Imagine walking down the street and seeing an urban neighborhood that is lying dormant with empty buildings, neglected sidewalks, vacant lots, etc. You may be able to envision the area revitalized, especially if its location would allow for convenient access to many things around town. Even if you are not a trained urban design architect, you can still apply common sense and creative thinking to get some kind of a vision in your mind’s eye.

If you were to take this further and conduct a thought experiment with regard to the steps that you would take to revitalize this area that is wrought with potential, you may not get far. There are so many different things to consider the task would naturally seem overwhelming. When it comes to the basic logistics, there will be zoning issues to deal with, and there can be neighborhood associations nearby that have the ability to weigh in when a new project is being proposed.

How do you negotiate this maze of red tape? In addition to this, how about the financing? It may be a genuinely good idea, and you may be aware of the fact that there are government funding programs, tax credits, and private sources of funding out there. But who exactly are they, where are they, and what is the correct way to approach them?

Even if you had all the above in place, what next? You probably have no idea where to find the appropriate design professionals that can help you address the next stage of the process. Of course, if your project is going to involve commercial space rentals, you have to think about management and anchor tenants. Construction professionals will need to be identified and coordinated as well, and there are insurance issues to deal with when you get to this point.

As you can see, if you think about doing all of this on your own, it is truly overwhelming. However, here is the good news: The urban design architects at ReTown know exactly how to handle each and every step of the process that we have been looking at here, and we have partners in place that are experts in all of these respective fields. If you ever find yourself with a “big idea,” give us a call at 708-442-4545 and we will take it to the next level.