Tag: office location

How to Improve Cities After COVID-19: What to Know About the Revitalizing Downtowns Act

In July, Democratic Senators Gary Peters and Debbie Stabenow (along with Democratic  Representatives Dan Kildee, John Larson, and Jimmy Gomez) introduced the Revitalizing Downtowns Act (“The Act”) to Congress. With the goal of reviving urban districts and downtown commerce, the Act would establish a new federal tax credit that encourages property developers to convert unused office space into residential or mixed-use space.

The Act defines an obsolete office structure as a building at least 25 years old, and at least 20 percent of the residential conversion must be dedicated to affordable housing. If these criteria are met, 20 percent of the conversion expenses will be covered by the tax credit. The Act has  growing support from economic development organizations across the country, including the International Downtown Association and the Federal City Council. Together, 37 organizations formed the Revitalize Our Cities coalition, committed to reenergizing downtown spaces and strengthening the U.S. economy.

The Act presents a substantial opportunity to improve American cities of all sizes. Justin P. Weinberg, Partner in Charge at Taft Stettinius & Hollister’s Minneapolis office, said of the Act, “It’s an opportunity to revitalize and reenergize existing spaces. Giving new purpose – and attracting new tenants – to buildings that would otherwise be vacant means more people, customers, and workers to build and sustain a strong community and business district where there wasn’t one before.”

How Can Federal Tax Credits Help Unused Office Space Redevelopment?

With employees still working from home and a permanent return to the office for countless businesses seeming more uncertain as the COVID-19 pandemic continues, many office buildings may remain vacant and unused, leaving downtowns with fewer opportunities for investment and revenue generation.

“This Act would be huge in encouraging all types of business to invest in downtown markets. It would be most helpful though if the tax credit provided could be used in conjunction with other credits, such as historic tax credits, Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (“LIHTCs”) and/or new markets and also incentivized business owners to open. Residential development works best if it is in conjunction with other retail, services and other amenities and, of course, plenty of parking,” said Kelly Rushin Lewis, partner in Jones Walker’s tax practice and leader of the firm’s tax credit finance team.

For buildings needing a lot of work, tax credits are essential to ensuring the project has the necessary financing. Without them, many projects requiring a lot of renovations and updates may not be able to move forward, Ms. Lewis said.

“Tax incentives are a key tool in attracting private capital in neighborhoods or towns in need of revitalization. These conversions can be much more challenging than building from the ground up, especially if dealing with vacant buildings that may have environmental, zoning, code compliance, or other latent issues that may be expensive to correct. The projects often are just not financially feasible and will not get done without those incentives,” she said. “A credit or some other incentive for potential tenants in the commercial spaces would be helpful – many business owners may be reluctant to be the first or one of few to open in what may be an otherwise quiet downtown. Tax incentives would encourage them to come and hopefully give them a cushion while the neighborhood is being revitalized.”

Another potential impact of the bill would be the increased investment in affordable housing. With many cities large and small struggling to provide enough affordable housing, the Act would create an opportunity to develop vacant buildings into much-needed affordable housing developments.

“Now more than ever, investment in affordable housing is critical.  Housing costs are at an all-time high with demand outpacing supply. The costs of acquiring housing is high and the cost of building it is as well,” Ms. Lewis said. “Affordable housing developments do so much more than create housing – they create jobs and careers in everything from construction, accounting, legal work, property management, and more.”

In addition to creating jobs, the creation of affordable housing has the potential to slow down the gentrification affecting many large cities, said Lacy Clay, a former congressman from Missouri and a Senior Policy Advisor at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP.

“If you can convert these older buildings into affordable housing units, then you will slow down the gentrification process taking place in quite a few of these urban centers. You can look at any major city now and see that low to moderate income families and people of color are being pushed out of those cities, and then to further into the suburbs,” he said. “This would help reverse those trends.”

How Investing in Affordable Housing Actually Can Help with the Current Labor Shortage.

The Revitalizing Downtowns Act is a timely piece of legislation for investing in urban centers during the COVID-19 pandemic. For many industries, it appears that widespread remote work is here to stay, and it is critical that American cities reflect that new reality. By providing incentives for developers and property owners, the Act makes these necessary overhauls far more viable. “Tax incentives reduce investors’ financial risk,” explained Mr. Weinberg. “[This makes] taking on such a project highly attractive.”

The bill’s emphasis on affordable housing is especially notable. Through this provision, legislators hope to provide equal footing for renters and thereby attract young talent to fill employment needs.

“I want to compliment Senator Stabenow and Gary Peters and Dan Kildee for coming up with this innovative way to be able to bring populations back in a way that does not exclude communities of color, but will include communities of color,” Mr. Clay said. “If you build enough affordable housing units, according to the legislation, at least 20 percent of any of those redevelopments have to be dedicated to affordable housing.”

Through investing in affordable housing, downtowns would benefit from an increased flow of commerce, as well as a buffer against the ongoing U.S. labor shortage and or talent mismatch.

