[music]
Produced by Purdue Extension Economics and Community Development and
the Purdue Center for Regional Development
with support from the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs.
[music]
There are too many smiles not to mention candy and good cheer to count at
this event known as Art Squared.
But for community advocate Dawn Kroh the emotions run much deeper.
It makes me cry, it really does.
I mean, I just feel so fortunate to be in this place to see that happen.
And to know that we did that.
This is not the first time the streets of Fountain Square have teamed
with color, noise and a thriving merchant colony.
Once this urban neighborhood southeast of downtown Indianapolis was the site of a booming
50 year history as a primary commercial district.
But the 1950's saw the rise of the suburbs and saw Fountain Square decline into an empty shell.
Attempts to jump start the area always had a familiar ring, just one more store,
just one more business, just one more, one more and the area would turn itself around.
If a shop opened and stayed opened for 6 months it was going to be some banner day
here in Fountain square.
And those enterprises that held on were ones that would never create
the rising tide needed to lift a struggling community.
There were five Rent-to-Own stores. Why would there be five within a block?
People ask me, "How do we get rid of them?"
Yet building a more prosperous business climate would be tough.
For Fountain Square streets gained the reputation as not a safe place to be.
A notoriety that worked against the areas primary asset.
Although it's located just 5 minutes from the heart of downtown Indy and
2 minutes from the interstate to anywhere, neighborhood leaders called Fountain Square
a lost little valley.
Any plan to recapture the districts vibrant past would depend they felt on
drawing people with money to spend from outlying zones and into Fountain Square.
But with little to offer - How?
They started to make an assessment of assets the community already has and
figure out how to leverage those assets.
That's what entrepreneur Linton Calvert did when he purchased
the largest and most dominate building of the Square's skyline due to
a novelty miniature bowling alley inside that had been closed for decades.
My best friends said, "What are you doing going into that big vacant building,
going into Fountain Square, you're crazy!".
I learned to appreciate that vision and crazy being probably the same meaning.
Crazy enough to see his building's duckpin bowling alley become a city wide phenomenon,
hosting the gambit from corporate functions to birthday parties and grow into a national curiosity
featured for instance on the Today Show.
This was a game that attracted people who would have not normally come to Fountain Square.
And when they walk away my hopes were they told someone else about
an experience they had that they didn't expect, in an area of the city they didn't appreciate.
What really ultimately this vision is about.
And Linton Calvert was shred enough to weed out other tenants
that did not enhance his vision for the community.
This building had in it a Value Village. Their lease was up and I told them they had to move.
I said "You are not what my vision is."
Soon his crazy venture grew to include wedding receptions, and
a unique Friday night swing dance.
But Linton Calvert's vision might have stalled on a single block on a single corner
had not a number of like-minded merchants begun migrating to Fountain Square.
I think that's probably how a lot of revitalization efforts start,
independent individuals wanting to really do something and
seeking out other people like that to that with them.
Now the independence of entrepreneurs is a good thing, but
too many visions for a community usually are not.
Step Two involves creating a vision with an equally important
Step Three: making it doable.
Normally what you get in a plan is we will bring in 100,000 more people,
we will build five new buildings.
What you need are all the minutiae detail steps of how you're going to do that.
And most of the time the plans are at such a high level that when the local community
goes to act on it and Mrs. Smith the local retired librarian,
who has volunteered to do something looks at this task there's nothing she can do.
She can't tackle that.
But if on the list was call 25 people, put an ad in the paper to help you reach that objective,
they can do that.
But who does the doable?
You might be surprised.
You need talkers and you need doers.
The doers are the ones who get it done, they like doing the work.
The talkers are the ones who get it set up, they're the ones who love to talk
on the telephone and love to be in communication all the time, talking, talking, talking.
And that combination is crucial.
They're not always the likely subjects.
They're people with a sense of energy about them.
There's always someone who is passionate about their community.
You need somebody who has not only the belief but also has the commitment and
then also has some knowledge.
They need to know square footage, they need to what the landlord wants for the property
for sale or for rent.
Someone who can help this entrepreneur really get a vision for what is available in the area.
OK, you've got a workable action plan, talkers making connections and
doers showcasing properties.
Step Four: Be a Calvert, that is be selective.
Really try to recruit businesses as opposed to whoever just shows up
with enough money to pay the rent for a few months and
you know, a business plan on the back of a napkin.
We really recruit people who are invested in their business.
I think you have to know when you're recruiting someone
what they're capable of doing and what they're not capable of doing.
Kind of the limits of what their expectations are.
You have to know what your target is and you have to know what you can offer them
and we have never had financial incentives to really offer anyone here.
So if they're looking for free money, that's a hand out and
I'm not sure that's really the way most businesses succeed.
I don't think a community really has the ability to gamble on you,
you should gamble on yourself.
How would a community recruit businesses?
Well, I'll say one thing you don't want to do is don't make it all about money
because you're going to get the wrong kind of people.
If you're looking for a prototype the hypothetically ideal entrepreneur
you might start with one of Dawn Kroh's recruits Tia Agnew and her husband Brett Kennedy.
So this is my Washington's Folley, my Tart Cherry Honey wine made in the style of a hard cider.
Ta da da! Cheers!
Thank you.
