Downtown Spartanburg’s Revival...

Spartanburg Before (this ought to sound familiar)

“Any photograph taken prior to 1950 displays a Spartanburg unlike the one we know today. In these pictures, Morgan Square is a true town center, people walk along the sidewalks, and even at night storefronts and neon signs light the streets. In the year 2001, Morgan Square is a parking lot, people rarely even drive (much less walk) through downtown and the same storefronts are boarded over.

Statistics on the Chamber of Commerce website tell the story: the city’s population has been declining for the past thirty years, with the highest loss occurring in the past ten. In 1990, the city’s population numbered some 43,479 residents. In 2000 that number had dropped by nine percent to 39,673 residents, a significant loss. Interestingly, the city experienced almost no growth between 1970 and 1990, with the population remaining around 44,000 residents.”

Things Changed

Spartanburg Today

“I have a passion for downtown. It’s the heart and soul of Spartanburg. When I first started working here, so many buildings were boarded up. Now, downtown is the place to be. A lot of small businesses have come downtown. Once it started, it became contagious. One restaurant opened, then Abby’s Grill, then Ellis An American Bistro, and it’s continued. There are only a handful of empty buildings now; there used to be nearly half.”

“It’s a different kind of business atmosphere, thriving in its own right. A few merchants, including apparel retailers Price’s Store for Men and Carolina Cash, have been Spartanburg fixtures for generations. Most others are more recent. “Years ago, it was all pretty much retail – Belk’s, Woolworth’s,” Merck reflects. “There’s a unique mix downtown now. It’s truly a new Spartanburg.”

How?

In 1983, Spartanburg began a facade grant program to restore downtown buildings to their original form. Since 2000, a downtown Renaissance Project has encouraged over $170 million in investment and brought 1200 jobs to the central business district, including a new Spartanburg Marriott Conference Hotel downtown that is within 2 blocks of Wofford’s campus.

When city leaders talk about downtown development these days, they generally begin with the Renaissance Park project, the most extensive public/private development in Spartanburg history. The revitalization included a 250-room Marriott hotel/conference center. Workers broke ground in October 2002 on the Marriott, and it opened in autumn 2003. Other assets of $120-million Renaissance Park will be pedestrian malls, offices, an arts center, nature trails and residential communities, with a nine-hole executive golf course in the center.

“The Renaissance Park project was huge for us,” says Jules Bryant, executive director of the Spartanburg Convention & Visitors Bureau(CVB). “It was the cornerstone of redevelopment downtown. The large hotel allowed us to attract conventions we’ve had to turn away. Having that many people created a new demand for restaurants and shopping.”

Money magazine has called Spartanburg one of the “Four Booming Locales Where You Can Find a Job and Live Easy.” Home to six institutions of higher education, and the highest per capita college student population in any major city in the state, Spartanburg can also call itself “South Carolina’s College Town.”

James E. Talley, a native son and career educator who joined City Council in 1982 and later served two terms as mayor, says the greatest change Spartanburg has undergone during the last two decades is intangible. “The biggest difference is the change of attitude toward progress and development. For a long time the city was kind of apathetic about trying new things and finding new ways to get things done. We’ve gone from being a city where people thought ‘We can’t do that’ to an attitude of ‘I think I can-I know I can.’ Peo-ple started pulling together to make sure Spartanburg is recognized for the part it’s playing in the progress of the upstate.”

“There is this incredible energy sweeping over Spartanburg right now in which so many individuals and groups want to do their part in contributing to the betterment of this community,” says Mayor Bill Barnet. “Construction activity is everywhere you turn and new projects are waiting in the wings to begin. Private citizens are donating sculptures and seeking sponsors to pay for beautification projects. Efforts are well underway to raise the funds to build a world-class center for performing and visual fine arts. Spartanburg is becoming truly a world-class community.”

My Walk Away Lessons:

1. The City of Spartanburg Got Aggressive in Economic Redevelopment

2. The City Leveraged the University Presence in the Area

3. The Community Rallied Behind Redevelopment

4.  Spartanburg had to Spend Money To Make Money

5. The City Used A Hotel Conference Center to Jump Start Economic Renewal

Who’s Your Mama ?...

