Cracking the Code: Rehabbing Older Buildings in the Face of Modern Code

Upper floor of historic building that will soon be rehabbed.

This week, the National Trust Main Street Center published a short article of mine on its website - "Upper Floor Housing: Bringing it Up to Code." It was originally written as a sidebar to my downtown housing article that is the feature of the current Main Street Now issue. (If you want a copy, please get in touch.) But, the article was epically long and graduated to a "primer," and they ran out of room for the code information to be included in the journal.

I am posting a few teaser paragraphs below and am linking to the full code article. I wanted to make sure my readers saw this because I am particularly interested in the International Code Council’s International Existing Building Code. It can make preservation projects more feasible by not challenging code enforcement officials to measure an older or historic building's safety by code written for modern buildings. The Existing Building Code doesn't seem to have widespread usage just yet. (Among others, New Hampshire and Washington state  adopted it. The small town of Burlington, Iowa, and Washington, DC, too, have adopted some of the code.) But, it appears to have a lot of potential to become another tool to add to your preservation toolbox and is worth checking out. 

"I have yet to speak to a developer or property owner who doesn’t groan when asked about bringing upper-floors up to code. No matter how business- or developer-friendly a city tries to be, the long road to getting a certificate of occupancy is a complicated one that has caused a lot of grey hair. There often are creative ways to meet code and cooperative code officials who want to support economic development, but the bottom line is that safety standards must be met.

Depending on what a property owner wants to do, upper-floor improvements and permitting might trigger updates in code that the owner isn’t prepared for financially.

“'When dealing with an older upper floor that has been vacant for a long time, you will need to make substantial upgrades, and when you invest in something and make upgrades, that triggers code,” says Mike Jackson, FAIA, chief architect of the Preservation Services Division of the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency. “The question then becomes what level of safety does it have to be and which code tricks and code knowledge can save you money so that you can afford to do the project.'”

Read the full Story of the Week over at mainstreet.org.

A Phone System for On-the-Go & On-the-Road Main Streeters

Don't be chained to your desk when you're expecting a call! (c) Jonathan_W via flickr

I am a huge fan of technology. Time to time I am going to talk about helpful tools and software that can help you do your job. Today, we are going to talk about a phone system made for Main Streeters.

If you are like me, you don’t love the idea of giving your private cell phone number out to everyone. But Main Street managers, and others who spend a significant amount of time away from their desks, either have to use their private cell or carry around a work cell phone, too.

But, there is a cool solution to this problem. There is a company called Simple Signal that gives you one office phone number that you can use at your desk phone and your cell. Why is it cool? You can make and take work calls from your private cell phone and your phone number shows up as your office phone.

This protects your private phone number, but it also means you don’t miss important phone calls when you have to be away from your desk and you don’t need to carry two phones or check multiple mail boxes, since everything is integrated into one inbox (time saving!). Another neat feature – voice mails can be converted into text so you can read incoming messages while you are in a boring meeting, and you keep your current phone number.

Their technology actually integrates your landline, cellular phones, your tablet (like an iPad), and your computer. So a conversation started at your desk phone can be continued on your cell or tablet if you need to run out. It’s an internet-based phone system so all you need is an internet connection. If you prefer texting – you can do that, too, from both your phone and your computer using your desk phone number! 

There are video features, too. You can make video calls to put a face with a voice through your tablet, smart phone, or computer’s web cam. The video collaboration features seem pretty cool for Main Street programs who want to have remote board or committee meetings that are a more personal than voice-only conference calls. If you want to do a conference call, you can set them up for up to 14 people with no notice or set-up required.

While we are talking about collaboration, have you ever been on a call when you are referring to a file, a website, an image… or really anything that lives on your computer that you wish you could just show to the person you are talking to in real time? Before, I have used webinar software to do this – especially when I ran committee meetings where I took notes real time and recorded group decisions on a shared document. Simple Signal lets you share a document, your desktop, a webpage all in real time during your conversation. This can make your phone calls and phone meetings more productive and effective. There is no, “let me email that file to you and we can talk about it after you get a chance to look at it.” Things can happen much quicker and your conversations can be more dynamic. Plus, you can record your calls (as long as you have permission of all parties) so you don’t forget any great ideas that came up in a brainstorming session.

