Community Revitalization Desktop Guide

We started to develop in urban areas because we saw new demand for niche office, housing and retail. There are some developers who only want to build in places that are growing fast, where there are new subdivisions going up every day. I am not one of them. I believe in our quaint cities and towns with strong downtowns and Main Streets. They have character and unique community aspects. If a town can build enough synergy to create a dynamic downtown environment, I think almost everyone would choose to shop there rather than at some generic suburban strip mall. We are also seeing a lot of interest in urban niche housing products. When empty nesters are downsizing or young professionals are starting out, they would rather have an urban condo or loft with upscale sizzle and appeal than a suburban townhouse with few nearby amenities. I am attracted to places where the Mayor and the administration support economic growth. Every town has programs to encourage investment but that isn’t what I look for. I look for a real working partnership, to share the vision for the property, review our plans and communicate honestly about the changes that would make a product more viable for the city, the end user and the owners. For developers, time is a component of risk and a project that has a lot of risk is not considered a favorable opportunity. If we don’t think we are going to be dealt with fairly and that the deal can come apart even if we do everything we can to meet the needs of the municipality and make the numbers work, we aren’t going to spend our time there. Perhaps the worst experience a developer can have, and we have had this happen to us, is to have a Mayor take you in one direction and then decide at the last minute that they want to go in another direction because of some political favor they owe or because they didn’t think it out in the ﬁrst place. When we research potential communities for future development, we seek out places with good quality existing infrastructure, financial stability, safety and adequately performing schools. Many Pennsylvania cities and towns have sewers and roads with extra capacity in the ground. These are things that suburbs can’t offer. This is a key asset for cities because they can save developers substantial infrastructure costs that can make or break a project. Just as important as transportation and water and sewer infrastructure, however, are the more intangible assets that developers cannot build if they do not exist in a community. The most important selling point that a community can offer is safety. It is incredibly difﬁcult to energize markets and push them to the next level without safety. Where the area has had no activity for years, you may need extra police patrols until enough activity in the area creates a safe environment, but there must be some way to assure new buyers that they will be safe living in your community. A ﬁnancially stable government and performing school district are also important amenities to offer. Every good developer knows that it is the community that provides the greatest amenity to a project; an unsafe city is a hard sell. A questionable school district or an unstable tax base with a government in deﬁcit that makes higher taxes inevitable, also makes it more difﬁcult to sell a new product. We do not expect a city or town to become a developer or acquire the land for us, but we do need your help. We understand that a municipality doesn’t want to take on the liability of owning a blighted parcel or a parcel that has serious environmental hazards. That is our job. We have the experience to do it. But we also can not take on the task of assembling 14 parcels with 14 different owners into a developable site. In fact, the moment we show interest, land prices start to rise far beyond their actual market value. So we need the city or RDA to gain rights to the land and do basic assembly so we have a site to work with. And we need the local government to be ﬂexible about rezoning the land for the highest and best use agreed upon through active dialogue between the city and the developer. Until Pennsylvania’s older communities develop reliably profitable markets, we need local leadership to help us fill the financial gaps. Before developers can create and implement a project on a piece of land, we have to make the numbers work. We have thresholds that we need to meet and if the economics aren’t there on the revenue side or the expenses to buy and remediate the property are too high, we need public money to ﬁnance the difference, to make taking the risk worthwhile. Over time, as the market increases, rents and sale prices will be sufﬁciently high to support new construction and development on their own. We need good information about development opportunities and the more information you provide, the easier it is for us to assess the opportunities in your community. A website that includes an inventory of available land allows us to understand what developable sites you have and whether there is a ﬁt. Clearly delineating what you have to offer – your infrastructure capacity, parking, past investments and other key facts – helps us understand why developing in your community makes good sense. An RFP is a more speciﬁc starting point that allows us to understand the ground rules for the project and the details of what you want to see on the site. Of course the RFP must be well done. A poorly constructed RFP that confuses everyone is worse than none at all. Finally, be open to new markets and development possibilities identified by a developer. There are some major changes in industries going on right now and while we don’t expect Mayors to research them, we do ask you to be open to them. For instance, we are seeing universities and hospitals expanding throughout the state and they are doing it in new ways. Facilities that were once part of major hospitals or university campuses are now becoming freestanding facilities. Hospitals are opening medical centers and outpatient centers in distant communities and universities are creating satellite campuses and specialty divisions. A town not open to new development opportunities will miss out on strong growing markets that beneﬁt the community. We have faced opposition such as this before. In one instance a town believed a restaurant use, which has a high failure rate, was better than a medical facility and could not be convinced otherwise. From our point of view a medical facility will sign a 20-year lease and remain viable a far longer period of time and adds an invaluable component to a city. Our goal at Ashley Development is to take an underdeveloped area and build a project that is the highest and best use for that site. By doing this, we create a rising tide for the entire community and its economy. INTERVIEWS WITH DEVELOPERS WHO HAVE INVESTED IN PA CITIES AND TOWNS 50

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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