4 INDIANAPOLIS REGIONAL CENTER PLAN 2020 PLANNING DOWNTOWN�fS FUTURE TODAY INTRODUCTION 3.  WORKING DOWNTOWN SUMMARY The Working Downtown Committee focused on jobs and labor force development, health and life sciences, government and institutions and office and headquarters development. Priorities Summary Topics emphasized in the Working Downtown section include: Promote the Regional Center as a center for domestic and foreign businesses and organizations.  Balance resources to support both new business attraction and existing business retention.  The creation of jobs and new product development should be important factors in allocating resources.   The cost of doing business is one of the most important factors in business location decision making.  Regulations, taxes and subsidies should be evaluated to assess their affect on attraction and retention.  It is important to identify the nature and scale of public and private financial resources necessary to foster, create and retain new business opportunities in the Regional Center. Develop workforce recruitment and retention policies and create opportunities to enhance business-to-business and public-private collaboration.  Improve workforce training, raise workforce education levels and eliminate language and cultural barriers.   Provide better information about the characteristics of the workforce and better marketing of the workforce to prospective employers. Downtown thrives on a mix of public and private, traditional and cutting-edge, economic activity Continue to expand public and private assistance to neighborhood-based organizations, such as the community development corporations, to improve housing and neighborhood conditions for all area residents.  Such organizations, Indianapolis Downtown, Inc. and individual businesses and developers also should receive additional support to assist local commercial businesses and neighborhood employers. Improve area human services and health and wellness services that benefit vulnerable segments of the population through comprehensive planning that addresses the potential impact of such activities on adjacent areas. Provide for a diverse population that includes a mix of incomes, the preservation of the area's urban character, improved connections between areas and accommodations for people with disabilities. 2.  LIVING DOWNTOWN SUMMARY The Living Downtown Committee focused on housing, neighborhoods and neighborhood services, human services and health and wellness. Priorities Summary Topics emphasized in the Living Downtown section include: Increase the Regional Center population to 40,000 by 2020.  A significant 24-hour resident population is seen as highly important to the area's continued growth and stability.  Achieving this will necessitate continued governmental facilitation in housing development in Downtown and nearby neighborhoods.  Redevelopment of selected nonresidential areas into new mixed-use districts should include significant residential components.  Greater public action and assistance will help offset the special challenges developers face in the Downtown market, even when producing market-rate housing.  The residential product should be developed for all incomes and people of all functional abilities.  Housing development should be encouraged within the principle of visitability. Downtown offers a wide range of housing options including numerous historic districts The proposed Conrad Hotel and condominium tower to be developed by Kite Companies and Mansur Real Estate Services, Inc.