint and increase walkability and livability.
Working closely with our technology partners, and county and state officials, we have established National Landing as a critical tech hub not only for its strong employment and education anchors and diverse talent, but also its strategic location, exceptional connectivity, digital infrastructure, and favorable business environment.
With these assets in place, National Landing has rapidly developed into an innovative, competitive district with incredible connectivity, diverse retail, businesses, residents and urban amenities. These ingredients have positioned our neighborhood as one of the fastest-growing, efficient and well-balanced urban districts on the East Coast.
How can urban planners and architects design cities that effectively balance economic productivity with environmental sustainability?
As a planner, I think it all starts with setting the right plans to achieve both economic productivity and environmental sustainability. The two are not at odds — in fact, designing for density and growth especially near great transit is the way to ensure that development yields sustainable growth and a more attractive business environment.
For National Landing and Arlington County as a whole, intentional planning to deliver well-balanced districts with 50–50 commercial to residential uses has helped to deliver an enviable balance of uses as so many downtowns face the desire for more housing to sustain neighborhood vibrancy. We have also focused on sustaining and attracting not just large employers, but small businesses that enhance neighborhood identity and experience.
In addition to maintaining a well-balanced competitive environment, environmentally-friendly initiatives improve quality of life and position cities as trailblazers in urban sustainability. In National Landing, our most recent sector plan embraced the concept of a green ribbon — a network uniting our green spaces and enhancing environmental performance.
Corporations also have a role to play in balancing development with sustainability goals. We worked closely with our partners to ensure that Amazon’s second headquarters was sustainably built and runs with zero operational carbon emissions. Metropolitan Park, the adjacent world-class green space, was built using climate-friendly solutions at scale including low-carbon concrete and abundance of trees and native plants. Amazon has demonstrated local leadership in moving away from fossil fuel consumption, holistically benefiting the area, its businesses and environment.
In what ways can transportation systems be reimagined to improve mobility and reduce the environmental impact in future urban areas?
The future is multi-modal. Achieving next-generation mobility is about integration of modes and operators and making investments in creating complete networks.
Transportation plays a critical role in the development of urban areas, but as we look toward the future, we need to invest in sustainable infrastructure that reduces our environmental footprint while putting people first.
National Landing is a great model for innovative multimodal transportation, with more than $4 billion in initiatives, including access to metro, bus transit, protected bike lanes, commuter rail, (future) Amtrak and a soon to deliver pedestrian bridge to the airport. To do this, we continue to prioritize people over cars with next-generation infrastructure and initiatives like the Crystal City to Reagan National Airport Multimodal Connection (CC2DCA), a multi-modal connection that once completed, will yield a five-minute walk from downtown National Landing to the airport.
We have worked closely with local and state government officials to bring our multi-modal downtown to life through a myriad of initiatives like Complete Streets. Cities around the country can adopt complete streets — a project that transforms streets to accommodate pedestrians, cycling infrastructure and promotes roadway safety. This encourages people to take alternative modes of transportation, which in turn reduces the environmental impact and promotes commuting by public transit.
What role do you see public policies playing in the development of smarter, greener cities, and how can governments incentivize sustainable practices?
Public policies are key to the development of smarter, greener cities. A lot of it starts with policies around land use and allowing for density, increasing housing supply including affordable housing, and incentivizing transit-oriented development and investments in transit infrastructure. It also requires planning for complementary green spaces and high performing sites. I think making environmental performance a priority in the entitlement process and a community benefit can incentivize more sustainable practices in new development.
How can future cities ensure a high quality of life for all residents while managing rapid urban growth and resource constraints?
Programming and placemaking initiatives play a huge role in engaging with the community, and maintaining an open dialogue with those who live and work in your district.
In National Landing, we utilize our world-class green space and robust public art initiatives as a unifier for our community, bringing people together for music, festivals, classes and more. From highlighting local talent to bringing together experts in our community, we host nearly 200 events per year for residents, small businesses and visitors. Events throughout the year create a sense of community among residents and celebrate our business community.
As our neighborhood rapidly undergoes an urban transformation, we have prioritized vibrant streetscapes that create an active and engaging street-level experience for pedestrians. To do this, we have implemented public art and attractive landscaping throughout the area from our Metro stations to our community spaces. This makes National Landing unique, gives it character and attracts local businesses without compromising quality of life.
