New release! Guide to redeveloping vacant commercial properties

There’s a new resource available for communities tackling a challenging subset of blighted properties: commercial vacant properties. Redeveloping Commercial Vacant Properties in Legacy Cities: A Guidebook for Linking Property Reuse and Economic Growth is available to download for free.

Greater Ohio Policy Center developed the free guidebook – the first of its kind – in partnership with the German Marshall Fund of the United States and with support from us here at Community Progress.

Designed as a how-to manual for local leaders, Redeveloping Commercial Vacant Properties in Legacy Cities focuses on practices and policies that leverage the link between available commercial properties and needed economic regrowth in Legacy Cities.

Local practitioners can use the guidebook’s tools at every stage of commercial redevelopment, from data gathering and planning to real estate acquisition and redevelopment, tenant attraction and support, and business district management.

Guidebook highlights include:

• Market analysis methods
• Legal tools
• Gap funding sources
• Business attraction and retention
• Commercial district management models
• Market-building strategies

While the guidebook’s tools, strategies, and policy recommendations are tailored to Legacy Cities, they’re relevant for any cities that seek to support community stability and economic development through the reuse of commercial vacant properties.

Download the guidebook for free on the Greater Ohio Policy Center website.