When you get the brightness from the fruit, you know the tartness from the fruit
and a little bit of honey on the finish.
It has a lot of sweetness but then a lot of tartness from the fruit all rolled into one.
The same bubble structure, same alcohol content, but instead of apples
it's a base of local honey and tart pie cherries.
I think I've hugged about 30 people today.
This is the part about being more than just a business and taking money out of a community,
It's about being a business and being part of the community.
Owners of the state's only specialty winery focusing solely on mead and hard cider with a modern twist.
They operate a one of a kind business attraction.
Yet from the beginning the couple was looking for more than simply
running their enterprise.
I wanted to come somewhere that I felt I was able to benefit from the neighborhood and
the people as much as I felt they could benefit from me as a small business.
We were looking for a neighborhood that
offered as much to us as we could offer to it.
So it is really about kind of reaching out as a person to a person
saying "Hey, I'm a business coming in, but I'm also a person coming in and
wanting to actually invest in and be part of more
than just drawing money out of a neighborhood.
I actually want to draw people in and make you as a citizen who lives here
feel like your neighborhood is even more stable now with me being here
than it would be if I wasn't here.
I always joke in my business that I sell alcohol,
I sell mead and hard cider, but I create community.
Step Five involves the role that civic and political figures can play
in jump starting that sense of community.
For awhile Tia and Brett bootstrapped the finances for their fledgling winery
on their own, as most entrepreneurs do.
There were some things that they wish they'd had more assistance with.
Not everyone who is a small business owner comes in knowing what TIF is, a TIF district is.
Knowing who to talk to about incentives or are there city sponsored programs.
If there's no one to guide you and to explain those things to you,
they may be available, but the average business wouldn't even know it.
Facade brands, low interest rate loans, even grants would be lovely to renovate and
get facilities into working order.
We did a lot to improve the infrastructure which helped to improve the quality of the environment.
So that it wasn't perceived as a scary place by people who had never been here.
You need a bank, you need a library, you need a police force, you need food,
you need a school, and we've really seen that come around.
People who would never think of coming down to this part of the city,
now come down here all the time.
We have a library on our main corner, right across the street from me.
Some people look at me go "Ugh, that should be a commercial entity!".
I'm like, "No it shouldn't. It's the heart of a real community".
Ideally, the perfect community is where you get to live, work and play.
It's so cliche but it's so true.
Step Six involves tooting your own horn a little.
Fountain Square has an active merchants association that when not recruiting businesses,
partnering viable tenants together and negotiating reasonable rents,
operates a web page and stages community events.
The goal, to get people into the square and get that word of mouth going.
They're going to be one of our best assets because no one has enough money to do
all the advertising they want.
Word of mouth, at least in this town I'll tell you, is key.
Step Seven in out brief and certainly not all inclusive overview is this-
be flexible.
When Linton Calvert and friends set out to transform Fountain Square
their original plan called for a dry cleaners and drug store.
And for a community that makes sense doesn't it?
Today, Fountain Square has neither.
[music]
What it does have is a burgeoning arts community that's
put the spotlight on this neighborhood as Indianapolis'
next great location to live, work and play.
Art had nothing to do Linton Calvert and what my vision was
its become what this area has evolved into.
You need to be able to look at what is coming to you and
as it comes to you take whatever has the ability to fill your stores.
If we just get people to visit us, we'll all get our fair share.
One restauant is good, ten restaurants are not competition
that's better for all of them to have more .
The more diversity you have, you aren't the one-trick pony that
people are just coming for X, Y or Z.
They get X, Y and Z and they get A,B,C and D too
and that's really important, again to sustainability of a community.
Now all of a sudden you have a vibrant community that now is going to mature into
whatever you might envision it being or whatever it may become on its own.
It's a tough job, but someone has to do it.
[people talking and laughing]
Interestingly enough Tia and Brett think they might have found an answer to
one of the most pressing issues facing Indiana today.
How do we end the brain drain in states like Indiana?
Entrepreneuralism was our answer to the brain drain.
And I suggest this for a lot of people.
If you have auspices of starting your own business then start it and
let yourself be the answer to the brain drain. Don't wait for somebody else.
Now, it's not the easiest thing to do I will tell you that.
People have a very romantic idea of entrepreneurialism.
Honey, there's nothing romantic about it. It's hard work and you better like hard work.
But gosh darn it, if you love where you are or there's a place you want to be
and there's no job for you, create it yourself.
That's what entrepreneurialism is all about.
There are lots of older people who grew up and will always talk about remember when,
remember when, if only , if only.
I think to myself, well it might not be exactly the way it used to be,
but there's never any going back. You can only go forward.
Bit I feel really proud that we've recaptured some of that and that it's through
hard work and persistence and little bit of a sense of humor.
The sense of humor and being stubborn would be two characteristics I would say that
you have to have in spades to take something from down and out to up and coming.
And if you can laugh and just stick it out you can get there.
But I'm not sure it has to happen with a lot of money, I didn't do it with a lot of money.
All you can do is continue to make people aware.
It doesn't take money, it takes time
and as an entrepreneur time is really of what it is all about.
[music]
Produced by Purdue Extension Economics and Community Development and
the Purdue Center for Regional Development
with support from the Indiana Office of Coomunity and Rural Affairs
[music]