TOWN MAKERS USE “GENTLEFICATION”

Mixed Use Community Empowerment

May 21, 2024

Written by Monte Anderson, Mike Keen, and Christopher Duncan

Project Background

Beckley Commons is an innovative, pioneering, and replicable example of urban restoration completed and occupied in 2020 during covid by Monte Anderson and his team at Options Real Estate in Southern Dallas County in Texas. The project is an adaptive reuse of an abandoned and dilapidated 16,870 square foot, 2-story former alternative high school in one of South Dallas’s most densely populated and poorest neighborhoods. Built in 1960, it consists of hallways and classrooms, with a brick façade, sloped roof, and large windows typical of school buildings.

The purpose of the project is to show how incremental developers can make money in historically redlined, underserved, low-income areas by offering local entrepreneurs attractive, high-quality, mixed-use commercial spaces in their own neighborhood. The goal was to accomplish this by activating an existing and underutilized space and transform it into a collaborative village where they can afford to locate and grow their businesses, support their families, and create wealth in their own neighborhood through development without displacement.

The project is in the 75216 Zip Code of South Oak Cliff in Dallas, Texas, a mostly minority neighborhood with a median income of less than $28,000. Physically it has large tree lined residential streets with a few main crossroads, such as Beckley Street on which the Commons is located. Given the median income, the houses are of various levels of maintenance and appearance. Many are rentals owned by absentee landlords. The immediate area is a food desert. Prior to Beckley Commons there was little local commercial activity of any sort. It could not be more different from the nearby, recently gentrified 75208 Zip Code with its Bishop Arts District and a $63,000+ median household income.

Design & Renovation

The Commons was initiated in 2018, when the opportunity arose to purchase the property at a reasonable price. The key challenge was to bring the project onto the market within a budget and at a rental rate that local entrepreneurs could afford. This required using a proforma based design for the renovation, beginning with the end in mind. What rents could local entrepreneurs afford? It was determined to be an average of $750/mo. The developer needed $25 per square foot per year to make the numbers work. $750 X 12 months = $9,000 per year divided by $25 per square foot = 360 rentable square foot per suite. With this information, we determined the average size of a unit must be 360 square feet.

To accomplish this, we divided the building into thirty-two tenant spaces ranging from 176-959 Usable Square Feet, put storefront doors into the ground floor classrooms creating retail spaces and added an attractive outdoor seating area. Key to staying on budget was to make use of as much of the existing building as possible and avoid any major architectural or structural changes. The open hallway/classroom structure with its existing bathrooms on both floors allowed for this.

Contrary to expectations, this strategy does not mean skimping on quality, i.e., vinyl siding, flimsy windows, minimal insulation, hollow core doors, cheap toilets and sinks, or fixtures. Just the opposite! Anything a tenant or customer touches must be solid and resilient. Energy efficiency is maximized. Such practices reduce operating and maintenance costs and maximize user satisfaction.

Approach & Impact

Another secret to making the project work is for the incremental developer to be both the GC, and then the property manager. And as property manager, even though it is a commercial space, to adopt more of an apartment management mentality, i.e., many tenants, smaller units, smaller rents, shorter leases, and no fancy build outs. Vanilla boxes with a sink and water for each unit. This allows for quicker and less expensive turnover when a tenant moves on.

Common areas now. Courtesy of CoStar Group, Inc.

Hallway area now. Courtesy of CoStar Group, Inc.

This synergistic attention to right-sized, end-in-mind design, quality, and management has paid off. The total cost of the project was $2,250,000. Since 2022, Beckley Commons has been fully occupied. The current value of the property today is $3,000,000. Revitalizing the neighborhood and proofing this concept has been just as important as the return on investment to the developer. Worthy of commendation is how the project combines an end-in-mind proforma based design strategy with an apartment portfolio property management mentality. Most commercial property developers look for projects with large spaces with higher rents, and fewer tenants with less property management demands. As a result, they are unable to engage in this kind of urban restoration in underserved neighborhoods without significant subsidy. Since this intentional incremental development approach enables such urban restoration without subsidy, it is replicable in similar neighborhoods in cities across the country. Also commendable is how it puts neighborhood context and residents needs and desires for all too often absent services first. The result was win-win-win! The private developer makes money. The entrepreneurs can afford to lease a quality space and conduct their businesses in their own place. The municipality gets greater use of existing infrastructure and an increase in tax revenues. This is what we call “gentlefication”.

From initial vision to design strategy, through construction and restoration, to occupancy and operations, Beckley Commons is the embodiment of most of the principles described by the Congress for the New Urbanism, Strong Towns & Incremental Development practices.

For example, regarding The region: Metropolis, city, and town, as an infill development it respects the existing boundaries and centers of south Dallas region. As a renovation in a formerly redlined and still underserved area, “…it conserves environmental resources, economic investment, and social fabric, while reclaiming marginal and abandoned areas.” As an adaptive reuse, it respects “…historical patterns, precedents, and boundaries.” As a commercial mixed-use space with affordable unit sizes, it helps bring into proximity, “a broad spectrum of public and private uses to support a regional economy that benefits people of all incomes.”

