Downtown Turnaround

Downtown
Turnaround
Friday, March 24, 2023, at 9:30AM
Isaac D. Kremer
Managing Principal
Civitas Development

Close your eyes and think of the least
attractive place in your town…

Started with grant of $2,500 in
May 2017. To receive grant had
to raise an equal amount through
crowdfunding.

My Background
• Involved in downtown revitalization for over 25 years
• Over $195 million of public and private investment
• $3,247,377 of grants secured
• Revitalized 3 downtown areas and working on a 4th
• 8X articles published
• 2X Great American Main Street Award Semifinalist
• and 36 speaking engagements

10 Lessons
+
1 Big Idea
+
Discussion

1. Never miss an opportunity for
rapid action to implement a good
idea and get results.
“Vision without implementation is
hallucination.” – Ben Franklin

On August 21, 2017 AARP New
Jersey called us about our
Community Challenge grant…
it was not being funded.

Results of IOBY and AARP Projects
• First grant of $2,500 from Main Street America and Edward
Jones for Lake Ave Plaza project.
• Second grant of $5,000 from AARP New Jersey to do an alley
transformation and parklet in October 2017.
• Both demonstrated an iterative approach to project delivery.

2. Utilize lean start-up thinking to
iterate and build a constituency of
supporters
Do what you can, with what
you have, where you are at.
- Theodore Roosevelt

The World as it is
• Regulatory hurdles
• Struggles for disparate stakeholder buy-in
• Risk-adverse management (or politics)
• Funding shortages

The World as it should be
• Goal setting
• Experimentation
• Change management
• Financial innovation
• Communication

The New Public-Private Partnership
• Exponential technological change
• Public entrepreneurship – start-up paced energy in public sector
• Social enterprise – corporations and start-ups working for common
good, as opposed to shareholder wealth
• Shared financial reward
• Proactive approach to partnerships between the public and private
sector
• Assess, align, set goals, finance, convince, and implement change

Difference between Public and Private
Public Sector Private Sector
Risk adverse, fear of failure Iterate and fail fast, failure is not only invoked, but
celebrated
Saying “Yes” means more work – little incentive to
innovate
Fail fast. Experiment, make mistakes, fix them as
quickly as possible and learn from them
Business and private sector exploiting city resources
for personal gain
Social enterprise – corporations and start-ups working
for common good, as opposed to primary goal of
generating shareholder wealth
Opaque and uncommunicative Transparent and communicative
Bureaucratic inertia – commitment to status quo Push boundaries and undermine the status quo

Better Block Oyster Bay (2010)
$1,200 Better Block event
led to Billy Joel opening his
20th Century Cycles a few
months later
https://isaackremer.com/48hours-
oysterbay/

Source: Video: Part 2 and 3 of the Oak Cliff Better-block project - YouTube

Evaluation form
response from
Billy Joel

Do Tank helped get the community started going
down the right path with a wrap-up session with
community leaders. Some of the recommendations
have been acted on already, others have been harder
to implement and will take more time. But today, a
visit to Oyster Bay will show what can be
accomplished when volunteers, the public sector, and
private sector work together on shared goals for
revitalization.
Isaac Kremer, September 2011
https://isaackremer.com/48hours-oysterbay/

Better Block Oyster Bay (2010)

Levitt AMP Middlesboro (2015)
$2,000 stage built during
Better Block event in
2013 went on to become
Levitt AMP Middlesboro
and attract over
$250,000
https://isaackremer.com/levitt-
amp-middlesboro-pop-up-park-
middlesboro-kentucky/
1:125

“The Levitt AMP grant truly catalyzed our
downtown, providing the spark our community
needed to get its confidence back and push our
community forward. The concert series injected
life back into our downtown.”
- David Whitlock, Middlesboro Main Street, President
Brief Results
• 10 buildings renovated
• Voted to change dry ordinance
• New businesses and restaurants

3. Get the structure right. A Main
Street program with volunteers and
stable funding, such as through a
BID/SID.
“No money, no mission.”
- Anon

Roots of Main Street
• The “Main Street Project” began as a
pilot project in 1977 under the
direction of Mary Means at the
National Trust for Historic
Preservation.
• Emphasizes a grassroots volunteer-led
approach to revitalization.
• In recent years has focused on
“transformation strategies” to guide
work and achieve economic
development impact.

