Guest Blogger King Hill , President of DigiKnow.The ‘Right’ New Business Can Spark a Neighborhood Revitalization

I’m not an economic development professional. I run a digital advertising and technology agency, DigiKnow, with 73 employees in Cleveland, Columbus and Buenos Aires.

I’m writing this post to share a success story. Not necessarily a success story about DigiKnow (although it can be said that it is). Rather, this is a success story about the home of our Cleveland Headquarters: Tyler Village.

Tyler Village is a 1.2 million square foot mixed used development on the east side of Cleveland. It is Cleveland’s largest ever redevelopment project and is owned and managed by Graystone Properties.

We came to know the people at Tyler Village through our real estate advisor Jeff Cristal at Grubb Ellis. We had searched the suburbs near our previous location in Beachwood, Ohio, but high rents, and limited offerings for a  creative company like ours, took our exploration into the “old” neighborhoods. I grew up in Cleveland and, as a young man, worked summer jobs in the industrial bowels of the city. The part of the city that’s home to Tyler Village.

Our first visit to Tyler Village revealed not a village, but a big collection of old industrial building previously home to the Tyler Elevator Company. In the early  and mid parts of the 20th century, this space was teeming with hundreds of factory workers carrying lunch boxes, punching clocks, grinding out a living. On our first visit, you could almost feel their ghosts escort you through the complex.

But, believe it or not, if you let your mind open, you could see possibility. Or, at least, the developer – and my partners and I – could.  And that’s the reason for this post on a site for an economic development consultant…

The developers had a vision for this amalgamation of old businesses. (All developers do, of course.) They just needed the right tenant to kick it off, a company who’s owners not only shared the dream, but who had the right “stuff” to help fuel it. 

Developers of space located in old but emerging parts of a city needs tenants who aren’t afraid to be first movers. Tenants who can inject unexpected ideas into the design of the space. Tenants who can attract publicity. Tenants who can attract visitors to casually explore and say to themselves, “We could do something cool  here too.”

About 15 months ago, we signed on to take a full floor of building 44 of Tyler Village. In that 15 months more than 40 companies have toured our space, and we have generated some nice press for the ourselves and the Village. More importantly, since our move, a number of companies have said “We could do something cool here too.” Taking on the 3rd, 6th and 7th floors of this building alone, not to mention many others in other parts of this amazing village.

So what does all of this have do to with economic development? To cities/regions looking to attract businesses, my advice, as one of those business, is to listen to the dreams of developers looking to re-energize a neighborhood – but work with them to find the right “spark” to light the fire of growth. And those sparks aren’t always big companies. Sometimes they’re little companies operating nearby.