More Kent Tree Stuff...

Last week I shared information about the city’s plans to plant flowering trees in the median along SR 43 and I thought it was worth sharing even more information about Kent’s urban forestry work.  And I use the term ”urban forestry” to emphasize the point that as home to Davey Tree, Kent has a long and proud history of professional tree management (see photo at bottom of page), and that torch is carried today by people like Gerald Shanley in our City Public Service Department.

Here’s a snapshot of what they do in a given year to take care of Kent’s trees. (Being the good environmental stewards that we are, please note that the city plants 2 new trees for every tree it has to remove due to age or disease!)

Number of Trees Planted in 2006 = 102
Number of Trees Removed in 2006 = 44
Number of Trees Pruned = 1,179

Cost to Purchase Trees in 2006 = $9,250
Cost of Tree Maintenance and Pruning = $69,500
Cost of Tree Trimming along SR 59 = $19,000
(SR 59 maintained by contract with Davey Tree)

Citizen Tree Planting Contributions = $279

Municipal Labor Hours = 1,890
Municipal Labor Costs = $36,587

Total Kent Urban Forestry Costs in 2006 = $209,834

A Twist on the Skatepark Concept...

Last fall, I was having a conversation with a semi-retired Kent skateboarder who now that he’s “all grown up” wants to help today’s skateboard kids have a place to skate in Kent that he never had.  As you might imagine, he’s pretty stoked (his word) about the new skatepark being built on Admore Drive, but now that he’s grown up, he also sees the economic needs in the city and he’s constantly thinking up ideas to renew downtown Kent’s vibrancy.  With that in mind we were having one of those “wouldn’t it be great” conversations where we said how cool it would be to not just have a skateboard bowl but to actually have a skateboard trail that took kids (and semi-retired old timers) around town, including downtown.  We thought the concept was a bit crazy so we let it go at that, until this morning when I heard other cities were doing our idea.

The idea was to adapt those fitness trails you see with periodic pull up bars or tricep dips and replace that equipment with periodic skateboard apparatus.  As typically happens in those brainstorming sessions, we took the concept further and suggested creating a looped skateboard trail (with technical station areas) that connected downtown to Kent State campus.

In the “it’s a small world” category, one of the leading skateboard park design experts had bumped into my blog post about Kent’s skatepark and he emailed me to ask how it was going.  I let him know that Parks and Recreation continues to try to do fund raising and they hope to do some construction work this year once the weather breaks.

Being the good skatepark consultant that he is, he shared with me some information about some other cities that he said were doing some really cool stuff, including what he called skate trails and skate spots (mini-parks).

So much for our original idea.  Anyways here’s some the information that he sent and the links to see the skate trails and skate spots.

You know Dave… I’ve been working on two consulting projects that might interest you as city manager.

One is a “skate trails” project in Downingtown, Pa where small skatespots, street and transition oriented, are added along existing recreation trails. May be some different federal and state moneys that can be tapped when you present it that way. The English have been doing some good things in terms of design ideas (sketchyskateboarding), check out stokeplaza and spots links, as has the town of West Linn, OR. There is a case study on their trails at http://www.skatersforpublicskateparks.org/

The other thing is just the simplest thing: mini-ramps wherever you can put them. 16 feet wide, 3 feet high- just another piece of recreational equipment in an existing playground (in theory). There are a few good skater-owned modular companies that are making solid mini-ramps– see photo of part of a NJ beachfront park attached. GREAT RAMP for young and old- everybody loves a fun miniramp session.

I’m not looking for work, just letting you know about a couple of cool ideas out there that the locals could be working as new angles to create something special and fundable.

Have a great day and thanks for running that piece. It is 5 years old now and reminded me that I need to get some updated “scholarship” out there. BTW- here’s what I’ve been working on in Philadelphia for the last four years. http://www.phillyskatepark.com/

/josh/

Joshua Nims, J.D.
Operations Manager
Schuylkill River Development Corporation
Cira Centre
2929 Arch Street, 13th Floor
Philadelphia, PA 19104-7395
(215) 222-6030 x106
josh.nims@srdc.net
www.schuylkillbanks.org

Happy Birthday Kent Stage...

