Beautification Edition - 1736 Magazine, Summer 2019

CASE STUDY: PERRY, N.Y.
Rick Hauser was looking for a
small town in upstate New
York, between Buffalo and
Rochester, to set up his architecture
firm. The village of
Perry seemed to fit the bill for the Cornell
University graduate.
Its main street, though half-vacant,
was charming. The president of In.Site:
Architecture set about finding a place to
lease, but he encountered only disinterested
property owners.
“He would go to one building and the
owner would say, ‘No, I can’t do that
because I’d have to fix my roof.’ He’d go
to the next person and they’d say, “No,
I’d have to rewire the building,’ " said Ed
McMahon, a fellow at the Urban Land
Institute, which uses Hauser’s story
as something of a case study. “These
were people who did not understand the
difference between ‘spending’ and making
an ‘investment.’ "
Hauser then tried to get a bank loan to
purchase a building, but lenders turned
him down, citing downtown’s high
vacancy rate. So in 2005, Hauser decided
to finance a purchase himself.
He formed a partnership called Main
Street LLC. He sold shares in the venture
to friends, family and even construction
contractors, who offered in-kind services,
such as plumbing, drywall and electrical
work.
His group of three-dozen investors
bought a two-story, 10,000-square-foot
building on the town’s main street and
renovated it into space for his office and
other commercial tenants on the ground
floor. Hauser converted the 124-year-old
building’s top floor into loft apartments –
something the 3,500-person village had
Perry, N.Y.-resident Rick Hauser converted
this 124-year-old building’s top floor into loft
apartments – something the 3,500-person
village had never seen before.
[SPECIAL PHOTOS]
never seen before.
“They practically leased up overnight,”
McMahon said.
Hauser’s Main Street partnership has
since acquired eight more buildings. And
he’s now the town’s mayor.
“It goes to show there is a market for
downtown living and working in every
small community in America,” McMahon
said.
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