“The trick is to prioritize affordable housing without eliminating or displacing families in market-rate housing that do not otherwise qualify for affordable housing,” said Mr. Weinberg. “But if done well, a city that strikes the right balance of available affordable housing benefits from additional economic stability and makes itself a sustainable destination for business, families, and communities.”

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How To Obtain Local Ranking For Cities Where Your Law Firm Does Not Have An Office

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If  you do not have physical presence in a specific city then it is unlikely that you will be able to obtain local map rankings within that city. If you are targeting a small neighboring city there is a greater chance that you can work your website optimization and business listing optimization to get your business listed in the local rankings. In our experience, we have seen businesses achieve such local rankings, but this typically happens when city populations are under 60K, within a 20-mile radius, or without strong law firm competitors.

If you are in a larger city like New York and are trying to target small neighboring cities, it is much harder to rank locally due to the large amount of competition and distance from the center of the main business cluster for your industry. That center is one of the top 10 foundational ranking factors as seen in the image from the 2013 Local Search Ranking Factors from Moz. However, for local businesses that want to rank for local cities there is a viable option.

Ranking in Cities Where You Do Not Have an Office

The strategy is to build a page on your law firm website and dedicate it to the city. You want to have your title tag, meta description, your page content and page headings contain the term or terms for want to rank for . If you are pursuing personal injury lawyer rankings for Cary, North Carolina, you would set your title to have Cary personal injury lawyer in it, and the same goes  for the rest of the previously mentioned locations. Do not stuff that keyword on the page multiple times in any one tag or area. Having that term once in the title, once in the description, once in a header tag, once in the description for the page content and in the content of the page two or three times is sufficient. Also consider incorporating the keyword into an image so the image file name mirrors the image Alt Tag. These are the basic foundations for your city-specific page.

What Content Should I Use On A Local Page?

You want to incorporate your business and the community into the content on that location page. Post pictures of client meetings, testimonials or case results that you have achieved in that city. If you have been in the local media for community service or cases you have worked, link to those sources. If you sponsor a school activity or are a member of a charity or non profit in that community, briefly mention the connection and link out. When you link out, make sure the links are going to relevant and related sites to your business and the location. Linking out to a legal nonprofit in that city that you are a member of or support is a great example, or even the city hall since that organization would have a physical location. These practices all tie in the location and make the page stronger for ranking in that location. Another good thing to do is link internally to your site. If you are trying to rank for Cary personal injury lawyer, then in the content on that local page you should link the words personal injury over to your main personal injury page. Also provide a link to your nearest office location – a link to your contact page or that office page which will have details such as hours of operation and directions.

Since your local page is basically a landing page where you will be driving potential clients, include a call to action. Try a form that they will fill out for more information or a phone number they can click on to call you, this way you are driving visitors to your physical office.

How To Build Links To A Local Page

The next important step, and often the hardest currently, is to build links back to this local page. One way to build links is to link from within your site to the location page. Examples of this are having phrases like “Cities we serve” or “Communities we help” on the page, then listing those locations and linking over to the specific local page. The next, and easiest, links to generate are to contact the organizations you are associated with for links. If you are part of the local chamber, you should already have a link from that location. If you sponsor a local kid’s sports team or another school related activity, see what it would take to get a link over to that page. The same goes for other non profits and any other association you are part of. Make sure you work with the organization to get a link to your location page.

The harder links to get are the ones that require considerable outreach and development. This is one reason many firms hire an agency to work out a strategy for obtaining these type of links. To obtain links from sites you are not connected to, but feel may be a relevant resource to, like a prominent legal blog, you have to organically build that relationship. Then, you have to offer to write high quality and attention-getting content so it will drive potential clients to your website from that website. Another wonderful technique is to leverage events. If you host or sponsor any local events then you have great opportunity to obtain local links and citations from those events.

Gone are the days that you could write quick, simple articles and post them anywhere. With all the Google updates in 2013 link outreach has taken a 360 and requires much more effort and skill to build a quality page and obtain quality links.

How To Use Social Media For Local Optimization

Finally, consider social media. While it may not directly help rank your page, it will increase your exposure and “signals” that Google monitors.  Consider participating in discussions and groups that are in the location you want to build visibility. Post content to these groups and genuinely contribute to discussions. This can help raise your recognition in that community. If there are no groups or discussions going on, consider starting them yourself if you have the time. Post quality content that is shareable. Particularly, shared posts on Google can rank quickly if done properly and tied to Google Authorship.

While you will not be able to get a map pin for a city you are not located in, you can take these actions to optimize a location page for that particular city and work on ranking it organically. This is the next best thing if you have no physical location. If you think you can pull enough clients from a specific city or if you were able to rank there, then you can consider opening a location there. Both are large undertakings. Creating a strategic local page is more simple and less costly, but getting those rankings without the local physical presence does make things difficult and can take considerable time.  This must be taken into consideration.

Article by:

Grant Brott

Of:

Consultwebs.com, Inc.