In January I wrote to you about the Foundation’s new strategic plan that established four primary areas of focus for our work through 2031 (at least).
In February I shared the importance of building a birth to 5 early learning system (focus area #1), and in March the work we’re undertaking to develop a community system for career pathways and workforce development (focus area #2).
Today I will share the third of our four focus areas – downtown revitalization.
You may be thinking to yourself “why would downtown deserve specific focus by the Foundation?”
It’s a question I hear a lot, actually.
I’ll explain…
As you may have concluded about me by now, the answer to the question isn’t “we just feel like it.”
Including a focus on downtown revitalization is based on data that prove investment here has a positive multiplier effect for the rest of the community.
Downtown investments consistently attract new people to our community and valuable private investment, too. Did you know that downtown land returns a higher “tax revenue per acre” figure than any other land in a community? When the downtown is thriving there are more dollars available for investments in roads, public safety, parks, schools, etc.
In other words, when downtown businesses do well, an entire community does well.
And we deserve to do well, right?
We can all celebrate the recent improvements in our downtown, such as having new restaurants and shops, a coffee shop next to a movie theatre next to a brewery, and so much more.
While we are proud of the momentum from our recent efforts, we have to be honest and acknowledge we have a lot more to do. The required investment to make progress worthy of celebration can happen – and happen faster – but requires an investment well beyond ten million dollars just from support programs from the Foundation – which is much more money than we have available right now.
We have a total of 74 buildings just in Main Street Barberton’s jurisdiction alone. Nearly every building has years (actually, decades) of deferred maintenance, which really adds up.
In addition to the years of internal and / or external neglect, approximately a quarter of our downtown buildings are vacant. Many of them have been vacant for a long time, compounding the “issues” a business owner or building developer encounters when trying to invest here.
(When you read “issues” in the previous sentence, think “costs.”)
To understand the hill we have to climb when it comes to revitalizing our downtown we first have to understand how a business owner looking to locate a small business may view Barberton’s current situation.
Let’s pretend you’re the owner of a trendy ice cream franchise and you want to locate your business in Barberton’s downtown because of the strong anchor small businesses, a sizable amount of foot traffic for a community our size, regular events that bring thousands to downtown each month, and a collaborative environment.
You have saved $50,000 to get your business started. You have good credit, so you go to a bank to borrow another $100,000. Now, between your savings and your borrowed money, you have enough to buy the equipment you need, lease space in a building downtown, and renovate it so that your equipment fits and the inside is designed for your business.
You spend your money and now can almost taste the ice cream!
But you run into a few snags…
You must get permits which come with inspections. During those inspections you learn that the space you rented is out of compliance with the building code – the law. You now recognize that you have to spend an additional $50k on repairs you didn’t budget for.
You spend the $150k you had but now you must spend an extra $50k. So, you borrow even more money, which means more debt and higher payments… with longer payment terms.
Now you have two big loan payments and are financially in over your head before the doors even open. Any money you have left for essentials like hiring staff, marketing, testing and trying new ideas with your product, is all gone.
You’re now scraping pennies together, trying to save money in every place you possibly can, doing the minimum when it comes to even more surprise repairs. Extra spending to enhance the quality of your product and experience is now a dashed dream.
This forced compromise bothers you, because the vision you had is now not what you’re able to bring to life.
So, you’re working crazy hours in a place that’s a disappointing shell of your vision, and you’re in so deep that you have to stick it out despite all the challenges.
This is not the experience we want business owners and building developers to have in our downtown!
So, let’s address this challenge in a part of our community where we all collectively get the most return on our investments.
The Foundation can create grant programs, technical assistance for business owners and developers, and other funding mechanisms to make it less costly to bring a great business to life in our downtown.
Why?
Because we all deserve a great downtown!
A downtown is a primary space where our entire community can be together! It’s our beating heart.
Creating a vibrant downtown requires partnership, and the Foundation is an essential partner to delivering the thriving downtown everyone who is reading this (and beyond!) deserves.
This will not be easy, and it will take time.
But this investment is worth it because we are worth it!
Downtown Barberton must be a place where great business ideas can come to life for the benefit of our residents, the region, and the owners of those businesses and buildings! This focus helps us create opportunities to attract professional business owners and talented building developers – who do not have to compromise on their vision.
If you know of a great business or idea that just needs a little support, let me know!
In Community,
Josh Gordon
