Imagine a world where the dream of owning a home, once a cornerstone of the American Dream, is slipping away. Today, many families find themselves caught in a cycle where the opportunity to build wealth for future generations is disappearing right before our eyes. It's a troubling trend that begs the question: Are we making the American Dream impossible for the next generation?
Today’s guest on The Bottom-Up Revolution podcast is Jenifer Acosta, a community revitalizer and incremental developer working in the Tri-Cities region of Michigan, near the shores of Lake Huron. Her focus is on adaptive reuse projects—taking historic structures like old bank and newspaper buildings and turning them into updated housing and commercial spaces. She finds that sweet spot between preserving history while also modernizing and allowing these old buildings to take on new life so they can last another hundred years, even as the needs of a community change.
William Zank has a conversation with Jenifer Acosta, founder and President of Jenifer Acosta Development. Building dynamic communities and creating a sense of place are just two of Jen’s favorite things. Combine them and add a dash of determination, and you have one of the region’s most sought-after “matchmakers” in real estate.
Downtown Restaurant Investments, Jenifer Acosta Development and Mission Partners are launching a new beer garden and food truck park called Drift Shoreside Beer Garden located at 1019 N. Water St. in Bay City.
You know your downtown is hiding them everywhere. No need to be ashamed. Mine is too. It can be hard enough to get an owner to make the windows look simply presentable from the street view and here I am asking you to do more.
It’s time to get serious about the levels above your Main Street.
We’re obsessed with attraction. Cities, regional governments, and states spend a lot of time and resources working to attract companies and developers to invest in the communities they represent. Economic developers fly off to trade shows and tell manufacturers about their communities, in the hopes they can get them to come pay a visit, fall in love, and hire locals to work for them… living happily ever after.
Always one to juggle several projects at a time, local developer Jenifer Acosta recently landed her first development effort in Midland.
After a quick call from her realtor and a short diversion from a preschool picnic with her family in tow, Acosta happened to stumble on her next project – Westwood Village, a 10-unit condo development in Midland that was impacted by the dam breaches and subsequent flooding.
As I was wrapping up work and preparing to attend a preschool reunion in the park for my son’s class, I messaged an area realtor inquiring on who was buying homes in flood-affected areas. He mentioned one I should look at and we made plans to meet at a property in 15 minutes. With two kids, my husband, and preschool picnic supplies loaded up we headed to Westwood Village.
For the last three years, my focus has been redeveloping a 130-year old bank building. Having been vacant for several years, the building was set to be demolished to make way for a drive-thru bank branch at the center of Downtown Bay City, Michigan. Many developers looked at the building and ran the numbers; it had been rumored impossible to save. The building was well kept, but a – some would say misguided – renovation in the 1960s added a midcentury modern panel facade to the upper three floors (covering up an 1890 Romanesque Revival facade), while the lower two levels were reengineered to have a more modern look. The economics didn’t work, and the cost of the project greatly outweighed what it would appraise for once completed.
One of a community’s biggest assets and a catalyst for growth is a familiar, motivated and thoughtful investor.
But where do you look for this person?
Often, you’ll find them in plain sight, or maybe even right next door.
Locally built, maintained and owned
The impact of community-led, locally-owned, small-scale investments stretch far beyond what may initially start out as a small neighbor project. Yes, the multi-million-dollar buildings and sprawling design plans are nice, but the simple projects move the needle too – like a building with two rental units.
“Cities work best when they are built, maintained, and owned primarily by locals.”
That was the message from Michigan real estate developer Jenifer Acosta as she spoke Thursday at an event intended to help regular people develop small residential projects — such as a duplex on a long-vacant lot — in their neighbourhoods.
Like so many rustbelt cities, Michigan small towns have been greatly affected by the decline of the manufacturing industry. That’s putting it mildly as vacant buildings, unemployment, and families struggling is entirely commonplace for anyone who has lived in a rustbelt city since manufacturing began declining in the 1970s and 80s. It’s created a culture of scarcity.
Three women developers from across the US are helping to bring back their home cities.
I am not a developer and I have never been a developer, however, the beauty of CNU is that it provides a well-rounded liberal arts education on urbanism—you can still take a class in a subject even if you’re not going to major in it.
At CNU 26 in Savannah,I dipped a toe into the development pond when I attended the Rapid-Fire Stools-by-the-Pool with Developers chat, and for the first time in my life thought kindly of developers, yet I couldn’t help but wonder, while I was listening to seven white men in a row talk about community engagement, where the female, non-binary, LGBTQ+, and developers of color were. So,when I saw the session Less Talk, More Rock: Getting Sh*t Actually Done—The Lady Developer Edition at CNU 27 in Louisville, I made it a priority to attend.
