The Journey Begins

Welcome to the bright, shiny, new Revival Design blog, a place to share inspiring stories, actionable ideas, and expert tips on small town revitalization.

Let's start with the obvious-- rural development is not for the faint of heart. Projects are oftentimes a mashup of a shoestring budget, short-staffed building code officials, skittish lenders, and inexperienced design and construction professionals. Throw in the occasional squatter, piles of dead pigeons in the attic, a caved-in roof, and what looks like a fuzzy science experiment in the basement, and you can easily understand why so many investors opt to throw their money in the stock market instead of saving those crusty old downtown buildings.

'Before' of Advanced Insurance Group in downtown Delphos, Ohio. Nearly every window had been infilled over the years. There is a gorgeous, mostly original Masonic Temple hiding up on the second floor. The insurance agency occupies the first floor.

The good news is everyone involved can band together to capitalize on their unique perspectives, energy, and enthusiasm to breathe new life into underutilized/vacant/abandoned/derelict properties, creating real, lasting, transformative vibrancy for our small towns-- and can be an incredible wealth-building tool for local investors. Win-win, right?

'During' of Advanced Insurance Group in downtown Delphos, Ohio. The windows have been reintroduced, bringing much-needed natural light back into the spaces. Since the original facade had been painted white years ago and removing it would have greatly damaged the historic brick, AIG opted to repaint with a new color palette. More progress to come!

What's to come

As much as I wish I could, I cannot save every old building, or work with every client, or be in a million places at once...but I can share my knowledge and the experiences of Revival's development partners to help inspire and educate those brave enough to wrap their arms around their local underdog properties and craft experiences our families, friends, and future generations to enjoy.

My hope is that this blog will continue to build upon Revival's community of go-getters, local leaders, design and construction professionals, and revitalization cheerleaders. The goal of each post will be to share an unfiltered (good/bad/ugly/manic/rewarding) story and serve as a valuable guide to those passionate about adaptive use, historic building renovations, rural housing development, and community revitalization.

Dozens of folks banded together to make this major building renovation and streetscape project a success in downtown Lima, Ohio. Spring & Main is now home to three restaurant concepts, a duckpin bowling lounge and arcade, a corporate office suite, and multiple street level and rooftop patios.

Here are a few of the things I have planned:

• Real-world project examples with honest feedback from the developers on what worked and what could have worked better.

• Funding sources. How to stack grants, low-interest loans, tax credits, conventional loans, private investment, etc. to make the numbers work.

• How to select your design and construction team.

• Common "gotchas" that can slow down (or kill) a project.

• Tenant recruitment and retainment-- how to craft a win-win relationship.

• Signage, branding, and storefront design.

• Challenges and opportunities by project type (restaurants, event spaces, workplace, upper floor residential, etc.).

• Community identity.

• My go-to product vendors.

• Small town champion spotlights.

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Your voice matters! Let's cultivate this conversation together by commenting on this post with specific topic requests. I want to help in any way I can.

Until next time, let’s keep our small towns alive and thriving!