If you get phones for your staff members or active board members and committee chairs, you can call them by dialing their extension. They can give out their work number, and it can roll over to their computer, tablet, or cell phone, too. This can add to the professionalism of your office.

I think video calls can be a great way to keep people engaged in a conversation. Main Street coordinating programs, too, can really get a lot of use from these features. Long distance calls are free, so the entire Main Street world can keep in touch. And you get unlimited minutes, so talk till the cows come home.

I am pretty excited about this tool and I feel like it fits with Main Streeters’ needs so seamlessly. And, the only reason why I know about it is because my friend works for Simple Signal. And any friend of mine is a friend of Main Street and City Thrive readers, so he is offering a discount for you all. You can save 20% on the service – so for example, if you do a three-year contract, you pay $35 per phone each month for the premium level, and $25 per phone each month for standard. Premium just has some extra features. If you want each phone to have a different number, you pay $1 more.

Shoot him an email and tell him that you read Andrea’s blog and are interested in learning more. Your name won’t be added to a marketing list and he won’t badger you. You’ll just get some info to learn more about it and a chance to ask questions. This isn’t a limited-time offer, either. If you want to think about it, squirrel this cool technology and the discount away in the back of your mind.

Below is a video with some technical stuff that I couldn't really explain to you if I tried. 

If We Decide Main Streets are Things of the Past, We are Committing Community Suicide

Franklin, Tenn., a Great American Main Street winner

In his blog posting on Switchboard, “Are Main Streets a Thing of the Past? Is that Ok?” Kaid Benfield suggests as much as he likes Main Streets, they are destined to be a distant memory of their once-thriving past. I have learned much from Kaid, as I am an avid reader of his posts on Switchboard and Sustainable Cities Collective. But I have worked with Main Street communities for 10 years, and have seen downtowns achieve outstanding successes. Main Street revitalization programs rally the community’s support to reinvent themselves through grassroots-driven, strategic economic development. I want to keep this dialog going.

I won’t pretend that every Main Street revitalization program has been successful - I've been to some crummy places. “Main Street” certainly does have a muddied definition because so many people (and companies) claim it. And I won’t pretend that I don’t enjoy a little ruin porn. But holding up Sandy Sorlien’s depressing, yet still beautiful, photographs as evidence that Main Street is dead puts a cloud over the thousands of existing communities working towards vibrancy. I am going to do the reverse and give you my optimistic photos and perspective and throw a few stats at you. The National Trust Main Street Center tracks the cumulative reinvestment data of its national network of local communities and reports: $53.6 billion in total reinvestment; 104,961 net gain in businesses; 448,835 net gain in jobs; 229,164 building rehabs; and a reinvestment ratio of $18:1. Those aren’t numbers of a failure.

Kaid's blog states: “A by-the-numbers environmentalist may not have a reason to: if land consumption is reasonably limited by new models, if places are walkable and reduce car trips and emissions by placing shops, services and people close together, if they are well located (and especially if also transit-served), why worry if someone’s sentimental bit of Americana isn’t what it used to be?”

Fruitvale, Ca., transit-oriented development

I, too, appreciate density…in proportion to scale. While downtowns have more density than sprawling suburbs, they don’t have the density of Manhattan; but America will never be a series of Manhattans, because not everyone wants that lifestyle or their jobs are connected to agriculture in rural areas. We shouldn’t abandon small towns for metropolises of glass towers when we can invest in and build on what’s already here. Density and adding transit-oriented development and infrastructure in older places is being done well – just look at the highly celebrated successes of Fruitvale in California.

I ask the by-the-numbers environmentalists, what is the impact to our environment if we demolished those 229,164 buildings that the Main Street network rehabbed? I am not worried about people who don’t care about being sentimental. I am worried about people who don’t care about embodied energy. The work of the National Trust’s Preservation Green Lab proved that “when comparing buildings of equivalent size and function, building reuse almost always offers environmental savings over demolition and new construction.”

