Economic Development America
Competing Globally - Growing Regional Economies - Creating Jobs Fall 2006
In this issue:

Welcome

Business Retention: Helping Companies Compete in a Global Economy

Predicting Corporate Behavior: Why Companies Relocate or Expand

Economic Development Targeting: Laying a Foundation for Your Strategy Plan

A City’s Tools for Downtown Development: Much More Than Money

Building the Ideal Financing Toolbox

Clawbacks in Economic Development: Policies and Practices

Community Colleges: The Economic Developer’s Workforce Partner

Using a Balanced Scorecard to Measure Your Economic Development Strategy

Comprehensive Economic Development Strategies (CEDS) Summary of Requirements

In Memoriam



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A City’s Tools for Downtown Development: Much More Than Money (cont.)

Westend Baseball Stadium
After a 20-plus-year stand in a dated municipal stadium located on the outskirts of the city, the Greenville Braves demanded a new stadium in a more prominent location. The city, seeing an opportunity in its downtown, assembled a vacant tract of land and began negotiations with the Braves. It didn’t work out with the Braves, but what first seemed to be a terrible loss to the community ended in an award-winning stadium surrounded by offices, restaurants and residential condominiums.

The city provided development-ready land and leased the property to the owners of a new team, the Greenville Drive (an affiliate of the Boston Red Sox). Funding for the project came primarily from tax increment financing, sale proceeds of the Westend market, hospitality funds, and stormwater and sewer funds. The team owners constructed the stadium using all stadium and ticket revenues. The Greenville Drive now play in a neo-traditional designed stadium with a leftfield wall reminiscent of Fenway Park’s 37-foot tall Green Monster. The stadium is surrounded by 40 residential condos and 51,000 square feet of offices and restaurant space. Now, even when the lights are dark in the stadium, the project is still alive with people.


Lessons learned

As Greenville’s downtown has blossomed over the past 30 years, the city learned many lessons along the way. Some of those include:

  • Be an entrepreneur. Think and act entrepreneurially; understand and appreciate the inherent risks of private development. City leaders need to understand and be willing to take risks.

  • Bring value to the private development. Actively pursue mixed-use developments as part of public-private partnerships. Although the public participation is often through investment in parking, public spaces, landscaping and other basic infrastructure, don’t just assume that the need is monetary. There are many ways to provide value to the project:
    • Ensure that city ordinances encourage mixed uses and provide flexible parking requirements.
    • Provide expedited review and approval of permits – time is money.
    • Provide a single point of contact within the city organization that can shepherd the private project and seek timely resolution of problems that inevitably will arise.
    • Utilize the building codes and inspection team to perform feasibility analyses and reduce surprises.
    • Make appropriate city staff part of the development team – mixed uses have challenging logistics such as garbage pickup, noise, odors and security. City staff can be great resources and should be involved in the very early stages of planning.
    • Facilitate the staging of construction with flexibility in the use of public streets and rights of way for construction trailers, deliveries, etc.
    • Provide encroachments for outdoor dining – to activate the street and also add revenue to the project. In Greenville, encroachments are regulated to ensure insurance and maintenance, but no fees are charged

  • Seek creative financing options. Be willing to explore all financing opportunities – tax increment financing, hospitality and accommodation taxes, parking revenue bonds, New Market tax credits, Section 108 loans, grants, and even contributions.

  • Commit to writing. Good agreements are essential. Clearly define expectations and responsibilities of each partner and commit everything to writing. Educate the private sector in the transparency of the public process and patience required. Be realistic about time commitments and do what you say you are going to do.

  • Set the design standard. In downtowns, the city sets the standard for the public realm.

  • Integrate with the existing environment. Through design requirements, ensure that the mixed-use development becomes integrated and linked with downtown, and not just a stand-alone project.

  • Little things matter. Attractive landscaping, seating, lighting, and sculpture alone will not make things happen, but they do provide a backdrop, sense of place and identity to set the stage for private developments.

  • Plan for people. The physical environment should first and foremost be designed and programmed to encourage its use by people.While the architecture is important, it shouldn’t overshadow the ultimate goal of comfort and interest for the people who will be the most important part of the development.


For more information, visit the City of Greenville’s Web site at www.greatergreenville.com, or contact Nancy Whitworth at whitwon@greatergreenville.com.


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