Community Revitalization Desktop Guide

step four: partner with nonprofits to improve redevelopment area Establish a Main Street Program or a Business Improvement District (BID) nonprofit to improve the redevelopment area. The Main Street Program is a revitalization strategy, developed by the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 1980, that leverages private dollars to improve Main Street. The well-respected approach emphasizes design, promotion, organization and economic restructuring to improve Main Streets and has successfully rejuvenated downtown districts in core communities. The Department of Community and Economic Development provides fiveyear grants to municipalities to help create a Main Street organization with a full-time professional downtown coordinator. A Business Improvement District or BID is a self-sustaining nonprofit organization that provides many of the services recommended under the Main Street approach and more to an area of town, most commonly downtown. BID’s are typically financed through fees assessed on local businesses. BID’s have been very successful at making areas appealing to private investors by making them clean, safe and attractive. Properties located within Business Improvement Districts increase in value by up to 30%. 63 Two examples of BID’s, one that remained viable in the long term and one that did not, appear here. SEE CASE STUDY SIXTEEN Create or expand effective community development corporations in the redevelopment area. In many cities and boroughs, community development corporations (CDC’s) were the sole brick and mortar investors for decades. CDC’s built new affordable housing, rehabilitated older units, and brought new retail into neighborhoods at a time when no private developers were interested in investing in urban Pennsylvania. By nurturing their growth so CDC’s can build to scale or helping to form CDC’s where none exist, local government can bring some capital into the redevelopment area and perhaps even prove the market for private development. SEE CASE STUDY SEVENTEEN A 2006 University of Pennsylvania study64 found that public improvement strategies such as adding green infrastructure, streetscaping, establishing a Business Improvement District and improving the quality of a commercial corridor dramatically increase the value and market for surrounding properties. Professors Susan Wachter and Kevin Gillen found that the value of surrounding properties increased dramatically when the public improvement strategies below were implemented. • Properties adjacent to stabilized and greened lot: Increased in value 17% • Properties near a new tree planting: Increased in value 9% • Properties near an excellent commercial corridor: Increased in value 23% • Properties near streetscape improvements: Increased in value 28% • Properties located within Business Improvement District (BID): Increased in value 30% Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia GOAL THREE: WELCOmE INvESTmENT step four: partner with nonprofits to improve redevelopment area 46

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Community Revitalization Desktop Guide

PA Community Revitalization Desktop Guide Table of Contents How To Attract High Impact Investment to Core Communities Goal One: Choose One Asset-Rich Redevelopment Area Interviews with Pennsylvania Mayors Goal Two: Prepare Redevelopment Area for Market Interviews with Developers who Have Invested in Pennsylvania Cities and Towns Goal Three: Welcome Investment Interviews with Developers who Have Invested in Pennsylvania Cities and Towns Goal Four: Apply Strategies That Work Conclusion

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