The sweet spot for the Main Street Four-Point Approach to commercial district revitalization is in places with populations under 50,000 – of which there are 30,000 in the US. A former director of the National Trust Main Street Center once suggested that there are at least 30,000 central business districts in need of some level of reinvestment; and within those places, there are probably 3 million older and historic buildings needing some TLC and even green retrofits, and 5 million small and independent businesses giving new life to those older buildings. Throwing away those 30,000 existing communities is a horrific idea – but when we declare the death of Main Street and believe they are only good for remembering Americana – we are committing community suicide.

Environmentalists can’t afford to be so linear in their thinking. In fact, that is why I think the sustainability movement is so critical. It blends three important areas that traditionally had been silo’ed – environment, economics, everybody.

Lifestyle center in Clarendon (Arlington, Va)

It's not just about embodied energy. It's about embodied history, culture, and craftsmanship. But social sustainability is too often under-appreciated. Maybe because it acknowledges the “soft” assets of a community – the smaller buildings where independent businesses can afford a commercial lease or mortgage, “third places” for public gathering, sense of pride, inclusion and civic engagement, gorgeous architecture (that we can’t afford to build anymore), a structures that tell the stories of our nation. Our history and our built environment is of great value to Americans – note the surging support for preservation after New York’s Penn Station was demolished. I’d be shocked if in 100 years from now, people have a similar reaction to tearing down lifestyle centers, although I do feel they are a better way to develop the suburbs. (On a more personal level, I have yet to have a memorable experience in front of the isolated fountain by the Crate and Barrel in Clarendon’s lifestyle center.)

On the economic side of things – the National Trust for Historic Preservation didn’t form the Main Street Center because of nostalgia. It figured out that comprehensive revitalization and economic development (the Main Street Four-Point Approach) can save historic buildings. The economics piece trumps preservation so much that the Trust is spinning the Center off as a subsidiary.

Good customer service in Rogersville, Tenn.

When you are restructuring an economy that sat idle for 30 years, your work is cut out for you. But you take inventory of your assets, opportunities, and what your competition does better and you figure out what your position is in the marketplace. Then you work your ass off to get there. Sometimes, it is becoming a travel destination or building on the good fortune of being in a college town – but most of the time it about discovering the sales leakage and pent up customer demand for products and services and finding ways to plug the leak and meet the demand. These aren’t magical economic circumstances; they are results of market analysis. We can’t buy socks on most Main Streets anymore. But, let Walmart sell those. Main Street is better off being a home for unique independent restaurants and shops, where attention is placed on providing an experience and personalized customer service.

Here are just two quick success stories of successful Main Street districts that aren’t tourism destinations and aren’t wealthy bedroom communities of larger cities.

Artsy, quirky cool Old Town Lansing, Mich

• The local Main Street program in Old Town Lansing, Michigan, began in 1996 amidst crime, grime, and a 90% vacancy rate. The changes from applying the Main Street approach are dramatic – 13 businesses open during the recession and today there is an 11% vacancy rate and the district saw $55,800 in public investment and $6,231,531 in private investment. Entrepreneurs and artists made a commitment to the community and led with arts-related development. Artist-created public art and street furniture, arts-related businesses and galleries, and arts-oriented events brought people back.

Before & after of the "Pink Palace" a community-led rehab

• Jacksonville, Illinois, is a small town with a population of 19,466. When its Main Street program started in 1999, the commercial vacancy rate was 27%. Today it is 6%. Urban Renewal decimated the downtown and shattered the spirit of the local people. But the people persevered despite all odds – little support at the start of implementing the Main Street Approach, high crime rate, and no economic bullet. $17 million in private reinvestment and $7 million in public improvements later – their Main Street is thriving. The Main Street program spearheaded rehab of a historic home that had became a haven for drug users and transients at the district’s gateway. People volunteered their time and resources - the bank donated the money that would have been used for demolition, trade school teachers taught students how to perform tuck pointing and other skills, and prison laborers help get the job done. Once complete, the home was sold for $20,000 more than what real estate experts said it could and the day-to-night change in appearance sparked $85,000 in investment in nearby homes.

