Tags: In one of the oldest cities in the United States, one of the newest forms of public/private partnership is taking shape—an enterprise that could be a model for revitalizing downtowns across the county without straining public finances.Officials in Quincy, Massachusetts, are partnering with Street-Works—a development firm that specializes in the creation of mixed-use districts around public spaces—to transform the city’s moribund central business district into a model of the future.What’s unusual about the Quincy project is that the private sector is doing the heavy lifting—raising significant at-risk, predevelopment capital (Street-Works spent more than $18 million before it even had an agreement with the city), privately acquiring land (without eminent domain), and letting everyone know what it is doing. This is a reversal of the traditional urban development model, in which municipalities pay for public improvements before the private sector starts construction. Quincy envisions financing its infrastructure improvements through new income generated by development-specific revenue supplemented with parking garage revenues.
Read Full Article: Quincy, Massachusetts: A New Redevelopment Paradigm – Urban Land Magazine