Roundup: Everyday Facades

Facade improvement programs are a great way to spruce up a district when funds are fairly limited. Below are three examples of facade improvements for "everyday" businesses that aren't typically filed under best practices when it comes to facades....an autobody shop, a corner bodega, and a dry cleaners. With a little TLC, anything is possible.

Facade #1: The Autobody Shop - Can you spot the autobody shop? It's the one with the art hanging in the window!
Auto body shops are not typically a use you welcome on a lively commercial district...but when you can't do much about it, this kind of facade treatment can make a difference.

A facade improvement supported by People's Emergency Center (PEC) in Philadelphia, PA

Facade #2: The Corner Convenience Store - Corner bodegas where I'm from are usually covered in posters with limited visual appeal. This bodega in Boston got facade support from the Boston Redevelopment Authority and now serves both new and old residents alike.

Don Quojote Market in Boston - a great example of how technical assistance and design support can help a long-time tenant weather changes in neighborhood demographics.

Facade #3: The Dry Cleaner - What I love about this facade improvement is the fact that they moved the tailor right in front of the window. Not only does the facade look nice, but this entertainment feature is visually interesting to pedestrians as well.

Bridge Cleaners in downtown Brooklyn, NY

Reducing Overhead Costs for Business Improvement Districts

A building along Fulton Street in downtown Brooklyn, NY. The district is managed by the Fulton Mall Improvement Association, one of three BIDs run by the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership.

The challenge of running a successful Improvement District is like that of any other non-profit. Finding qualified, professional, capable staff can be a challenge when budgets are tight and salaries, particularly among smaller Improvement Districts, are low. Yet staffing costs and overhead take up a significant chunk of expenses - and the smaller the organization the bigger the payroll cut.

One New Jersey city is taking a bold step to reduce these overhead costs by absorbing their Special Improvement District (SID) into another public agency. According to the City of Bayonne's Business Adminstrator Steve Gallo, the Town Center Management Corporation, the entity that runs the SID, "spends over half its budget on administrative costs such as employees, and consultants. By downsizing and combining operations with the Bayonne UEZ, more resources will be available for more programs within the district." Read more: "City consolidates agencies that oversee business districts"

There are pros and cons to this approach. Absorbing the Improvement District into another entity reduces overhead, but there is also the risk that it will reduce the independence of the downtown organization to advocate for downtown interests without competition or conflict of interest. When staff is shared with other initiatives, the focus on downtown can shift depending on the political winds.

Other cities are also looking at ways to reduce overhead for small BID's as well, testing concepts that would allow multiple these organizations to exist under a single non-profit umbrella, what we might call a "BID light" approach. One example is the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership which manages three Business Improvement Districts located in close proximity to one another. This allows for the sharing of contracts, overhead and staff in a way that results in improved services, at a lower cost, for all three districts.

Tips for facing down BID/NID Critics

A building along East Carson Street on Pittsburgh's South Side

As more than a handful of neighborhood commercial districts throughout Pittsburgh explore the formation of Neighborhood Improvement Districts (NIDs), the challenges to formation have begun bubbling up in some very public forums. It shouldn’t have come as a surprise that this issue would eventually make the papers – and it finally has. In the case of the proposed NID on Pittsburgh’s South Side, the local paper, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, came out vociferously in opposition to the NID (Bar this tax: South Siders shouldn't pay more for basic services). Typically, BID and NID opposition comes from people who don’t want to pay or don’t think they should have to pay for district management services. Yet what is interesting is that the Post-Gazette didn’t seem to have a problem with the idea that a mandatory assessment should be used to pay for services. Their gripe was that RESIDENTS shouldn’t be forced to pay for additional services that are a direct result of the BUSINESSES in the district.

On the South Side, the issue is primarily that of local bars and restaurants that fill up with young people on the weekend… and the problems that arise as they subsequently stumble out of bars, create chaos and sometimes dangerous conditions for everyone in the community. Try walking Carson Street on a Sunday morning and you’ll also see the need for clean up that other communities simply don’t have to deal with. Should every neighborhood in Pittsburgh pay for services that Carson Street needs that are above and beyond what even reasonable people might call “basic”? Should police be deployed in greater concentrations to Carson Street to deal with unsafe conditions, leaving other communities lacking in police services? When municipal resources are limited, and they always are, giving everyone a basic level of service is expected. But giving some neighborhoods a higher level of service at the expense of other neighborhoods is not. And we haven't even touched upon the marketing and promotional efforts that most Improvement Districts take on - work that most certainly falls outside of what government is typically expected to do.