Thank you for all that insight. Now, let’s dive into the core of our interview: What are the “Top 5 Things Cities Need to Make Them More Productive, Efficient and Sustainable”? Please provide a story or example for each.
To create cities that are more productive, efficient and sustainable, community leaders need to prioritize the following:
1. Invest in Next-Generation Multimodal Mobility: The future is multimodal and it’s important to invest in transportation to create a complete network and make modes other than cars, the most convenient and desirable choice. Complete streets and alternative transportation make a city more inclusive, efficient and sustainable as we prioritize people over cars. From bike lanes and bus rapid transit to Metro accessibility and a future pedestrian walkway to the airport, National Landing’s innovative and next-gen transportation investments have made it an even more inviting place to live and work, attracting large businesses like Amazon and a wave of new small businesses to our area.
2. Plan for a Well-balanced Growth: The formula for making productive and efficient cities is to focus on land use planning that delivers greater housing to office balance in commercial areas. What makes National Landing a thriving and well-balanced community is that we planned for and have realized a near perfect balance between residents and workers in our downtown. This balanced mix of uses creates vibrant street activity and can better sustain storefront businesses. In just the last year, nearly a thousand new units and 50 new businesses have opened and will be opening soon in National Landing.
3. Make Parks and Placemaking a Priority: Cities and commercial districts are competing on the experience of place, so investments in parks and placemaking efforts need to be viewed as economic development measures. Public green spaces create opportunities not just for enhanced sustainability but connecting people to nature and each other, creating community gathering spaces, and “softening” urban area for greater livability. Green spaces and underutilized spaces are also great canvases for public art and cultural expression. In National Landing, we are embracing biophilic design and utilizing our world-class green space, like Metropolitan Park for festivals, farmers markets, public art displays and more.
4. Build an Innovation Ecosystem: Innovation should be a throughline in every aspect of urban planning and economic development. In National Landing, we are focused on attracting local, regional and global audiences to experience all that the neighborhood has to offer by investing in digital infrastructure like becoming the first 5G-enabled smart city at scale, focusing on talent through education anchors like the Virginia Tech Innovation Campus, supporting and attracting small and large tech employers like Federated Wireless and Amazon, and championing next generation mobility projects like CC2DCA.
5. Celebrate Diversity and Inclusion: Community leaders need to ensure that investment and development benefit all residents in order to create a well-balanced and inclusive community. At the National Landing BID, we look to steward growth in ways that achieve greater equity and representation. We have celebrated diversity through intentional planning, business attraction, open dialogue, policy advocacy, programming, storytelling and campaigns.
Do you have a favorite quote that has influenced your life? Can you share a story that illustrates its relevance to you?
“Without leaps of imagination, or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning.” — Gloria Steinem
I have identified with this quote because I am a dreamer at heart and it validates the role of dreaming in envisioning future possibilities. I think we need to let our imaginations unleash great, ambitious ideas. In my work, this has meant the license to think big and champion aspirational concepts. At the National Landing BID, we applied a collective leap of imagination to include “big moves” in our strategic plan — projects of outsized imagination but also scale of impact. Some of these concepts, like a pedestrian bridge to an airport from our main street, have received major traction and excitement are now fully funded.
With your considerable influence, if you could start a movement to make a significant positive impact, what would it be?
Climate change is the preeminent threat to our society and cities can be an important part of the solution. Any movement I would pursue would be tethered to addressing our environment and enhancing community equity and resilience.
How can our readers stay updated with your work online?
As National Landing continues to evolve, we encourage readers to visit our website nationallanding.org or follow us on Instagram @nationallanding to see what’s going on in the neighborhood!
Thank you for sharing these fantastic insights. We appreciate your time and wish you continued success.
About the Interviewer: Dina Aletras boasts over 20 years of expertise in the corporate media industry. She possesses an in-depth understanding of growth, strategy, and leadership, having held significant roles at some of the UK’s largest media organizations. At Reach PLC, the UK’s largest tabloid publisher, she served in various director capacities. Additionally, she held leadership roles at The Independent Magazine Group and DMGT. Her extensive knowledge spans editorial, digital, revenue, sales, and advertising.
Upon relocating to Switzerland, Dina took on the responsibility of managing and promoting the international section of Corriere del Ticino — CdT.ch pioneering the English page “onthespot.” She also was the Co-Editor of Southern Switzerland’s first official Italian and English bilingual magazine.