Technically, the Kent Stage is about 80 years old, but under the ownership of the Western Reserve Folk Arts Association, it will be celebrating it’s five year birthday this Saturday, March 24th with a special concert.  So if you’re looking for a fun night out, have some dinner at the Pufferbelly, stroll up to the concert at 8 pm and then close the bar at Ray’s Place after the show.  (If this city manager stuff doesn’t work out, I’ll be your social coordinator for a fee.)

The Western Reserve Folk Arts Association took possession of the Kent Cinema on February 18, 2002. On March 22, Kent’s own Hal Walker walked on stage as the opening act for Lucy Kaplansky. Together, they ushered in a new era at this soon to be 80 year-old building.

The Kent Stage now provides an intimate setting for theater as well as the rare opportunity to enjoy nationally and internationally recognized performers in a small northeast Ohio town.

During the past five-years, the Kent Stage has also seen performances by Tom Paxton, Joan Baez, Richie Havens, Bo Diddley, Melanie, Janis Ian, Loudon Wainwright III, Livingston Taylor, Nickel Creek, John Gorka, David Wilcox, Al Stewart, Lisa Loeb, Leo Kottke, Pete Best, Leon Redbone, Vassar Clements, John Cowan, Little Feat, The Kingston Trio, Richard Thompson, Fairport Convention, Brian Auger, Bill Haley’s Comets, Greg Brown, Steve Forbert, Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys, Riders In The Sky, David Grisman, Peter Rowan & Tony Rice, Tim O’Brien, Jesse Colin Young, India Aire, Chad and Jeremy, Sam Bush, Roger McGuinn, Dan Hicks, The Duhks, Josh Ritter, Cowboy Junkies, Over The Rhine, Donna The Buffalo, Asleep at the Wheel, Jonathan Edwards, Jay Unger and Molly Mason, Robin and Linda Williams, and dozens more along with the region’s finest folk artists and the Children’s Musical Theater of Kent, the Kent Blues Festival, Up From The River Music Festival, and the

Kent State Folk Festival.

These performances have been attracting audience members from all over Ohio, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, West Virginia, Indiana, Michigan, New York, and 21 other states as well as Canada. The Kent Stage is operated by the Western Reserve Folk Arts Association, a 501(c) 3 not-for-profit corporation.

Thank You for your support!

____________________________________________________

LUCY KAPLANSKY &

RICHARD SHINDELL

Plus Hal Walker

Saturday, March 24

8:00 PM

When Lucy Kaplansky was 18 years old, she shocked her neighbors in the Hyde Park area near the University of Chicago when, instead of going to college, she went to New York City with her boyfriend to become a folk singer. Fifteen years later, having become a clinical psychologist as well as a sought-after duet and harmony singer, she made another surprising decision: she gave up her private practice and her position at a New York hospital to pursue a full-time singing career.

Drawn to Greenwich Village in the late 1970s by the resurgence of the folk scene, she became a regular at Gerde’s Folk City. By 1982, she was a member of the CooP (later Fast Folk) and was featured on nine of the group’s “musical magazines,” along with Suzanne Vega, Shawn Colvin, John Gorka, Richard Shindell, and others. By 1983, however, Kaplansky had enrolled in New York University with the aim of becoming a psychologist. Well known on the folk scene for her crystalline harmonies, Kaplansky sang harmony vocals on Nanci Griffith’s Lone Star State of Mind and Little Love Affairs albums and performed in New York clubs as a duo with Colvin while earning her Ph.D. from Yeshiva University. But when she and Colvin attracted attention from record companies, Kaplansky declined, becoming a staff psychologist at a New York hospital and establishing a private practice while Colvin recorded her first three albums for Columbia Records.

