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As spring emerges and we think about what is on the other side of the pandemic for our communities and its small businesses, my new book published by the Urban Land Institute provides a refreshing and inspiring view of what is possible. Started three years before the onset of Covid-19, Building Small: A Toolkit for Real Estate Entrepreneurs, Civic Leaders and Great Communities provides a What, Why and How of small-scale, incremental development or Small. The book shares the observations, findings and research coalesced from tours of over 15 cities, interviews with 100 developers, city officials, non-profits and agency staff. The primary thesis of Building Small is that smaller, incremental forms of adaptive reuse and ground-up real estate development create more enduring and authentic communities while serving to incubate and support a more vibrant, resilient, local economy.
This is not new news for Main Street proponents. What makes main street - main street - is both its physical form and sense of humanity. Through the combination of their smaller size, flexible design and individual character, Main Street buildings attract the kinds of locally owned businesses that make communities more authentic, while ensuring local dollars stay in the local economy.
In addition to the data Building Small provides to support this idea, it also highlights that authentic, walkable kinds of places are where talent – and therefore employers – are going. The punch line is that if civic leaders want jobs, place matters. And the unique, incremental nature of Small builds much better places than the often homogenized, formulaic nature of many of today’s bigger development solutions.
Defining and Implementing Small
But what does Small mean? Building Small provides a counterpoint to real estate industry’s tendency to focus on just quantitative outcomes. Instead, the hallmarks of Small offers ten characteristics to provide a more holistic definition. The hallmarks include the motivations of the sponsor; a commitment to a broader scorecard of success; a more entrepreneurial mindset; and a worldview that sees real estate as the means to an end – not the end itself. So, what would the Small end be? More thriving, equitable and interesting places that create a stronger local economy.
Written to appeal to, and inform, several audiences, Building Small recognizes that to change the way we build community will require aligning many actors.
First, there are the designers and real estate entrepreneurs who design and build our communities. Building Small asks them to consider more fine-grained, individual buildings that are ‘surgical infill’, responding to context and community, rather than just focusing on celebrating mega projects. The upside of this approach is that instead of one big bet, many smaller bets are less risky financially, less of an imposition on a community’s existing character, and provide the developer the opportunity to refine program and function over time.
Secondly, there are the civic leaders and staff that manage local regulations. Building Small works hard to illuminate the unintended consequences of outdated regulations and archaic views encoded in many city regulations and land use codes. Also discussed is the outdated view held by many leaders focused on economic development that one big employer is worth major subsidies, even when those investments rarely support their cost. Building Small suggests that investing in many smaller employers, which have proven time and again to create more jobs per square foot, be more resilient during downturns, and be more committed to keeping profits local, are a far better focus when talking about economic development.
Finally, Building Small wants to help engaged citizens to better understand the nuts and bolts of the real estate development process so they can be more effective and constructive when asking for better development in their communities. Building Small explains - in layperson’s terms - how the development process works and the incredible inertia that sits between a good idea and the reality we often see. The challenges of financing, the implications of drawn-out entitlements, and the costs of unrealistic requests are explained along with examples of how community members can help bridge the gap to get the kinds of development they are seeking.
While Building Small champions smaller, incremental forms of development, it does not set out to disparage ‘big’ development. Through example and logic, the mutual partnership and synergy of a big/small pairing can seen in creating both place and value. As stated early in the book, the r’aisson d’etre for Building Small is to raise both the understanding and awareness of how powerful Small can be for building community – and through the multi-faceted value proposition that it presents - ensure that civic leaders, citizens and the design industry all give small serious consideration to the alternative of Small, when thinking about redevelopment or new development.
The Future is Small
Small is more relevant than ever. Over the past year, while local business owners struggled to keep their doors open and landlords had to deal with deferred or abated rents, community members had a re-awakening as to how important local businesses are to their local economy and psyche. This was evidenced through an outpouring of ‘contactless’ support provided through increased take-out and local, online shopping; more generous tips to help out beleaguered staff; or donating to GoFundMe and ‘bail out’ campaigns as SMB’s struggled to make payroll. The federal government recognized the importance of Small, dispersing $750 billion to small businesses, and several big corporations saw both an opportunity and a need to rally support for Small with campaigns and grant programs. Last year, and the future for Building Small, can be optimistically summed up in my favorite new mantra #toosmalltofail.
