I'm just curious why when a building is bought and redeveloped, many times repositioned as a completely different use, so many get up in arms, especially in UE circles. I assume in UE it's really just cause we've lost what many times is a cool place to explore, but in many cases, people just go nuts in local cities. Alot of times part of proprieties must be torn down to make the dollars work but in many cases a large piece of the property is saved and incorporated into the new project. isn't this better than letting a property set, decay, turn into a a squat or junkie den or in general be a blight on the area? Understand, I'm not talking when they just bulldoze down something to put up a different building but reusing what's there as much as possible.

Whats got me thinking of this right now is I'm getting started on a new project to redevelop a project that is a prime UE site that many have tried but failed to get into and I'm sure that people on here and the locals for that matter are going to complain about the redevelopment in one way or another. The project will be converting a Hotel to either apartments that will gear to the working joes, we have enough apt's and condos that people pay what I think are crazy prices for, or we will gear it to seniors, depends how the dollars work out, I'm pushing for the apartments for the working guy's but ya can make more off a senior center so who knows.

Anyways... curious of peoples thoughts!

Sometimes you have no choice but to demo or drastically alter a structure. Many of these old buildings have issues with handicap accessibility that need to be addressed. You may have a two story building that once used stairs to access the second floor and now the building code requires an elevator if a company takes the whole building. You may also have an office user that takes an old retail location but has to build out office space in what was once an open shell.

Adaptive reuse is very important in saving these historic structures. You have to balance the needs of the business or individual that bought the property, modern building and fire codes, and the historic preservationists.

I find your question somewhat unclear, but I'll try to answer your question to the best of my knowledge.

A lot of community redevelopment, and planning in general takes many, many years to work to its intended purpose. Planning is a very slow thing, but it is crucial. Unfortunately, not everything is planned these days, but that rate is rising. Planners work with a lot of different agencies, and their role, as a planner, often varies from project to project.

On the subject of redeveloping something such as an abandoned factory, there are many things to be taken into consideration. First and foremost, you have to learn the history of the surrounding neighborhood (if applicable) in order to understand what is going on in that neighborhood, or area during the present time. Then you must examine the building, find blueprints, find owners (if applicable), find out how the area is zoned, find the sewer hook ups, the electrical hook ups. The list goes on and on. Once that is done, I assume you would already have a proposed idea for the area, or atleast know the expectations of what you want the property to do. So you have this factory that is your proposed development. Lets say youre idea is to make the entire factory a mixed use development. You want to have commercial space, as well as residential. So you consider your options. You look at the logistical hook ups that are already in place. Are they adequate to support 30+ condo units as well as 4+ resturants and a bar? Is there enough power? Are the sewer lines sufficient to handle the new stress? If they are not, you will have to work with the city to figure out how you can make it work, it may end up costing you some money. So lets say that everything is good. There is enough power coming into the building to support all the different tennants, the sewer is sufficent to support the added loads from the apartments. Great, now what? Well, now you have to figure out how you are going to rezone the area. Its probably zoned heavy industrial at this point, so youre going to have to find some lawyers to work with you and the city to rezone the area. Before you can rezone, youre going to have to propose your plan to the neighboring community. Theyre probably not going to like the idea of panera bread, or some corporate chains moving in and running out their already dwindling business, so they probably are going to be opposed to that. They also will not find the idea of the apartments too appealing because theyre barely scraping enough money together to afford their $800/month rent, let alone the $1200 youre proposing for a two bedroom. So youre going to have to work with these people, as well as the city to even re zone that factory. The property hasnt even been bought yet!

Thats just the very beginning of a project that could very easily be done in a lot of the places we explore. I hope that outlines why nobody is doing this stuff. Why its just easier to demolish the place and throw up some more homogonized garbage. A massive redevelopment is something that is very expensive, and very time consuming. Plus, not everyone will be satisfied.

Planning is very political. There are always going to be people that love you, but at the same time, there will always be people that will hate you in planning. Its your job to find the medium.

Hope that helped!