As a record of what Lucy had accomplished on the folk scene, and to give Colvin a chance to try her hand at production, the two collaborated on Kaplansky’s first album, The Tide, comprising three of Kaplansky’s own compositions and a collection of well-worn covers, including songs by Richard Thompson, Sting, and Robin Batteau. By 1994, when The Tide was released by Red House Records, Kaplansky decided to shift gears again and become a full-time touring folk singer. She spent much of the next few years playing the folk circuit of coffeehouses, church halls, and festivals, accompanying herself on guitar, and performing in concert with Shindell and Gorka. In 1996, Red House Records released her second album, Flesh and Bone, produced by Anton Sanko (Vega’s Solitude Standing and Days of Open Hand). It includes eight original songs (co-written with Kaplansky’s husband, filmmaker Richard Litvin), as well as duets with Shindell and Gorka. Ten Year Night followed in 1999. ~ Claire

Keaveney, All Music Guide

Official Lucy Kaplansky Website

Richard Shindell

An enigmatic singer/songwriter whose work veered from the bitterly comic to the profoundly spiritual, Richard Shindell gained his first notoriety via the Fast Folk Musical Magazine series (which previously launched then-unknowns like Lyle Lovett and Nanci Griffith as well). A native of Lakehurst, New Jersey, Shindell was a former seminary student whose first musical exposure came while playing guitar in the Razzy Dazzy Spasm Band alongside the young John Gorka; he began composing songs during the late 1980s, quickly earning a word-of-mouth cult following. After a featured appearance on Christine Lavin’s 1991 compilation When October Goes, a year later he recorded his Shanachie label debut, Sparrow’s Point; Blue Divide followed in 1994, and in 1997 Shindell resurfaced with Reunion Hill. He next teamed with Dar Williams and Lucy Kaplansky in the group Cry, Cry, Cry, issuing a self-titled LP in 1998; the solo Somewhere Near Paterson followed in early 2000. ~ Jason Ankeny, All

Music Guide

Richard Shindell is “America’s best singer/songwriter” according to The Los Angeles Daily News. “Let his extraordinary songs do the talking,” they urge; “this is the voice of a master.”

Official Richard Shindell Website

Hal Walker

“I grew up blowing the harmonica along the banks of the Cuyahoga River. Born into a musical family,10 years of piano lessons and choral singing prepared me for a life of musical expression and discovery. At Northwestern University, I was a history major; but my passion was for rhythm and movement. Exploring the sidewalks of Chicago, I learned to improvise on instruments that fit in my pocket – the harmonica, jew’s harp and three types of whistling. Then I bought a guitar and spent the next 20 years writing songs about work, community, and life in Ohio. Today, I enjoy making my living as a musician, musical director, teacher, composer, and actor. As an artist, I aim to bring beauty through music into the everyday lives of children. I offer a powerful and inviting musical force that celebrates the music that lives within every community.”

Advance discount tickets: $25.00

Day of Show: $28.00

Tickets are available at Spin-More Records, Woodsy’s Music, www.ticketweb.com, at the Kent Stage (330-677-5005) and at the door.

Hotel and Convention Center...

Cities Fighting to Have Universities...

Manufacturing Decline, University Driven Growth...

For decades, both manufacturing and the university have had a significant impact on Kent’s economy.  But as you know, it’s hard to open a newspaper these days and not see yet another discouraging story about the continued decline in manufacturing in our area.  I met with the President of RB&W last week to hear from him why RB&W is leaving us, and he flat out told me that with labor rates in China about 1/10th of the costs here, the company had to consolidate operations outside of this area.  I asked him if there was anything the City could do to keep him here, and he simply smiled and said “this is not about Kent, this is a global economic decision.”  On the one hand I was glad to hear it wasn’t about local taxes or services, but on the other, it makes a strong statement about what direction the future of our economy is headed (Kent State University).  That’s why I was delighted to read another article about how “hot” university cities are for redevelopment.

Developers Go Back to School
Retail and mixed-use projects capitalize on demographics in college towns.
Jaime Lackey
Published online 03-12-2007

Developers are always looking for new opportunities, and recently college towns have proven good developing grounds for retail. REBusinessOnline talks with several companies that have projects near colleges and universities to see what the attraction is and to find out how these developments differ from other retail projects.

Colleges and universities count on area attractions and amenities to help attract students, according to Randy Ruttenberg, principal of Cleveland, Ohio-based Fairmount Properties. He explains, “Increasingly, these institutions are recognizing the importance to their long term success of that which exists outside their campus walls, acknowledging the key role that space plays in attracting and retaining students and faculty, by giving them great places to shop, dine, live and recreate.”

