Neighborhood Revival

[Jeremy Namen]

Hello All! My name is jeremy, and im a relatively new member of this greatly appreciated and informative site. Im thinking that ill be able to get some good advice and/or info on implementing an idea that ive had for quite some time....I live in an area of St Louis that really shows its 100+ years wear and tear. As with most old buildings, there is so much character, and I see so much potential for this south city neighborhood. To me the solution is simple: Buy up all the foreclosures and other cheap properties and control the market. Rehab much nicer than the area is used to (houses can be bought at 10-30k in this area) and sell or rent but on a very strict screening process. The area has what could be a very cool shopping business district and it would be wise to invite some creative minded entrepreneurs to begin their business in the area with some sort of grants. Im kind of rambling here but long story short the area could be Great and i wanna know others thoughts on moving forward with a plan and who to present to for financing/grants etc...Any input appreciated even "hey dummy you cant save the world, Move on!!" haha

[Ibrahim Hughes]

Jeremy you have an extremely lofty idea here. I'm going to give you advice based on one who has attempted to invest in a distressed area, informally along with other investors, hoping the area would eventually be revitalized. It never happened. I soon learned that in order for a neighborhood to be revitalized, eventually all of the players - residents, businesses and ESPECIALLY the local government - will need to be on board.

IMO, you can tackle this from two angles:

Pull together the local government, businesses and Investors (don't try and go this alone. Share the wealth and work involved. The revilization will be more effective the more diverse the investment.) and draft a plan to bring back the area. You will need the full cooperation of the police department and eventually the residents as you work to rid the area of one of the main factors bringing it down: crime. As crime is being pushed out you will have to work HARD to convince business owners, other investors AND homebuyers and tenants that this is the real deal. The biggest challenge (and this is what I had to learn the hard way) will be to overcome the decades-long stigma that has plagued the neighborhood and get prospective tenants to sign on. Most will only remember how crime-ridden the neighborhood was and will not be coming back in a hurry. Unless of course you will be primarily attracting the young, educated and professional crowd. If so then forget about the stigma as it likely won't matter much. They will just be concerned that this are places to eat, shop and do it safely. Which brings us back to the cooperation of trendy businesses, the local government and the police. Without them signing on, imo, this doesn't happen.

You will also want to get together with the responsible tenants in the area and encourage the start of homeowners associations. Your challenges will be to get them to work together to clean up the neighborhood. Some might be fearful of the criminals. Others may actually be housing them as family members and friends. Start with the responsible and brave ones first. The ones who don't give a damn about a drug dealer and will smack the lights out of one like he was his son. Get enough of them together and you can clean up a neighborhood. Again, this is a LOT of work.

Finally, check with the city's 'Master Plan'. Every major city should have one and it should tell you the path of improvement (there's actually a term for this which I can't remember right now) the city will take in the coming years. You may find out that the city already plans to start revitalizing the area in 5 years.

These are just my thoughts.