A blog entitled “Are Main Streets a Thing of the Past? Is that Ok?” has already decided that they are relics. But Main Street towns are still here – they were built with pride and built to last. Keeping them going is the highest level of recycling and realizes the goals of smart growth. Reviving an economy isn’t easy; big box stores and e-commerce are challenges, and, hell, financing rehabs and mixed-use projects today is tough. But it is being done – so, please, let us talk about that. People aren’t saving Main Streets because of idealized visions of Mayberry. They save them because they are great places to live, visit, and work and with strategic economic development efforts and the support of the community, they will always have a future.

Culpeper, Va., community members celebrating a new public art installation done by a local artist

Learn about Real Estate: Don't Become the Butt of Preservation Jokes

Beautiful downtown Lynchburg, Va.

Have you heard this one? An owner of a historic building walks into a bank…

You know the punch line – the lender says, “no.” There are many reasons why a preservation project might not move forward. Some of the reasons might have to do with the market, some may have to do with the business plan, some might have to do with the lender, others might have to do with Mercury in retrograde.

I’ve been learning a lot about financing rehabilitation projects lately. I’ve learned lenders can be a bit linear, too often showing preference single-use projects because they don’t “get” mixed-use or they will only fund the residential portion of the project. But my biggest lesson overall is that the bottom line when when dealing with financiers is that they always like to see signed tenants for your project. Before you even lift a hammer, signed leases from business owners or residents light up a banker’s eyes.

In the beautiful riverside town of Lynchburg, Va., the owner of a turn-of-the-century shoe factory was trying to fuel the momentum of the downtown revitalization by bringing a gorgeous rehab project to the table with a couple of businesses of which he was going to be the owner and manager. He approached lenders and tax credit investors for more than a year with his project that he pitched as a hotel, two restaurants, and a microbrewery. It seemed like a great project and it had the complete support of the city – the municipality even provided land for a parking lot and property tax abatement incentives.

Giant shoe paying homage to the building's heritage.

The developer finally sought help from Tetrault & Associations. (Full disclosure: Al Tetrault was a professor of mine and the first person who made real estate and tax credits make sense for me.) The team had an “Ah-ha!” moment and suggested that the project be repackaged to tax credit syndicators and lenders as a real estate deal – not as a series of businesses including a hotel, restaurants, and microbrewery. The owner of this 55,875 square-foot diamond-in-the-rough pitched his project as a rehabilitation of two historic warehouses that was pre-leased with four businesses. Even though he was still the owner of the businesses, he hired four managers for each business and pitched his project as a real estate deal.

It worked. This real estate deal raised almost $17,000,000 in debt and equity in less than 90 days. The $21-million project also took advantage of federal preservation tax credits, new market tax credits, a HUD 108 loan, and $3 million from local private investors.

No joke.

Street Trees

Trees lining Main Street districts provide an inviting atmosphere for pedestrians, provide shade, add character, clean the air, and nest twinkly lights during events and holidays. According to Dan Burden, "a planting cost of $250-600 (includes first 3 years of maintenance) a single street tree returns over $90,000 of direct benefits (not including aesthetic, social and natural) in the lifetime of the tree."*

Can you believe there are street tree adversaries? Some business owners fear the tree canopy will block their facades, causing them to lose customers, or perceive falling leaves as messy or a potential slipping hazard. (Honestly, anyone who blames a tree for a business failure has problems that run deeper than vegetation.)

But, the positives prevail! Plenty of studies show that street trees have economic benefits, slow traffic, encourage people to spend money, reduce crime, enhance driver safety, raise home prices, have health benefits, and make positive first impressions among visitors/customers.

Your planning department as well as local arborists and horticulturalists can be a huge help in selecting the right street trees; and the latter can talk about proper care, appropriate grates, and maintenance. Design professionals or SketchUp whizzes can create design schemes so you can visualize how a certain tree species will look on your street. Your favorite Main Street community can help show how the right kind of tree can make the district look awfully attractive and not block the facades. My favorite example of street trees done well is in Lewisburg, Penn. The photos in this blog showcase how the height and spacing of the right tree can accentuate, not detract from facades and store signage.