Fairmount Properties University Realty Trust, a division of Fairmount Properties, focuses on the niche of developing in college towns. The company sees universities as anchors for growth. Ruttenberg calls them “non-retail demand generators,” and he explains that the schools serve as anchors by attracting students, faculty, administrative staff, visitors, researchers, and the families of all these groups.

John Bergh, senior vice president of Madison, Wisconsin-based Siegel-Gallagher, is handling leasing at University Square, a mixed-use development by developer Executive Management Inc. and the University of Wisconsin in Madison, Wisconsin.

Bergh says that college retail is an untapped market with growing opportunity for developers and retailers who take the time to understand the value of the market. He says, “With developers providing the venues and retailers the draw, students won’t purchase at home, but will wait until they get back to campus to get the goods and services they really want to have — because those things will be right on the campus main street.”

Desirable Demographics
Many college towns have demographics that retailers find compelling. According to Ruttenberg, “Research shows that the number of students from households of significant wealth and advanced parental educational attainment is at an all-time high and growing at an increasing rate.” He adds that these consumers often find shopping choices in college towns less than their desired economic thresholds, which results in pent-up demand for quality retail.

Retailers have to look beyond the general concept of a “student population,” says H. Lance Forsdick, Jr., managing member of Memphis, Tennessee-based Kenlan Development, which is developing Oxford Commons near Ole Miss in Oxford, Mississippi. Forsdick explains that retailers need to look at the demographics at individual schools as some student populations have more disposable income than others. Furthermore, he notes, retailers can assume that professors and university staff are well paid and fairly sophisticated shoppers.

“University markets provide very dense concentrations of consumers in a very small area and provide a diverse but essentially captive shopper base,” says Bergh.

Most college towns offer demographics beyond the campus population, according to Bergh and Greg Rice, CEO of Madison-based Executive Management Inc. (EMI). In addition to the students, staff and high-earning faculty, they say, “baby boomers are flocking to university towns to take advantage of the enrichment opportunities. Other new residents are bright, young employees of the technical and research companies that spring up around university towns. Major medical facilities are often associated with universities bringing physicians, surgeons and medical staff.”

Colleges also create occasions that bring potential shoppers to town. These occasions include orientation weekends, graduation, home football games and other sporting events, which bring parents and alumni to town.

According to Rice, “Sporting events are huge in major universities and add dramatically to the consumer base.”

While Forsdick cautions, “Six home football games do not a retailer’s year make,” he does agree that campus events, in conjunction with local and community events, can create an economic impact that retailers need to consider.

Summers and holidays might cause some concern to retailers considering locations focused on students. But developers think this is less of a concern than it may seem. Ruttenberg says, “While there will clearly be some seasonality in sales volumes as a function of the seasonality of the school year, it is our goal to mitigate this by targeting our offerings to the broader trade area.”

Bergh, however, notes that some schools don’t really slow down during the summer, “due to summer school sessions, executive education, adult continuing education and tourist activities.”

Deciding Where to Develop
Finding the right college town for a project can be difficult. Ruttenberg points out that developers are not always aware that a school is interested in selling a piece of land, nor are they readily aware of the needs of the schools for better retail or housing nearby.

Furthermore, with the number of schools, it is hard to know where to start looking for opportunity. Ruttenberg says Fairmount Properties has found mid-size markets often offer more opportunity: “In terms of size, while our original notion was to look for opportunities near larger state or private schools, we found there to be better opportunities in mid-sized markets where there is less competition from a regional mall, along with the type of supply deficits so often found in much of middle America.” Fairmount also looks for institutions with strong growth trends in enrollment and that drive significant visits from sporting events, research activity, or cultural events.

Fairmount Properties has teamed with The Growth Group to identify opportunities in college markets. The Growth Group is a consulting organization comprising 100 professionals, more than 40 percent of whom have served or currently serve as university presidents and more than 90 percent have held senior university leadership positions.

