08 May 2012

Moondoggie-style Economic Development


If you've never seen the Five Points Collaborative, this picture is an artist's rendering. According to an article in the Nashville Post last year, the creators of the collaborative, Bret and Meg McFadyn, wanted "to encourage entrepreneurial small businesses by providing small rental spaces with short term leases at a fair price."  When I saw it in person a couple weeks ago, it reminded me of a series of beach bungalows, similar to those in the surfing movies that sell board wax and beaded necklaces. Saint Simons Island in Georgia added a series of tiny one-room retail shops near its pier, the Pier Village Market, in the nineties. Although I was young and not exactly worldly, the concept seemed revolutionary to me.

The Nashville Business Journal reported today that another small retail cluster will be opening in East Nashville, this one developed by Mark Sanders. The shops will contain 400-800 square feet each. That these little clusters have begun to spring up now speaks to the idea that big box stores can't compete with themselves online, but the niche local shops can thrive given the right environment. This concept is similar to what I'd like to do in more blighted areas of town in run-down or abandoned retail strip centers. In those areas, however, where the culture hasn't developed the embrace of entrepreneurial independence and artistic exploits that can be found in East Nashville, I wonder if such an endeavor would be successful.

During my years in Charleston, South Carolina, I felt sick every time I saw a national chain store take over a space on King Street or Meeting Street that was formerly occupied by a small business owner. The rents in those areas forced out the art studios and boutique clothiers to be replaced with Williams Sonoma and Pottery Barn. The entire culture of King Street changed over the course of a decade. This begs the question, then, could attracting certain types of small retailers to form a retail community in an economically depressed area actually affect the culture of that area in a positive way? Could an occupy movement (of sorts) with an owner and a group of lessees or a coop--a movement that actually generated tax revenue and created jobs--take hold and begin to lift an area from depression?

Imagine, what sort of activism might a cadre of visionary entrepreneurs set aflame?


Click the photo to learn more about the shops at the Five Points
Collaborative via NashvilleandBeyond.com.

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