In an excellent response to the Post-Gazette, Ellen Kight, ED of Pittsburgh Partnership for Neighborhood Development says “The price of the South Side's success is too much to expect of local government and nonprofits.” She is exactly right. [South Side, please don’t dismiss this opportunity]

It should be noted that in many places, residents don’t pay or contribute significantly to Improvement Districts assessments– that is why they are called Business Improvement Districts, and not Neighborhood Improvement Districts. Yet this does not mean that residents are kept from participating. In many BIDs, residential property owners pay a symbolic $1 assessment which gives them some say in governance and a seat at the table. Engaging residents is important – after all, they are the customers.

For those of you advancing your Improvement District formation efforts, here are a few tips I’ve learned over the years to prevent the media from getting ahead of your narrative

• Approach and educate your local editorial boards early on with respect to the value of Improvement Districts before your detractors do. Remember, this is like any political campaign. Typically candidates set up meetings and work on convincing the media to make an endorsement. This is exactly how you should approach your effort as well.
• Cultivate public opinion. In Middletown, CT, where I cut my teeth helping start a Main Street organization in the late 1990’s, we asked the local paper to give us a weekly column called “Mainly Main Street”. As a young staffer, I would write ghost columns for each of our steering committee members. Each week, a column “penned” by one of our prominent committee members would appear in the paper. This helped to put a familiar face on our local support and disarmed critics from the beginning. After a few years of a Main Street program, a small BID was formed with no opposition. Today Main Street in Middletown, CT is bustling with restaurants, a small hotel, and boutique restaurants as a result of our efforts. But it all started with education and outreach.
• Use your Board. Develop talking points for your board or steering committee that recognize the opposition’s concerns, but provide counterarguments for each. Consider bringing in a media specialist to a board meeting to help prep your board. Your board should be your advocates and public response in the face of criticism.
• Be ready with your responses. If you do face public criticism, be ready with key supporters (ideally influential local leaders) who are prepared to write the public response. Take care to make sure that the responses come directly from those who will benefit from the program, property and business owners who buy in to the concept. If you have other Improvement Districts in your community, engage them in responses and share the story of their success. A successful Improvement District is a great counterpoint to detractors.
• Revisit your Assessment Formula or Boundaries. Developing your formula and boundaries is not necessarily a one shot proposition. It is sometimes an iterative process. So be open to revisiting your assessment model and boundaries. In New York, BID boundaries and assessments are a moving target that are formed and reformed as the result of outreach and feedback. Take your time doing outreach to property owners and business owners. If you face vigorous opposition from a few people, see if you can carve them out of the district entirely. In New York, it’s not uncommon to have somewhat strange BID boundaries that keep some detractors out and supporters in. In the case of the South Side, I might suggest dropping the residential contribution. Wouldn’t that address the concerns of some of the loudest opponents?

Own up. 30% of a shopper's experience belongs to you...

It's time to face the hard, cold truth. Shoppers visit a district to shop. No one ever says "I shop there because the street lamps are AMAZING!" or "Man, you gotta go to that district, those brick pavers are HOT!" Ultimately, people choose to shop, not because of good lighting or decent signage, but because of the retail offerings and merchandise. The research, and not to mention good ole common sense, back this up.

Yet a shopper's decision to visit your district is based on multiple factors - a big part of which you DO in fact control.  Customer loyalty research, some of which is being done by the Verde Group, sheds light on what makes shoppers loyal versus recoil. What they have found is that 70% of a shoppers decision are based on "inside the store issues" - things related to merchandise mix, price point, customer service, etc. These are all issues that often can only be addressed by the merchant.

Yet its not all bad news, the balance, or about 30% of customer loyalty, can be attributed to "outside the store issues" - the location, the convenience or accessibility of the district (aesthetics, safety), the look and feel of the district, district amenities (are there activities for kids?), entertainment offerings (street musicians? general ambiance?), retail mix (is there a good balance of stores, a nice place to grab a bite after a day of shopping?), and the physical conditions of the street, etc.

Whenever I share this concept with groups of commercial district managers, I get responses that range from relief to frustration. Relief because I have better defined their role - or better yet the limitations of their responsibilities - but also frustration because it becomes clear that they do not control the majority of issues that affect shopper choice. Yet when you know WHAT you control - and make no bones about it, 30% of a shoppers decision is a big chunk - you can be better at doing your job.

In this competitive environment, your work on that 30% becomes even more critical. It can make the difference in that split decision when a shopper decides whether to turn left or right out of their front door, that is, between spending money in your district versus another.

Using Murals to Reinvent the Roll Down Gate

 


One of the winning murals. Love it!


About a year ago, Lauren Elvers Collins, Executive Director of the Church Avenue Business Improvement District, called me up to chat about ways to spruce up her district for a grant proposal. She mentioned how the look and feel of the district changed so abruptly the minute businesses rolled down their solid gates - not an uncommon challenge in many urban commercial districts. The discussion reminded me of a great program that I was familiar with from my work at LISC. The Excelcior Action Group (one of my all time favorite organizations!) has a wonderful Mural Program that works to beautify the district's numerous solid roll down gates while also reducing the incidence of graffiti. Lauren took the idea and ran with it, turning this simple concept into an exciting program that included significant community input, and a competition that spurred media input.