Building Small coalesces the benefits and value emanating from the work of many. The preservationists who knew early on that the soul of their communities lie in their historic buildings. Or the generation of urbanists who have helped articulate the art and science of a high-quality public realm. And now to the artisanal and small business owners who are following their dreams and passion to create one-of-a-kind, unique places that help define the essence of the community in which they reside. Building Small tells a great story of the successful outcomes of these all efforts, while providing the tools needed by the broad coalition of actors who must play a role in realizing a Small future.
Urban Impact Inc., harnesses strategic investments and collaborative efforts to foster a vibrant and sustainable future, from visionary adaptive reuse ventures to transformative development grants for small businesses and property owners in Birmingham, Alabama's historic 4th Avenue Black Business District.
We are excited to announce the Building Opportunities on Main Street (BOOMS) Tracker, a new free tool to help designated Main Streets unlock the potential of their vacant properties. This user-friendly property inventory tool allows local leaders can gather, store, and showcase information about their district’s built environment to plan and advocate for new property uses.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced $20B in federal Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF) awards distributed to eight national non-profit consortiums. Main Street America looks forward to partnership and engagement with awardees and local programs to identify projects and expand impact throughout our network.
Middlesboro Main Street in Middlesboro, Ky., Puerto Rican Cultural Center in Chicago, Ill., and Sugar Creek Business Association in Charlotte, N.C., have each been awarded $100,000 through The Hartford Small Business Accelerator Grant Program in partnership with Main Street America.
Learn how the National Clean Investment Fund (NCIF) and the Clean Communities Accelerator Fund (CCIA) will pump billions of dollars into reducing carbon emissions from the built environment in the coming years.
Main Street America is leading a coalition urging that the EPA make available the GGRF funds for adaptive reuse and location-efficient projects because of the substantial greenhouse gas emissions reduction offered by such developments.
From 19th-century mill girls to Maine's mill redevelopments and the regional manufacturers of tomorrow, learn about the amazing history and promise of the New England mill.
A practical and easily digestible report containing practical “how-to’s” designed to help local leaders support housing development in their communities.
Main Street America's research team takes a look at the data presented in the At Home on Main Street and offers relevant insights for Main Street managers looking to understand downtown and neighborhood commercial district housing trends.
In Fall 2022, MSA partnered with infill developer and small-deal guru Jim Heid and the Incremental Development Alliance to conduct surveys on the barriers to small-scale real estate projects across the United States. Here we share the results.
This article was published on January 10, 2023, by Next City, a nonprofit news organization focused on socially, economically, and environmentally sustainable urban practices.
Interested in implementing a small-scale development project in your district? Mike Scholl of Ayres Associates, who worked with Downtown Laramie Wyoming on their Empress Lofts project, lays out some of the key considerations for Main Streets working on development projects.
Main Street America launches a project to learn more about the specific barriers to small-scale real estate development on our Main Streets and identify solutions for financing small-scale deals.
learn how Rethos: Places Reimagined is encouraging upper-floor development through their program funded by the Paul Bruhn Historic Revitalization Grant Program.
California communities to share their latest developments, including innovative initiatives, once-in-a-lifetime opportunities, and profoundly place- and people-based projects.
Leverage NC, a partnership between North Carolina Main Street and the North Carolina League of Municipalities, hosted a four-part webinar series titled Better Community Planning & Economic Development led by Ed McMahon, Chair Emeritus of Main Street America and a leading national authority on land use policy and economic development.
In the midst of this human and cultural disaster, the Main Street program, managed by the Ellicott City Partnership, collaborated with Preservation Maryland to provide a variety of disaster relief financing that helped expedite the recovery.
In contrast, the Main Street Program in Laramie, Wyoming, is thriving, having successfully cultivated millions of dollars to help fill these vacant, blighted spaces with permanent structures.
In 2016, the North Carolina Main Street & Rural Planning Center partnered with the University of North Carolina at Greensboro’s Department of Interior Architecture (UNCG) to provide design assistance to Main Street communities.