08/25/2026
"Entrepreneurship makes Main Street go round, but building owners are entrepreneurs too. They should be getting a lot more attention. Because if you don't have any good building owners, you aren't going to have any good business owners."
We are here for the landlords AND the merchants.
During a recent Main Street webinar we heard that downtowns need landlords with the 3 Ws: Work, Wisdom, Wealth.
Work - active participation in downtown
Wisdom - expertise and "big picture" thinkers
Wealth - maintaining/restoring buildings takes money and a lot of it. The longer something is neglected, the more it takes to get it back in shape.
A building is a business. I repeat, a building is a business.
The community and economic development world gives an outsized amount of attention to business owners but leaves building owners jilted, pining in the shadows, just waiting for a little love.
Entrepreneurship makes Main Street go round, but building owners are entrepreneurs too. They should be getting a lot more attention. Because if you don't have any good building owners, you aren't going to have any good business owners.
The truth is, if a building is sitting empty on Main Street and no one is actively trying to sell or lease it, consider it unavailable. Whether it's part of a trust, owned by some family in Florida, or part of a portfolio being used as a tax write-off, it doesn't matter. That building is not a candidate for any of the businesses you are developing.
Your only hope is replacing the owner.
This is why identifying and fostering potential local developers is just as important as working with existing building owners. There are plenty of business entrepreneurs out there. There are almost no building entrepreneurs, because nobody is providing them the same resources.
Yet they are vital to the health of your downtown.
