This guidebook supports the transition of vacant commercial properties to productive reuse and strategically links this reuse to local and regional economic regrowth in legacy cities. The tools and strategies throughout the guidebook are intended for use by practitioners, policymakers and leaders at local and state levels. Community development organizations, municipal planning and economic development officials, Main Street program and commercial district managers, Business Improvement Districts, chambers of commerce, and land banks may find the tools particularly useful for commercial revitalization efforts. While the tools, strategies, and policy recommendations are particularly relevant for legacy cities and their communities, they are also applicable to all cities and regions that seek to reuse commercial vacant properties with the purpose of enhancing community stability and economic development.

The Greater Ohio Policy Center, in partnership with the German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF) and the Center for Community Progress, has developed this document as a project of GMF’s Cities in Transition (CIT) initiative. CIT is a three-year project to build a network of policymakers, practitioners, and civic leaders in five older industrial cities: Detroit and Flint, Michigan; Cleveland and Youngstown, Ohio; and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.