posted on December 22, 2009 15:48
By Dace Koenigsknecht
Economic Restructuring Specialist
Michigan Main Street Center
Michigan State Housing Development Authority
You read that right, the final post in my Defined series. (Click here for Parts I, II, and III) The collective sigh from across the Internet warms me on this blustery winter morning. These final two concepts are often reserved for mature Main Street programs due to the foundational prerequisites to implementation.
Incentives
I admit that I originally approached incentives from a purely monetary standpoint, struggling to define creative new funding mechanisms to save our Main Street communities in a down economy. My respected coworkers helped to remove the blinders and expose incentives as anything that adds value to our local programs. The work we do everyday IS an incentive. What a revelation…and a relief.
Rather than spin my wheels trying to create new money, I was able to roughly aggregate incentives into three areas: ducks-in-a-row; technical assistance; and financial. Ducks-in-row is nothing more than stressing how important organization and knowledge are when it comes to attracting new business. This stems directly from activities outlined in previous posts, from active market monitoring to working on all three wheels of the business assistance tri-cycle. The active creation of a business-friendly, even business-advocating, environment is a strong recruitment tool – incentive – that could reap great rewards.
Where ducks-in-a-row is about attitude, technical assistance is about education. The local Main Street program (especially the ER committee) can provide a wide variety of business / owner development opportunities that could translate into a more firm bottom-line (ie. consultations, workshops, seminars). In addition, sharing information – especially success stories – and nourishing relationships throughout the business community is a great activity for all local MS programs. Investigate, and share, potential planning updates and clustering strategies that would benefit the commercial district (ie. cottage-industries, housing). Remember: the goal for technical assistance is entrepreneurial success.
In contrast to the local programs in the previous paragraph, here’s a shameless plug regarding a couple of advanced training opportunities (incentives) presented by Michigan Main Street to its participating communities:
* Entrepreneurship Training – Two and a-half day intense training program promotes a thorough understanding of entrepreneurship as a vital economic development strategy for communities. Participants will walk away with tools and a strategy on how the community can become entrepreneur friendly, which will help attract new businesses and improve their current businesses.
* Retail Merchandising – Workshop, and consultation service component, assists downtown retailers: determine the best ways to manage their inventories, improve their floor plans so that customers see more products, develop a visual image that is appropriate for the customers they want to attract, and devise their own merchandising plan with a polished business image. Downtown merchants may also receive individual in-store merchandising consultations as part of this service.
Finally, there is the financial aspect of incentives. I dare not venture too deep into this subject, as it would take a year’s worth of blogs to scratch the surface (and there are far more knowledgeable bloggers out there). I break this concept into two parts: Providing (Assistance with cash), and Packaging (Assistance with knowledge). Providing entails grants (ex. window displays), loans (ex. inventory management), and waivers (ex. rent or lease payments) that a local MS program creates to offer upfront monies to businesses. Packaging entails more technical knowledge, often recapturing monies through tax credits (ex. historic preservation), tax abatements (ex. Obsolete Property Redevelopment Act), and public sector (ex. tax-increment financing). Again, a substantial concept.
Property Development
Another substantial topic, and one with boundaries limited, it seems, only by the imagination. Frankly, the fact that someone can assemble a multi-million project like a fine jigsaw puzzle still boggles my mind. Yet that knowledge abounds, and it is another key ingredient in the revitalization of a traditional commercial district. Property Development begins with defining and identifying underutilized space. Most Main Street communities are familiar with unused upper-stories, or obsolete gas stations, or schools whose students have long ago moved to the suburbs. How each community handles these ‘opportunities’ can be as unique as anything else about it, from public / private partnerships to community-initiated development spearheaded by a local Main Street program.
For us at the Michigan Main Street Center, the solution to underutilized space is decided, and acted upon, by the local community. We can provide best practices and knowledge-creation, not dollar bills or white knights, which will enable self-powered change and improvement within the district. To that end, we also offer the following to our participating communities:
* Real Estate Development – This intensive, interactive training teaches participants about the process of Community Initiated Development (CID.) During the CID seminar, attendees will become knowledgeable about each step of the development process. Using a real-life redevelopment model, participants learn how to become active leaders or partners in the commercial development process, how to attract private-sector investment, and how to make the decisions and develop the strategies necessary to undertake a successful project.
I don’t intend to discount Property Development with such a short description. Again, it is crucial to the rebound of any historic commercial district, because only property put to productive use is really valuable. However, it is not possible to boiler-plate creative solutions to complicated ‘opportunities’…only find the best examples and share them with everyone.
As always, feel free to add your thoughts regarding this topic below…