The Never Ending Empty 1st Floor Commercial Space

For the past several years, the Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce has advocated for policies and solutions designed to harness the potential of existing vacant commercial property in Bloomington. In 2021, the Chamber partnered with MPA students from IU's O'Neill School for a capstone project to analyze revitalization efforts in other cities and to provide recommendations for both the Chamber and the City to consider going forward. That report can be found here.

Written just as the pandemic was beginning to wane and the world was returning to some sense of normalcy, this report provided a number of recommendations to help Bloomington bounce back from the difficulties of the pandemic. Nearly three years later, many of these recommendations still ring true. Time has also given us the opportunity to analyze new proposals, analyze data on established proposals, and determine which proposals have risen to the top as "best practices". Below are some proposals designed to activate vacant properties that have caught our eye and could be a basis for further consideration going forward.

• Temporary Activation Strategies
  • Create regulatory flexibility for pop-up uses through temporary use permits
    • ​Austin, TX created a Pop-Up Retail Ordinance in 2011 (25-1-364) that allows for the issuance of temporary Certificates of Occupancy. Occupants must comply with underlying zoning regulations. Permits can be issued for up to 45 days and renewed once for a maximum of 90 days
• ​Covington, KY's "Vacant Property Incentive"
  • ​Developers who turn vacant, historic buildings into move-in commercial space would be reimbursed a portion of payroll taxes created by future tenants
    • ​Wouldn't kick in until tenants are moved in an operating, creating an incentive for developers to ensure properties are occupied
      • ​This program could be narrowly re-tooled to target first-floor vacant spaces
• ​California's AB 68
  • Permits accessory dwelling units (ADUs) within existing multifamily residential structures
    • Could be used to convert vacant retail space already within multifamily residential structures into ADUs

An interesting proposal could also see the creation of a Makers Collective. This proposal would bring a food hall setup to non-culinary uses. This would allow smaller startups to gain traction in the local community while operating in a low-cost system. Under this system, a master tenant or building management company can lease a large space & subdivide it into smaller units. Given Bloomington's unique profile as a university town with a fantastic business school and strong research capabilities, this Makers Collective model could also be re-tooled into a grant-supported start-up program in coordination with IU Ventures or the Bloomington Urban Enterprise Association. A great model for this is Berlin Technical University's EINS start-up space.

Whether proposed as part of the O'Neill capstone project or showcased as examples in this post, it is clear that there are a lot of ways that the vacant first-floor commercial space in Bloomington can be reactivated to help boost and diversify our city's economy. It's now up to city administrators and business leaders to find a model that best fits for Bloomington and to bring it forward.

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