Regarding The neighborhood, the district, and the corridor: Beckley Commons is in a compact existing neighborhood along the Beckley Street corridor that forms an identifiable area “…that encourages citizens to take responsibility for their maintenance and evolution.” With space for thirty-two tenants, it allows for many of the activities of daily living, i.e., eating, barber/beautician/nails, to “…occur within walking distance, allowing independence to those who do not drive, especially the elderly and the young.” It is also located right next to a bus stop on the Beckley Street transit corridor, reflecting the assertion that “…Appropriate building densities and land uses should be within walking distance of transit stops, permitting public transit to become a viable alternative to the automobile.” This is especially important in lower income neighborhoods where many households cannot afford the estimated $7-10,000/year required to own an automobile. Finally, with thirty-two businesses located in one compact facility, it exhibits how “…commercial activity should be embedded in neighborhoods and districts, not isolated in remote single-use complexes.”

With respect to The block, the street, and the building, the location of the building along the street with room for some parallel parking, and an open off-street parking area with a welcoming partially shaded patio with public seating fulfills, “The primary tasks of all urban architecture and landscape design in the physical definition of streets and public spaces as places of shared use.” At the same time this also allows the building to “…adequately accommodate the automobile…in ways that respect the pedestrian and the forms of public space.” The preservation of the windows that are open to the street, and the addition of a covered walkway with the additional doors cut into the first floor for greater access and visibility in and out allow for ‘eyes on the street’ that contribute to greater safety, and the ability to see activity in the space which adds interest. This contributes to, “Streets and squares should be safe, comfortable, and interesting to the pedestrian. Properly configured, they encourage walking and enable neighbors to know each other and protect their communities.” Finally, the renewal of the once abandoned school building and its rebirth as Beckley Commons helps to “…affirm the continuity and evolutions of urban society.”

In addition to the principles of new urbanism, Beckley Commons reflects the cannons of new urbanism and sustainability. It is a triple-bottom-line project that is ecologically friendly, socially inclusive, and economically sound. No building is more ecologically sound than one that is reused, saving the embodied energy in the existing structure, and minimizing waste going to the landfill. Located in a walkable neighborhood and next to a bus stop it also reduces the need for automobile use. Both reduce its carbon footprint and contributions to climate change. With its affordable rents, it allows a diversity of neighborhood entrepreneurs to lease space for their businesses that they otherwise could not afford. And, it makes money for the developer, enables its tenants to make money, and contributes to the municipal tax receipts.

Lessons Learned

What specific metrics and outcomes from Beckley Commons can demonstrate the success of gentlefication (e.g., business growth, community feedback, economic impact)? Spaces lease quickly, indicating a good market for the spaces, the spaces lease at a high $/SF for the immediate area, but are more comparable to the market as a whole, the storefronts keep affordability high and quality high by rightsizing them to the location

While all of this might seem a bit overwhelming, this is exactly the power of replicable, incremental, urban restoration.

The major lesson learned through Beckley Commons and others similar is that urban restoration is best done by locals in their own neighborhoods using the techniques of incremental development. It requires a love of place and an inseparable desire to make money at the same time you are making a difference. This is not something outsiders can do for you, nor would you want them to. It is also not new. This is how our forefathers and foremothers originally built their neighborhoods, their businesses, their communities, and their prosperity in every city, town, and village of America.

Replicable Model

We now need to relearn these lost skills and restore our urban neighborhoods in a way that is intentionally inclusive and sustainable. The techniques of incremental development can be outlined in the 12-Steps to Town Making by Neighborhood Evolution (www.neighborhoodevolution.com), a program that anyone can replicate if they have the hustle, heart, and humor to stick with it day in and day out. It is a road to recovery of our lost urban forms and from the suburbanization of America.

These steps are:

1. Find Your Place

2. Get to Know Your Neighbors

3. Follow the Money

4. Hire the Pros Where it Matters

5. Find a Small Enough Project to Begin With

6. Clean, Clean, Clean

7. Create Your Crew

8. Design and Build with the End in Mind

9. Identify the Cost vs. Risks of Different Ways to Build

10. Activate the Space

11. Succeed Through Good Management

12. Share With Others

Incremental development is not something you can learn by reading a book or taking a course. It is not something you can do on your own. It takes an ecosystem. You can only learn by doing it one step at a time. Incrementally developing your place, yourself, and your ecosystem. As you do so, you will grow, your momentum will grow, your place will improve, and your ecosystem will develop. You will become attractive to money and others will wish to join and support your efforts. You will make money, you will make a difference, and you will help others to learn how to restore our urban places.

12 Steps to “Gentlefication” at Beckley Commons