UCA Exhibition at the Brooklyn Public Library

 
Church Avenue BID's Uncover Church Avenue initiative is a great example of how BIDs are carrying out this type of program with maximum community input at every step of the process. Thanks to this initiative, Church Avenue in Brooklyn, NY will have five new colorful and vibrant additions to the neighborhood this spring.

Uncover Church Avenue is a public art competition that was designed to bring attention to the district. What it also does is beautify the street (particularly in the evening) with artwork by local artists, while also abating graffiti in the district. The contest engages artists, residents, children, and merchants to take an active role in deciding the look of their neighborhood. The five winning designs - selected from over 50 submissions from Brooklyn-based artists and students, will be installed on commercial gates along the Avenue. The goal is to encourage vibrant commercial activity along a stretch with the most abundant vacancies, and to highlight and promote the unique character of the neighborhood. Merchants see the potential in promoting their business, local artists have a new venue to display their work, and curious residents have a new reason to walk down the street.

Visit the program's blog to see the winning designs, learn step-by-step how the project developed, and to stay current on the murals' progress.

And if you're in the neighborhood - visit the Flatbush Branch of the Brooklyn Public Library through Feb. 24 to see images of mural sites and all submitted mural proposals.

LISC Seeking Nominations for MetLife Foundation Community-Police Partnership Awards Program

LISC and MetLife Foundation are seeking nominations for the MetLife Foundation Community-Police Partnership Awards. This awards program is a great opportunity for communities to receive recognition for their work improving community safety.

Previous winners provide examples of how commercial revitalization programs can partner with their communities to address safety issues that may be affecting the viability of their districts. Commercial corridor-specific winners of this program include King Drive Public Safety Initiative, which focused on maintaining a Business Improvement District along the historic Dr. Martin Luther King Drive in Milwaukee, WI as well as Uptown Consortium, Inc. & Cincinnati Police Department who partnered to revitalize Cincinnati’s Burnet Avenue business corridor.

The awards are the result of a partnership between the MetLife Foundation and the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) to recognize, sustain and share the work of innovative partnerships between community groups and police that promote neighborhood safety and revitalization.

The submission deadline for 2012 applications is March 11, 2012. Download the application here.

Malls draw inspiration from downtown

Today's New York Times covers a phenomenom that has been evident to those of us in the field for many years - the oversaturation of retail square footage and the trend of underutilized malls, or "grayfields". The recession has only made the problem worse. Mall owners and managers are now struggling with many of the same challenges that faced downtowns over the past twenty years...significant vacancies and disinvestment. What these owners are now doing is trying to reposition their mall assets by replicating the mix of uses found in traditional downtowns. [Making over the mall in rough economic times, NYTimes, 2/6/12]

Many owners recognize that shopping habits are changing...and not in their favor. People are shopping on line. When they do finally choose to venture away from their computer screens, they expect something more than simply a retail transaction. The article suggests that Americans today,"rather than going to big, overwhelming malls...prefer places where stores can be entered from the street, featuring restaurants, entertainment and other Main Street mainstays." A representative from Simon Properties, one of the largest mall owners in the nation, reflects on this trend, saying malls today have to “provide a unique set of shopping, dining and entertainment experiences”.

Station Square, a Forest City owned property on
Pittsburgh's South Side is home to a mix
 of tourist oriented retail...and a trade school.

Dying malls that have made the plunge into mixed use are now home to a diverse blend of users, from schools to other civic, religious and cultural institutions. In fact, in one mall, the Galleria in Cleveland, mall owers hide the food court with a curtain and rent the space for events and weddings. Getting creative about filling space is critical to ensuring the long term value of these assets. On a recent visit to Pittsburgh's Station Square, an old school "Festival Marketplace" located within an old train depot, I noted that a significant part of the main retail floor was occupied by the Bradford School, a small school offering associates degrees and diplomas in the health care, design, technology and business fields. The execution of the concept needs a bit of help as the rest of the retail area felt old and lacked excitement, but the mix of uses helped to ensure a steady stream of customers for the food court businesses, if not for the other more tourist oriented businesses.

Downtown is really no different - and our approach to filling spaces needs to be similarly creative. Of course, the greater challenge is the fact that downtowns have multiple owners who are not necessarily on the same page when it comes to vision, and seldom coordinate their actions in the same way a single mall owner can. But the real take away here is that downtown is the model for what many malls strive for these days - and it is up to us to take advantage of the authentic downtown brand that is already ours for the taking!