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Small-scale, mixed-use real estate development projects play a critical role in the ongoing transformation of Main Street districts. These projects often include multiple properties held by separate owners and inhabited by small independent businesses. While small-scale developments can be costly to develop on a per square foot basis, mixing housing, institutional, transportation, or hospitality components, in addition to retail and entertainment, can spread the risk. Housing and mixed-use projects not only bring additional financing options into the initial redevelopment, but they also provide a means of diversified income streams during the operational phase.
Keep reading to find out how Virginia Main Street programs have driven progress downtown through key small-scale real estate projects. Plus, get a special preview of 2022 Main Street Now Conference sessions about these outstanding projects and communities.
Be a Catalytic Convertor
Left: The Prizery, courtesy of Destination Downtown South Boston. Right: An aerial view of the Prizery, courtesy of The Prizery
While incremental progress and small wins are the bread and butter of progress on Main Street, every now and then a catalytic redevelopment project picks up the pace and drives local pride and expectations to a higher level. These raised expectations are quantified by increased follow-up investment in subsequent projects by both the private and public sectors.
The redevelopment of The Prizery, a 38,000 square-foot adaptive use project in South Boston, Virginia’s old warehouse district, infused the end of downtown near the river with new energy and spurred additional investments after its completion in 2005. Tamyra Vest, Executive Director of Destination Downtown South Boston (DDSB), recalls that the mixed-use education and arts complex “could have ended up in a lot of different places, but it's the ambience of a tobacco warehouse that definitely won out over everything else, in addition to having the three floors, the warehouse field, the historic feel and an owner who was willing to donate it.” Other sources of redevelopment funding included $1.5 million through the Transportation Equality Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21), $2.2 million of historic tax credits, $2.1 million of private fundraising and $1.5 million in local government funding.
Prior to the completion of the Prizery, Vest noted, “The northern block of downtown was the place to be in retail, not near the tobacco warehouse district. The renovation of the Prizery changed the energy and where the retailers wanted to be located. Everybody wanted to be in the southern block. Then, we started getting some spin-offs, and it was a catalyst for destination dining and other retail concepts. It really changed the outlook of downtown overall.”
After finishing the Prizery, addressing the need for greater housing options became the next real estate goal for the local Main Street organization. Vest emphasized, “We, a crazy nonprofit organization, took on ownership of the last standing tobacco warehouse so that it wouldn't fall down or be torn down. With that building, we developed Taylor Lofts, the first bachelor pad type of living in South Boston. It was probably the first market rate housing in downtown also, creating apartments for professional people or for recruiting a doctor that wants to come work in the local hospital. Since then, other buildings followed suit to offer living space upstairs.”
Hear South Boston, Virginia, leaders explain another Main Street development success at the Main Street Now Conference during the session “Sparking Transformation by Developing Tech Hubs in Rural Regions.” Speakers will share the story of the unique public-private partnership that launched the SOVA Innovation Hub and steps others can take to launch a co-working space in a small town.
Small Regulatory Changes Can Spark Major Investment
Downtown Culpeper, courtesy of Long & Foster, Culpeper, VA
While a specific project sometimes spurs a windfall of action, a community need only make a small but incisive change to its regulatory environment to release a deluge of investment. In 2017, Paige Read, Director of Tourism and Economic Development for the Town of Culpeper, noted, “We were seeing interest from developers and from building owners downtown in pursuing projects to convert second and third story office space to residential. After walking them through all of the different fees and permits required, over and over there was a moment of pause, if you will, when it came to the tap fees. Then, they would say something along the lines of, ‘Wow, okay. That much per unit?’ And the project would stop.”
After doing some research, Director Read, along with the town manager and the directors of planning and public works, found that the proposed upper story housing projects functioned more like age restricted communities, using pulled meter systems rather than the typical single-family homes for which the code was written. She stressed, “Most of the units that developers and property owners were looking to build were small units and one-bedroom units. It’s not like families of four to five people were going to be living in them, so we thought maybe there's an excess, you know? Maybe we can bridge that? There were proven documented examples of reduced usage from this aging population, without kids. Could we see that playing out for small units in our historic downtown? We thought so.”
Having identified tap fees as an opportunity to reduce the real cost of converting offices to housing downtown, Culpeper created the Downtown Development Area Apartment Incentive Program. Under this program, no additional tap fees are assessed for changes of use for existing buildings in the designated development area of downtown as long as the new use is already allowable under the current zoning ordinance.
Read explained, “We only wanted to activate it for an 18-month period at first, just in case 1) it wasn't successful or 2) it was so wildly successful that we needed to reassess it again. We still have this policy in place, and over 40 units have been converted in a four-year period of time.”
Check out Culpeper’s growing downtown housing scene during a Main Street Now Conference Mobile Tour on Sunday, May 15 from 8am – 5pm! Tour this quintessential southern town filled with award-winning wine and craft beer, boutiques, outdoor adventures, and more.
Don’t Just Tell, Show
One of downtown Wytheville’s eyesores was a large vacant, dilapidated automobile storage facility for the county known as the Carpenter Building. Todd Wolford, Executive Director of Downtown Wytheville, Inc. (DWI), said, “Nobody knew what to do with it.” Despite the fact that the building was listed as a contributing structure in the historic district, the county considered tearing it down to build automated parking. Meanwhile, according to Wolford, Nelson Tidwell’s dream was to build a brewery.
To help Tidwell see the potential for adaptively reusing the structure, DWI provided architectural renderings of what the Carpenter Building could look like after rehabilitation and how the space could work for brewing. At the same time, Wolford indicated that he “started working with a property owner to help him to see that doing something beneficial for the community can be more meaningful than getting the gold standard price. Once the seller was able to see it that way, he got excited about the process. The price came down, and the rest is history.”
Through the process and with DWI working behind the scenes, the buyer and the seller became friends. Together, they initiated about $3 million of private investment into Seven Dogs Brewing in downtown Wytheville. Wolford noted, “That brewery project is what generated nightlife in our district for the first time in generations. Now, we have many more spots for nightlife, but that's what kicked it off. So, long story short, the building that the county wanted to tear down is now a full-scale, huge private investment with nightlife and a total game changer for the community.”
Technical Assistance for Small-Scale Developers and Property Owners
When it comes to downtown housing projects, Frazier Associates, a full-service architecture and planning firm and Virginia Main Street’s lead designers, has developed a fantastic Upper Story Residential Brief to make it easier to work with property owners and help them see possible layouts and options for housing in existing structures. This brief is detailed and serves as a great first step for thinking through the nitty gritty of converting upper floors into residential units.
Join Kathleen Frazier, FAIA, from Frazier Associates, Architects & Planners for the Main Street Now Conference session “Upper Story Housing in Historic Downtowns.” Frazier will provide an overview of the parameters for upper-story housing in typical historic downtown commercial buildings.
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 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.