Developer sets benchmark for change in Milwaukee

When the founders of North Avenue Community Development Corporation in Milwaukee wanted to see change in their economically-challenged North Avenue neighborhood, they realized it was up to them to solve it entrepreneurially and build the change they wanted to see.

Thus, they developed the $4.8 million Toussaint Square, a new three-story building integreted with a renovated mixed-use building providing 24 affordable homes to retain local

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Urban Splash - hard to imagine a cooler developer

The cities in northwest England, namely Liverpool and Manchester, weren’t transitioning very gracefully from the industrial era. Enter Tom Bloxham, founder of the wildly progressive development company, Urban Splash in 1993, who all but single-handedly invented loft living in those cities. The unique story of how Urban Splash came to be, however, is a pretty typical one for the kind of in-demand developer he is today… he had no initial

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An interview with the Syracuse artist/musician developer

An interview with Rick Destito, the young, progressive developer of the artist/musician building profiled yesterday…

Why are you dedicating this building to artists and musician tenants?
“In my travels around the country, over and over again the most vibrant, exciting, and interesting places I have been were consumed with arts and music. It’s that feeling of creativity and ideas, that energy that comes from it all. It’s something we

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Clipper Mill - From industrial mill to contemporary village

What to do with an abandoned mill founded in 1853 that used to employ thousands to manufacture sails for clipper ships?  Why, turns out it may provide the framework for what looks to be the most compelling, one-of-a-kind, modern new urban villages in Baltimore, MD.

Clipper Mill will feature 168 residences, 46,500 s.f. of office space, and 51,000 s.f. of creative light industry and studio space, as well as dining, grocery and

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Lofty new neighborhood rises in Oakland

If you’re an entrepreneur, artist and/or associated with the creative class in the SF Bay Area, you may want to check out the neighborhood surrounding the Jack London Square waterfront.  The area has already attracted a number of architects, consultants and media-related firms.

Oakland’s Mayor Jerry Brown and former presidential candidate was a pioneer in helping transform what was a dormant, underutilized industrial district (much of it centered

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Not a surprising headline yesterday coming from the NY Times, unless… the story is about a project in Los Angeles! 

That’s right, Pasadena is getting a 347-apartment transit-oriented development, bisected by and situated above L.A.‘s light rail line.  The award-winning new neighborhood, Del Mar Station.  It makes sense, since studies show U.S. ‘households in transit zones own an average of 0.9 cars, compared with 1.6 cars for metropolitan regions’ and ‘California state residents living near

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Roanoke plans for an extraordinary pedestrian street

The timing is right for pedestrian streets.  While just a vision for now, this could become a built reality if Roanoke, Virginia’s leaders have their way…

“It’s stunningly cool,“ said Ford Kemper, a lawyer and board member of Downtown Roanoke Inc., a tax-supported entity that oversees the city’s historic center.

Regarding the proposals… “They’re right on.  They’re revolutionary, they’re bright, they’re fresh... They could completely

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‘Upper Rock District’ finally gets the green light

It shows you have to be patient to be progressive.  A year and three months since we first introduced you to Upper Rock District, a proposed ‘CoolTown’ in Rockville, MD, it received formal city approval to be built.  More here.

Municipalities take note, not many developers are this patient, and serious institutional investors (like this one) will not wait more than six months, and certainly not fifteen.  Even then, the developers did not

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Much of the plan for San Francisco’s Treasure Island, a 403-acre man-made former military base below the Bay Bridge, is already laid out.  However, what if the progressive idea of the beta community; future residents and tenants visioning their own neighborhood into reality in partnership with developers and investors, was in full motion today?

We’d perhaps get the proposal for Treasure Island similar to that of urban design students at UC Berkeley’s College of Environmental Design - 20,000

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A CoolTown block in Ohio (Part 2)

Continuing Ben Ezinga’s story from yesterday:

“It’s a sustainably-designed mixed-use building with some great retail and restaurants lined up for the first floor, and 49 mixed-income condos and apartments for rent, a mixture of live/work and loft-style.

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A CoolTown block in Ohio (Part 1)

The following is a story from an emerging progressive developer in Ohio, Ben Ezinga.  We need a lot more people like him…

“My name is Ben Ezinga.

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Wayne State University announces CoolTown plans

Wayne State University press release:

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CoolTowns get green light in Georgia and Detroit!

It’s slowly starting to happen - people are gradually getting the opportunity to take part in shaping the kinds of communities they really want to live in.

The small town of LaGrange just signed an agreement with a private sector group, along with a to-be-established CoolTown pre-tenant community to build CoolTown neighborhoods on strategic sites in the city.

Meanwhile, Wayne State University (first mentioned here) has selected The Town

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Charrette result: Upper Rock District

Here’s the result of the ‘entrepreneurial village’ charrette being covered since the beginning of this week (scroll down to blog entries below): The new Upper Rock District.

The highlight of the proposed project is a two-story entrepreneurial marketplace designed for the utmost in affordability (buildings on right side of leftmost image).  Simple in design with an open floor plan to save costs, and positioned as a cultural amenity by the developer to

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“Intelligent City of the Year 2000” by the World Teleport Association.  The first City in the world to offer free internet access to all its connected residents. Home to more Fortune 500 companies per capita than any other city its size. America’s Greatest Little City? 

Yesterday I met with the city government’s leaders (along with the founder of The Kentlands Initiative), and found them unlike any I’ve ever met.  They not only understood the CoolTown vision,

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