Does it feel like every time you walk downtown one more storefront is vacant? Combating the downward momentum of vacancy and neglect is no easy feat. Here are eleven ideas for spurring investment in downtown businesses that can put your town on a path toward revitalization.
- Establish a business-to-business marketplace. The Let’s Do Business, Tulsa! online directory matches local buyers with local sources, helping businesses gain exposure, build sales, and save money.
- Host a pitchfest. Pitchfests showcase local entrepreneurs, connecting them with local investors and community members. See a showcase in action—watch this video from Seacoast Local’s first entrepreneur showcase.
- Launch a Downtown Development Revolving Loan Fund. Revolving loan funds can spur commercial redevelopment by offering below-market rate financing to municipalities and downtown authorities to fund capital projects.
- Organize a "Let’s Paint the Town” initiative. Princeton, Kentucky invited business owners and volunteers to roll up their sleeves and participate in downtown revitalization by restoring and painting building facades.
- Offer co-working space for startups and telecommuters. Veel Hoeden, a co-working space in rural Pella, Iowa, brings home-based professionals and independent contractors together under one roof.
- Create a community investment cooperative. The Sangudo Opportunity Development Co-operative in Alberta, Canada collects local money by selling membership and investment shares to community members. Funds are used to buy, rehab, and manage commercial and residential property.
- Link downtown businesses through technology. Dubbed the “internet of small businesses”, Supportland creates mini networks for attracting and retaining local customers.
- Build a local investing network. Local Investing Opportunities Network (LION) in East Jefferson County, Washington is a member-based organization that helps build investment-ready local businesses and connect those businesses with investors.
- Put together a Nearby gift registry. Nearby allows couples and expecting parents to create an online registry of items and services from local businesses.
- Start a community email list. Drew’s List is a hyperlocal email list for South Whidbey Island, Washington with over 4,500 subscribers (about half the island population). Weekly emails highlight downtown events, sales and other activities.
- Establish a Main Street, LLC. To combat the downward momentum of blight, Rick Hauser, Mayor of Perry, New York and owner of In. Site: Architecture developed Main Street, LLC, a community-wide for-profit development corporation. Main Street, LLC recognizes the quantitative and qualitative benefits of reversing blight and urges people to “put their money where their house is.”
On May 15, Rick Hauser joins CommunityMatters® and the Citizens’ Institute on Rural Design™ for a 60-minute webinar. He’ll offer new insights into a longstanding challenge for towns and small cities—getting the ball rolling to overcome vacancy and neglect in key downtown locations. Register now.
This post was originally published in CommunityMatters®
