I know that I sound like a broken record: The importance of planning in government | property development in Portland, Bilbao, Liverpool, Salt Lake, Washington, DC

Some cities plan.  Some cities release RFPs.  Others do "stuff."

When Obama got elected, and seemingly was interested in focusing on urban issues, I thought about the Pasteur quote: Chance Favors the Prepared Mind.

What I took it to mean was that if you are prepared (with plans) you can pounce on opportunity.  

The difference with a plan is you come up with a vision, ideally with creativity and positive public input.  An RFP asks others to come up with a vision, which may or not be a good fit.  

A good example is with Kennedy School in Portland.  The community came up with a some ideas for what they'd accept.  What they got was a great bed and breakfast, music venue and brew pub, by the McMenamin Group ("Fall Asleep in Class at Portland, Oregon’s Kennedy School," NTHP).  

Sketch by Marlena Wyman.

Not an terrible outcome, but a similar Catholic facility deaccessioned in the Brookland neighborhood became a charter school.  When being located one block from the district's Main Street, 12th Street, it could have become a broader destination.

Later I codified this point as a part of best practice revitalization planning and in my concept of Transformational Projects Action Planning.  

-- "Updating the best practice elements of revitalization to include elements 7 and 8 | Transformational Projects Action Planning at a large scale"  (2022)  [this entry has other related links to other examples and iterations of the development of the TPAS concept]
-- "Why can't the "Bilbao Effect" be reproduced? | Bilbao as an example of Transformational Projects Action Planning" (2017)

Not only was Bilbao quick to act to land the Guggenheim Museum, they realized after it opened, that despite being close to the city's subway, they needed better surface transit to link various attractions, and added a tram within 4 years of the museum's opening.  The system continues to be expanded.  

It took DC 13 years to open its streetcar, and because the system never expanded (and because DC's elected officials were indifferent) the service will close this year, after a ten year run.

A couple examples are how, having a city revitalization plan in place, with an implementation organization and financing, Bilbao jumped on the decision of Graz, Austria to not host a Guggenheim Museum, and ended up with the Gehry designed international attraction instead, thereby rebranding and positioning the city as an international destination.

Liverpool's 2001 plan called for the city to be designated an EU Capital of Culture, when at the time in the current cycle, the UK wasn't even on the list as a participating country ("Liverpool regeneration as a process for regaining relevance at the regional, national, and global scales").  

A statue of the Beatles.

By the time UK was selected, Liverpool had at least four years of planning when other cities had none, so Liverpool was best positioned to be picked, and it was ("Almost two decades on, this vibrant UK city is still a ‘Capital of Culture’," Metro, "Liverpool event strategies," Spirit of 2012). 

Although there are differing viewpoints ("Liverpool’s European Capital of Culture legacy narrative: a selective heritage?," European Planning Studies, "The 'Liverpool model(s)': cultural planning, Liverpool and Capital of Culture 2008," International Journal of Cultural Policy, "‘Capital of Culture—you must be having a laugh!’ Challenging the official rhetoric of Liverpool as the 2008 European cultural capital," Social & Cultural Geography) which is true for Bilbao too.

Or, sometimes it's scenario planning wrt to potential for austerity and acts by other governments impacting local governments.  

-- "Contingency planning in parks planning: Montgomery County Maryland edition," 2013
-- "Federal shutdown as another example of why local jurisdictions should have more robust contingency and master planning processes," 2013

Sugar House Park, Salt Lake City.  I mention I'm on the board of a park.  While it's jointly owned by the city and county for reasons of history, it's underresourced.  We don't have the money to do a full blown plan.  We do have a planning framework from 2008, but there are many gaps.

As I outlined in 2024 in a series on gaps in park master planning  I try to use objective frameworks for decision making in that context.

