In areas lacking hipster-haven status, the rebirth of depressed industrial areas often struggle with downward pressure from a neighboring downtown district who ' s redevelopment economy isn ' t yet firing on all cylinders. This raises debate as to whether public investment in adjacent depressed neighborhoods serves to siphon away investment potential from the core of downtown. Novice urbanists might argue this point in a race for resources in which any funds spent outside the perceived core threaten investment in downtown proper. This perspective is flawed and highly dependent upon the local market. If core revitalization opportunities exist, but are sluggish due to overinflated building prices, development in downtown proper is unlikely to take root due to the increased risk and limited return on investment. With the entry of a new frontier of development potential, perceptions of property value can change with new opportunities entering a limited marketplace. Further, the flexible floor plates of wide open industrial spaces are malleable enough to accommodate just about any modern use, including manufacturing activities like brewing, niche clothing fabrication, food service, and restaurants. These industrial spaces fill the " missing middle " of commercial space, bridging the gap between food truck or garage workshop and class A lease spaces. These lower rent districts give budding entrepreneurs a place where rents haven ' t outpaced the bootstrap ambition driving small cap business investments.
While the conversion of industrial buildings is relatively efficient for a diversity of uses, the infrastructure surrounding these spaces oftentimes isn ' t structured to support significant densification and walkability that accompanies mixed-use development. Streets with larger block structures accommodated semi-trailer deliveries but didn ' t contemplate cyclists or pedestrians in large numbers. Rail-served industrial sites border low volume tracks with slow moving freight delivered to fewer and fewer manufacturers. Overly wide streets enabled larger amounts of traffic to pulse through these growing areas, but the slow transition of infrastructure from old to new uses can leave early arrivals with a mixed bag of safety as some industries hold on despite the gentrification of the marketplace.
Figure 3- Plan view demonstrating how a low traffic rail spur could accommodate additional pedestrian uses while connecting workers and residents to different attractions within the district via pedestrian and bicycle pathways.( Courtesy DHM Design)
Conversion of street corridors into multimodal transportation passages is a critical step in legitimizing the transformation process. Establishing linkages to core population and job centers with these emerging districts signals that the long-term evolution is supported by local government
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