* If you need quantified data on the benefits of street trees, Burden's 22 Benefits of Urban Street Trees is truly your best source. 

** And, Leda Marritz just blogged for Next City about how to help keep our urban trees healthy. Why is that important? She points out that the USDA Forest Service recently determined that U.S. cities are losing around 4 million trees annually!  

Life is like a Yearbook: What are your downtown superlatives?

I really like the idea of selling your commercial district with specifics. You know your community inside and out. But everyone else does not. You can tell people that Main Street Wherever is a "great place to live, work, and play," but what does that really mean? It means nothing. It doesn't motivate anyone to act. They need details and you have to paint the picture for them.

The Downtown Frederick Partnership (Md.) worked with Frederick Tourism to put a nice ad in the Washington Post magazine promoting holiday shopping in downtown Frederick. Most of the readership is probably within an hour drive. It called out five items for sale and where you can get them downtown, with three food options (two restaurants and one bakery), and one salon. (I might advise against promoting service businesses when doing your regional ad only because you'll get more bank for your buck telling people in December how you will meet their holiday shopping needs. They probably already get their haircut at the salon down the street.) The ad tells the reader: we have 150+ shops and 45+ restaurants, so you can have a great day enjoying our town while crossing some names off the shopping list.

What are the really cool things that people can buy in your district - does anyone sell hard to find items handmade/one-of-a-kind stuff? What is the most outrageous dessert in your town? Does your coffee shop have a cool latte flavor? Best sandwich? Sit down with some friends, volunteers, colleagues, and think of a few superlatives for your local business. Pretend like you need superlatives for a downtown yearbook. Think about what really sets your town apart and think in specifics.

With those specifics in hand, sell it. Sell the idea that your district is a "great place to live, work, and play," or in this case, eat, drink, shop, and play.

This can help capture the attention of people living near downtown for years but who never walked over to see how things have changed. It also works to attract regional visitors. If you tell me, a prospective visitor, five cool specifics that appeal to me, I immediately have five reasons to make the trip to your district.

You can do this through an ad with a regional newspaper or tailor your list to meet the needs of target groups (for example, parents looking for children-oriented outings) and look for bloggers and writers who might be interested in this information. Using this information for your enewsletter and social media is nice, but it is preaching to the choir and going to lead to converting new customers.

Cross Promotion in Main Street Districts

To break up a 12-hour drive back from Nashville last week, instead of hitting the fast food joints at a crummy rest stop, we stopped for dinner at The Bistro on Main in historic Lexington, Virginia. (This isn't a food blog, but the food is worth mentioning. We started with a baked brie appetizer that had a delicious Asian pear compote and all three of us were immensely pleased with our entree selections, which included a flavorful meatloaf, tasty rigatoni, and a fresh arugula and beet salad. I was particularly pleased to see that it had a great beer list, with several of the options coming from local mircrobreweries like Lone Wolf and Star Hill.)

The real reason for this post is to talk about the bathroom.

Seriously.

They created a great opportunity to showcase another business in the downtown. Next to the sink was a bottle of aromatherapy hand soap and companion hand lotion made by another shop in the Main Street district. They also had an aromatherapy infuser instead of those awful Glade air fresheners. Above these products was a little sign posted on the mirror talking about the business that makes these items and where to find them downtown (and on Facebook and Twitter). I didn't ask if they worked out a deal where the shop supplied the toiletry items for free or at a discount in exchange for posting a sign about the business. It is possible that out of the goodness of restauranteur's heart that she buys the items and posts the sign, as well. Regardless, it is a great example of cross promoting businesses in the downtown, and is something that can, and should, be repeated in Main Street districts everywhere.

Oh, and the other thing that really got me, too, was the inclusion of a framed photo that shows the condition of the place before its rehab (parts of the ceiling and wall had fallen down and come to rest on the booths). Clearly, this was a labor of love. You can tell how much someone loved this building, seeing beyond its state of disrepair and envisioning what it could become. It is a small detail that helps tell the story of the community. Another thing worth doing in Main Street districts everywhere.