-- "Gaps in Parks Master Planning: Part One | Levels of Service"

-- "Gaps in Parks Master Planning: Part Two | Utilizing Academic Research as Guidance"
-- "Gaps in Parks Master Planning: Part Three | Planning for Climate Change/Environment"
-- "Gaps in Parks Master Planning: Part Four | Planning for Seasonality and Activation"
-- "Gaps in Parks Master Planning: Part Five | Planning for Public Art as an element of park facilities"
-- "Gaps in Parks Master Planning, Part Six | Art(s) in the Park(s) as a comprehensive program"
-- "Gaps in Parks Master Planning: Part Seven | Park Architectural (and Landscape Design) History" 
-- "Gaps in Parks Master Planning: Part Eight | Civic Engagement"
-- "Gaps in Parks Master Planning: Part Nine | Second stage planning for parks using the cultural landscape framework" 

-- "Gaps in Parks Master Planning: Part Ten | Park transportational access (2025) 

This is the last month of my first term--4 years.  And we were talking about it in a meeting.  I mentioned my biggest learning is that so much of our agenda is externally driven.  Anyway, we have lots of projects to pursue, some quite major, and we need to have formal plans to move forward.  

A rendering of a proposed 89-foot, seven-story hotel on the corner of 2100 South and 1300 East next to Sugar House Park. A plan to rezone the lot received support from the Salt Lake City Planning Commission.

On a really big issue ("Plan to build a 7-story hotel next to Sugar House Park gets key endorsement,"  "New Utah law could address remaining issue in proposed hotel next to Sugar House Park,"KSL ) where the board is split, me and another person have created a great vision plan for an alternative to the site--hopefully the lessee will entertain it, especially if the hotel project isn't approved.  

(The final decision will be made by the City Council over the next couple months.  I'm in the "no" camp as it punctures forever the perimeter of the park, and no major urban public park in the US has a similar commercial puncture within the park.)

But that's just a vision, it would need detailed planning and design to move forward.   

And we have up to three other projects requiring a similar process of vision plan + detailed plan.  Not to mention a bunch of other projects.  I liken us to beggars, doing a form of barter to get what we want when working with other entities.  And the amount of time I spent on the vision is considerable, and came out as fast as it did only because of prior knowledge.  The other plans will require more research.

Photo: Joanne Lawton, WBJ.

Washington DC.  The Washington Business Journal reports that Ward 3 Council Representative Matt Frumin wants the city to buy a building in foreclosure, 4000 Connecticut Avenue NW.  It's huge. ("Frumin rallies District to snag former Whittle School building as foreclosure auction looms").  From the article:

A D.C. councilmember is renewing his push for the District to acquire the leasehold interest in a high-profile Northwest D.C. mixed-use building that’s scheduled to be sold at a foreclosure auction next month.

In an interview Tuesday, Councilmember Matt Frumin, D-Ward 3, described the 666,202-square-foot 4000 Connecticut Ave. NW — formerly home to Intelsat’s headquarters, then the Whittle School & Studios — as an “amazing location” that he expects will be sold for “far lower” than it would have a few years back when he unsuccessfully rallied the District to acquire the property for use as a vast civic center.

“How could we leverage this building at a key site to the benefit of the city?” Frumin said. “There's lots of possibilities, and if it could be gotten for a very attractive price, I hope the city will think about it.”

The leasehold interest in 4000 Connecticut — the State Department owns the land under the building — is scheduled to be sold at an April 8 foreclosure auction at Alex Cooper Auctioneers D.C. office. Affiliates of New York-based investment firm 601W Cos. and commercial real estate developer Berkley Properties co-own the leasehold interest and owe $132.2 million on the note held by an affiliate of Jericho, New York-based Winthrop Capital Partners, according to a foreclosure notice filed Monday with D.C.'s Recorder of Deeds.

It's an interesting idea.  BUT 

• THE CITY HAS A POOR TRACK WITH PROPERTY MANAGEMENT (e.g., Eastern Market, "Eastern Market DC's 150th anniversary last weekend | And my unrealized master plan for the market")
• THE BUILDING IS F* EXPENSIVE
• ON EQUITY GROUNDS, PEOPLE OUGHT TO ASK QUESTIONS ABOUT SUCH A BIG INVESTMENT IN THE CITY'S WEALTHIEST WARD
• THERE IS NO PLAN.