Bernardsville (Downtown Bernardsville) Somerset
Bloomfield (Bloomfield Center Alliance) Essex
Boonton (Boonton Main Street) Morris
Bridgeton (Bridgeton Main Street Association) Cumberland
Denville (Downtown Denville BID) Morris
Fair Lawn (Fair Lawn Economic Development Corp) Bergen
Hammonton (MainStreet Hammonton) Atlantic
Highland Park (Main Street Highland Park) Middlesex
Maplewood (Springfield Avenue BID) Essex
Metuchen (Metuchen Downtown Alliance) Middlesex
Millville (Millville Development Corporation) Cumberland
Montclair (Montclair Center BID) Essex
Mount Holly (Main Street Mount Holly) Burlington
Red Bank (Red Bank River Center) Monmouth
Salem City (Stand Up for Salem) Salem
South Orange (South Orange Village Center Alliance) Essex
Summit (Summit Downtown Inc.) Union
Vineland (Vineland Downtown Improvement District) Cumberland
West Orange (Downtown West Orange Alliance) Essex
Westfield (Downtown Westfield Corporation) Union
Woodbury (Main Street Woodbury) Gloucester
These 21 communities were awarded $4.3 million in funding since 2019…
Note: $3 million for COVID-19 Recovery.

Economic Impact
Each new household in Metuchen generates $14,218 of spending
Average Household Income $112,971 100%
- Groceries $3,757 3.3%
- Restaurant meals $2,564 2.3%
- Furniture and home furnishings $1,327 1.2%
- Housekeeping supplies $596 0.5%
- Apparel and apparel-related services $1,482 1.3%
- Health care (not including health insurance) $1,312 1.2%
- Entertainment $2,548 2.3%
- Personal care products and services $542 0.5%
- Reading materials $90 0.1%
Total $14,218 12.6%

Basic Math of Adding Demand
Average Household Income
$14,218 spending per household
X 387 housing units
= $5,502,366 spending annually

Metuchen Downtown Results
• Reinvestment exceeds $170 million since 2016.
• Between 2016 and 2021 raised over $2.5 million.
• Volunteers gave 25,338 hours valued at $641,630.
• Net jobs 424 FTE
• For every dollar of public funding there has been $104.39 ROI

4. A small investment in public art
can have an outsized impact on civic
image and ROI.
Ours is a results-based approach.
– Warren Buffet

Public Art Results
• Adopted Public Art Policy in 2017.
• Completed nine projects – six murals and three temporary.
• Attracted $68,015 in funding.

5. Small fixes to storefronts can also
improve the civic image and
generate greater profit.
We practice addition by
subtraction.
- Seanette Corkill

When Policies Don’t Work -
Change Them!
• Reduce Regulatory Barriers
• Design Standards & Design Review
• Process Focused on End Product
• Change of Use
• Streamline Permits & Approvals

Storefront Grants
• Had an opportunity in 2017 to host storefront seminar with
four other downtowns.
• Followed up with 10 consultations done the following day for
businesses in Metuchen.
• Produced beautiful illustrated reports for each business with
recommendations.

Picture Perfect Studios
Apr 2017
Apr 2017

Picture Perfect, Night photo
Aug 2018

Main Street
New Jersey
Grant
2019 Main Street New Jersey Grant
•Received $23,000 in 2019
•Utilized for storefront improvement and
placemaking
•We were well positioned because of track record
doing similar work

Metuchen News, After photo
Oct 2019

Jewelry Doctor, After photo
Oct 2019

Creative Twist, Before photo
Oct 2017

Creative Twist Events
Oct 2019

Creative Twist Events
Dec 2019
Dec 2019

Storefront Grants Results
• Pilot project in April 2017 helped provide storefront consultations for
10 businesses.
• Then provided matching grants to help businesses with making
improvements based on reports.
• 60 Storefront grants for $278,870.
• Some projects received multiple grants for continuous improvements.
• See guidelines and app: downtownmetuchen.org/guidelines.

6. If you want people to visit, give
them a place to sit.
People are most likely to sit
where there are places to sit.
- William “Holly” Whyte

Mangia Toscano
Nov 2021
May 2022

DiCosmo’s Italian Ice
Mar 2022
Jul 2021

7. Not sure how to get started or are
regulations getting in the way? Make
it a pilot project.
Every project is a pilot project.
- Isaac D. Kremer

Blade Sign Pilot Project
• Approval process required costly
stamped drawings for blade sign
• Worked with borough, designer, and
businesses to streamline.
• Installed 4 blade signs in 2021.

Blade Sign Pilot Project
Dec 2021

8. Are businesses struggling? Focus
on building a stronger ecosystem
that helps them grow.
Quality of place is a critical factor in
attracting and retaining talent.
- Main Street America

1990s 2002 2024
https://www.mainstreet.org/howwecanh
elp/resourcecenter/entrepreneurialecosy
stems

Start with Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Audit…

Identify partners and roles
in entrepreneur support
system

9. Stuck in the same routines? Make
a place for innovation in your town
and network.
All models are wrong, but
some are useful.
- George Box

10. To create new networks jump to
a new S-curve to reconfigure what
you already have.
The adjacent possible.
- Stuart Kauffman

Discussion
1.The people who have showed up are the
ones who were meant to be here.
2.What is discussed is what we are supposed
to talk about.
3.When the session is over, it is over.

Managing Partner
Civitas Development
civitasdev@gmail.com
(313) 268-4356 mobile
isaackremer.com
ISAAC D. KREMER, MSARP
Thank you!

Downtown Turnaround

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Editor's Notes