Marketing on a Shoe String

By Kelly Novak

The Milwaukee Seven will invest $12 million in the next five years to develop “it.” Dallas Regional Momentum intends to raise $7.5 million over five years to support “it.” And in 2005 the St. Louis Regional Chamber and Growth Association committed $21 million to “it” and gave it a logo reading: “St. Louis: Perfectly Centered. Remarkably Connected.” What is “it” and why are three large metro areas willing to invest over $40 million in it?
 
“It” is an economic development campaign launched by a city or region to influence private investors to either build or relocate businesses in its community. The city or region is, in essence, strategically marketing their assets in order to drive market demand upward for its geographic location. 

Economic development campaigns like these, without question, can help heighten market demands that accelerate brownfield redevelopment.

But How Are We Supposed to Afford It?
Unfortunately, not all communities can fund economic development campaigns and consequently miss out on an effective vehicle for effectively marketing their brownfield sites. What’s worse is that many communities think it won’t do any good to market brownfield sites because the area’s construction cost rating is negative or they’ve already had an unsuccessful program. This kind of thinking drags down demand and begs the question: How can low-demand communities with difficult brownfield properties and little resources build a campaign to attract investors? There is no one-size-fits-all answer to this question, but creativity is a key component to addressing the problem.

Eastward Ho!
The South Florida Regional Planning Council’s creative “Eastward Ho!” initiative is a good example. “Eastward Ho!” began as a partnership in 1997 to bring local, state, regional and federal agencies together with the private sector in Hollywood, Florida. Then, as a showcase community grant recipient in 1998, “Eastward Ho!” mapped out a clear mission for revitalizing and improving the quality of life in Southeast Florida’s historic urban areas. This is part of an effort to lessen development pressure and sprawl in sensitive lands in the region’s west, which are essential to the Everglades ecosystem and regional water supplies. 

“The difficult part of the campaign is that it targeted the largest available parcels that just were not desirably located,” says Terry Manning, a senior planner for South Florida Regional Planning Council.  A prime example was a 30-acre former industrial park in the Miami-Dade area. 

The industrial park had many negatives: it was not on a main transportation route, it had no water or sewer hook-up, it was in an unincorporated area, and it was located within a HUD empowerment zone adjacent to blight and low income housing that was eventually updated.

After standing abandoned for years and after two failed nationwide “for sale” campaigns by the city, the site became part of “Eastward Ho!”. A total of $1 million from state, federal and county funds was cobbled together to assess and clean up the site. Site promotion was then done through “Eastward Ho!” to make the sale possible.

“A key to it all was how creatively we used our state program, which allows us to address areas rather than just specific sites. We also linked the site to other economic development projects,” says Manning.

Other sites in this economically depressed area, known for being the scene of the McDuffy riots in the 1980s, have since undergone redevelopment. Demand in this location, as a result, is on the rise. “Eastward Ho!” is now also is skillfully using more than $2 million in EPA revolving loan funds.

Manning commented, “We’re not finished. We’ve got plenty of poor communities that need assistance connecting with the private sector or assessing and cleaning up.” BFN

Kelly Novak is research manager at NADO Research Foundation in Washington,
D.C. She is also working on a doctorate at Virginia Tech University.