ECONOMY: PROPOSED IMPROVEMENTS

Primary Opportunities

• Move people back downtown: In answer to the chicken vs. egg question, go with the egg, which in this case is people living downtown. From the nucleus of downtown residents comes a fountain of demand for shopping and services. For reasons varying from national housing trends favoring renting to the preferences of Millennials, there are new opportunities for attracting downtown residents. This has been true in larger cities, including Indianapolis, but is increasingly noticeable even in smaller Indiana towns. Proof of this trend can be found in the developer who visited Frankfort and said several properties could be successfully converted to new housing.

Downtown residents are built-in customers, and offer the city’s greatest opportunity for sustained revitalization. Start the ball rolling by offering incentives to create residences in the central business district.

• Putting Together a Local Investment Group. As the economy continues to improve, things can happen fast downtown. Buildings that have sat empty for years may be quickly bought. Building owners, some of who haven’t invested any money in maintaining the property, may suddenly decide the structure is worth a fortune.

Another common occurrence is an entrepreneur wanting to open a business downtown, but finding no suitable or available building and so moving on to another part of town. Yet another scenario: People acquire a key building with good intentions but lack the resources to restore it properly.

Of course, there are also “perfect fit” transactions, where everything turns out right and the new business opens, but the previous scenarios show how complications are just as likely to arise.

So, without some tool to steer the uses of downtown buildings, local leaders have to rely on the whims and plans of others, who may not be aware of local revitalization efforts. One effective tool for directing growth has been a local investment group.

The group can be formed in many ways, and there are several examples around Indiana. In Rochester, the economic development director organized local business owners to buy a key plot of land at the entryway to downtown. It will be converted into a park.

In Akron, which is also in Fulton County, the Akron Revitalization Committee bought a building, rehabbed it and then recruited a dentist to use it.

In the 2,370-person City of Dunkirk, seven local people (some of them not even businesses owners) got tired of seeing empty and crumbling downtown buildings. They pooled their money, bought a small building and restored it, then recruited a chiropractor to set up shop. They have since bought and restored three more buildings and are working with the city council to recruit new businesses and provide incentives.

In Frankfort, many stakeholders have already expressed interest in downtown growth, and there is a good chance that an investment group can be formed.

• Unifying a System for Encouraging Entrepreneurs. Creating incentives for downtown housing and forming a quick-moving investment group sets the stage for new business opportunities. As mentioned, Frankfort has all the pieces needed for entrepreneurial development, so the main challenge here will be encouraging new business owners and guiding them through the process.

Projects for capitalizing on these opportunities can be found in the Implementation Chapter.