Plus, usually with white elephant projects like this (and note the property is proximate to the University of the District of Columbia), the cost of the building is minimal, and an arts use gets developed like Cabelfactory in a former Nokia manufacturing plant in Helsinki, La Friche in Marseille (Design Handbook for Cultural Centres, Trans-Europe Halles), or smaller projects in the US, like GoggleWorks in Reading, Pennsylvania ("GoggleWorks finances go back to black," Reading Eagle, "Next phases of GoggleWorks development include apartments, educational space," WFMZ-TV).

Since "the arts and culture don't make a profit" it's best to start with low cost buildings ("Arlington's Artisphere, cultural planning and Arlington's identity").  And Artisphere was 1/10th the size of the former Intelsat building.

It's unfair to suggest that Frumin should do this but.... In my entry, "Outline for a proposed Ward-focused (DC) Councilmember campaign platform and agenda," one of the points was that a Councilmember should have a thumbnail plan (basically a vision plan) for commercial districts.  

I should have also included "and for big buildings that might become vacant."

Councilmembers don't do planning independent of the Executive Branch.  This is an example where it could and should be done.

But basically, while CM Frumin has ideas, he hasn't further developed them over the two years the building has been vacant ("First Intelsat HQ. Then failed Whittle School. What’s next for D.C.'s 4000 Connecticut Ave. NW?," WBJ), which is opposite of "Chance Favor[ing[ the Prepared Mind." So opportunity doesn't favor this project.  Especially when the city budget is being compromised by the Republican Congress in multiple ways.  And the need to get a majority of Councilmembers to agree.

Former Imperial Sugar Plant, Fort Bend, Texas.

Note that governments buy sites and buildings not infrequently, to control their development ("Mayor Elicker Announces Propospal to Transform the Former English Station Power Plant Property into Mill River Park,"City of New Haven, "Erie County acquires 148 acres of industrial land at the former Bethlehem Steel site in Lackawanna for redevelopment," "Sugar Land Acquires Historic Imperial Sugar Site for $50 Million Redevelopment Project," Covering Katy News, "After closed-door meeting, Salt Lake County buys former corporate headquarters outside Utah’s capital,"Salt Lake Tribune, "Utah to buy US Magnesium plant for $30M," KSL, etc.).

BTMFBA.  I myself am a proponent of arts organizations owning their own buildings.  And recommend that the locality set up a CDC to buy, hold, develop, and rehabilitate properties to preserve their use outside of the normal market forces of real estate.  While I often tout SEMAEST, the Paris CDC that does this with retail properties, Helsinki as a city does this with an agency called Kaapelli.  I've written about this in Philadelphia ("BTMFBA + programs to lease the properties to local businesses | Philadelphia").  And there are other examples.  

SEMAEST also has a retail incubator program allowing short term leasing in order to develop and test proof of concept ("Testing your business with Semaest: the example of Alma Grown in Town dedicated to urban agriculture" City of Paris).

-- "BTMFBA: the best way to ward off artist or retail displacement is to buy the building," 2016

-- "From BTMFBA to "community right to buy"," 2024
-- "BTMFBA: maintaining arts spaces in the face of rising real estate values | Seattle, New York City," 2024
-- "New form of BTMFBA in San Francisco," 2023
-- "A wrinkle on BTMFBA: let the city/county own the cultural facility, while you operate it (San Francisco and the Fillmore Heritage Center)," 2021
-- "BTMFBA: Baltimore and the Area 405 Studio," 2021
-- "Revisiting stories: cultural planning and the need for arts-based community development corporations as real estate operators," 2018
-- "BMFBTA revisited: nonprofits and facilities planning and acquisition," 2016
-- "BTMFBA: artists and Los Angeles," 2017
-- "BTMFBA Chronicles: Seattle coffee shop raises money to buy its building," 2018
-- "Dateline Los Angeles: BTMFBA & Transformational Projects Action Planning & arts-related community development corporation as an implementation mechanism to own property," 2018

But in the DC case, taking on a 660,000 s.f. building is pretty daunting.  Especially in that location.

Conclusion.  Without a good business plan, what Frumin proposes is a folly.