According to Ruttenberg, “The Growth Group has helped us elevate the type of research we can ascertain in order to help us identify viable markets. Through them and through other sources, we are able to obtain the average household incomes of the students’ families attending a specific school, as well understand the economic spending of not only the students based on campus, but their spending potential off campus, as well as that of faculty and visitors attending sporting and cultural events.”

But, as Bergh says, “You need to look at the whole — and students are never the whole demographic story.”

Developers also look at “the supply deficit within specific key retail categories derived from current market sales, as compared to spending potential,” says Ruttenberg. “We then look at what is missing from a particular marketplace, the competition’s current distance from the school, and the general demographics and psychographics of the area.”

Public/Private Partnerships
There are benefits and drawbacks to public/private partnerships. The projects usually take longer to go from the drawing board to grand opening. As Rice says, “The university’s involvement does slow things down because of all their levels of approval and the number of stakeholders who have input. A developer needs a lot of patience in a public/private partnership.” However, public/private partnerships incorporate ideas from many people and therefore result in best uses for the projects.

Institutional partners may request that architecture complements existing buildings on campus. Occasionally, public partners will put some restrictions on a project. For example, Rice says, at University Square, “we are precluded from having a tenant whose major source of sales is alcoholic beverages but we don’t find this at all limiting.”

Ruttenberg says it is beneficial to have all parties at the table early in a project to solve funding issues. Fairmount Properties often partners with schools on projects, and the institutions sometimes reap direct financial benefits. Ruttenberg explains, “Often, budgetary constraints — imposed by limited funding, shrinking endowments, and the need to invest in academic buildings and research facilities — make it difficult for institutions to independently make the investments required to enhance the retail and housing choices adjacent to campus or within their local submarket. Our projects are designed to also help an institution raise capital or strengthen their endowment by monetizing non-producing or under-producing assets by creating one-time capital events or long-term revenue streams via ground leases.”

The schools can also benefit from residential components of mixed-use projects. While Fairmount does not build traditional student housing, the company has been involved with some residential components, typically for-sale product geared to faculty and alumni. “In the case of alumni housing, we work with the schools to structure packages whereby the purchase of a home includes year-long passes to sporting events, theater and musical performances, and access to the library and health club. This type of living brings people back to their campus roots and helps the school build a more likely and qualified donor base,” Ruttenberg explains.

Retailers & Restaurants
According to Rice, “Mixed-use projects are almost a necessity today in downtowns and campuses because land is becoming so limited — and they generally are more readily approved because they fit into the existing urban landscape.”

As for the retail in college-area developments, Bergh says mainstream uses like drug stores, office supply and grocery all are appropriate. He adds, “We also think there’s room — because of the university setting — for more cutting-edge, youthful specialty and apparel stores. You have a close-in market of trendy, early-adopters — ideal for new concepts.”

Forsdick says, “Stores that tend to do well in college towns include discount to mid-level priced clothing; restaurants and entertainment venues; and music stores.”

Ruttenberg notes that college bookstores also make great anchors: “College bookstores often look to increase their visibility and sales volume by locating just off campus into larger hybrid stores mixing textbooks and mainstream bookstore merchandise, thereby catering to both students and the local community.”

Restaurants are critical components in the mix, according to Rice.  He says, “If you’re a major sports university, that is a major driver in the type of food and beverage venues. You need quick food on a daily basis for the students and for the people who attend sports events. We believe you also need fine dining — university towns are sophisticated and expect exceptional food experiences. But, there is a very fine balance of the right types of food — and the amount. Food uses can easily overwhelm a project and limit its potential.”

Spring Trees...

Snow Costs Summarized...

When it comes to city plow operations, snow isn’t just white, it’s green — that’s green as in the dollars we all pay as taxpayers to take away what mother nature dumps on us.  I admit it, I have a bit of an attitude about the white stuff this year.  One, because it’s been relentless — and two, because it cost us a lot of cash this year to work around the clock and to lay down salt and to fill gas tanks, etc., etc.  I realize snow removal is a very important service, but it’s an expense we have very little control over.  Here’s how much money we’re talking.

Here’s a look at how 2007’s number compare with 2006 and 2005:

So not only has the winter of 2007 been hard on everyone state of mind, it’s been hard on the pocketbook as well.