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Some problems of economic development stemming from real estate require more than property transactions and transparent pricing; they require a consultative, non-transactional approach. Markets have their limits, after all. Since 1953, this has been the specialty of the Counselors of Real Estate® (CRE®), a group of real estate consultants contributing their time and expertise in service to struggling municipalities. CRE® calls this service its Consulting Corps, designing the program as a free public service to a community with deep fact-finding, following with buy/hold/sell real estate strategies that have the potential to turn around a community’s economic development future.
CRE® consultants Kathleen Rose and Fredrick J. Campbell shared the stage with Rob Anderson, City Manager of Fairborn, Ohio (pop. 30,000) to discuss how his town, built in the shadow of a major Air Force base, used the Consulting Corps to turn around its fallow downtown district and reduce its commercial vacancy rate from 10 to 1.
The unique and effective Consulting Corps program lasts five days, Rose and Campbell explained, often adhering to a work format. A Sunday dinner with stakeholders launches the cycle, followed by fact-finding, site visits, data collection and analysis, team brainstorming, and finally the preparation of a briefing.
In Fairborn’s case, Anderson stated, CRE®’s recommendations to leverage a local university and existing commercial anchors is what helped this blue- collar town stop fighting against its strengths and reclaim its brand.
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