There is no downside to the developer’s forum being hosted by the city’s Board of Public Utilities next week.

City officials hope to have about 65 developers, commercial bankers and those interested in housing development visit the city as part of an effort to drive interest toward vacant or underutilized commercial buildings while also setting the stage for housing redevelopment in city neighborhoods that Crystal Surdyk, city development director, hopes is a step in creating more affordable housing in the city.

Part of the Developer’s Forum will be to have the people who come in go on walking or trolley tours to visit all of the areas that are being looked at for these infill housing and historic building reuse projects, including Fluvanna Avenue, Spring Street, Fulton Street, Vega Street, Eagle Street, Johnson Street and Cross Street. Ditonto noted that many of these streets are known to need help and that many have had multiple demolitions and will be looked at for housing. Buildings that are part of the tour include the Willow Bay Building, the Bank Building, the Worsted Mill Building, Blackstone Ney, the Mayflower building and the Furniture Mart.

Both commercial and housing development are key issues for the city, and we hope the developer’s forum plants a seed that leads to a flowery new future for some of the long vacant buildings in the city or for neighborhoods that are struggling with blight and condemned homes. This is the type of outward facing development work that the city has needed to be doing for some time, and while we’re sure it happens behind the scenes there’s nothing wrong with publicly showing both city residents and the development community that Jamestown is open for new business and development. We obviously can’t do a developer’s forum every month, but we’re sure there are different spins we can take on the forum so that it’s worthwhile to have them more regularly.

At the same time, we hope the city and its partners have their ears open, too. If developers say certain buildings are too far gone to realistically be developed, we should hear the message rather than pursue follies like a local preservation ordinance that end up preserving both historic buildings with a future and blighted buildings with no hope of redevelopment. There’s a lot of information that can be gleaned from having this many developers in one place, but we have to be open to all that these people have to say, not just what we want to hear. Getting unvarnished opinions from people in the development business can be invaluable as we spend our limited time and money redeveloping long-vacant properties or creating new housing.

There’s no downside to this forum, but there’s tremendous upside to be gained if we listen to the developers as much as we try to sell what Jamestown has to offer.