How many vacant spaces are in your Main Street district? Where is there room to add more housing, businesses, and gathering spaces? Answering these questions is key to unlocking the potential of your built environment.
A building inventory is essential for a thorough understanding of the physical and economic makeup of your commercial district. Creating and maintaining a current inventory is foundational for your Main Street program and integral to activating vacant and idle spaces in your district. Most importantly, an inventory is a tool that helps your program achieve results, catalyzing property development and moving your downtown towards fulfilling the needs and desires of residents and visitors.
On a practical level, your building inventory helps you contact stakeholders and track metrics such as property values, improvements, occupancy, housing supply and physical condition. Key data points to collect include property address, usage, owner contact information, size, year built, assessed value, number of storefronts and housing units, availability and historic register status. While this information can be stored in static paper files or digital spreadsheets, a database offers a more effective tool for your programmatic needs, allowing for easy searching, querying, and reporting of information.
Recognizing the widespread need for local Main Street programs to understand their community landscape, make a case for reuse, and explore opportunities for new housing, Main Street America (MSA) recently launched the Building Opportunities on Main Street (BOOMS) Tracker. Built on existing land data, the Tracker streamlines the process of populating, interpreting and referencing property data. Once set up, you can gather, store and showcase data about buildings and lots in your district.
Join the MSA Research Team for a webinar on Thursday, June 20th! They’ll showcase the tool’s functionality, lead a live demonstration on how quick and easy it is to enter data, and answer any questions you might have about using this tool to understand and unlock opportunities in your community.
Register HERE for the MSA Webinar: How to Build a Better Building Inventory with the BOOMS Tracker – June 20 @ 3:00 PM EDT.
Virginia Main Street 