project: LEXINGTON DISTILLERY DISTRICT
date: 2008
location: LEXINGTON, KY
client: LEXINGTON DISTILLERY DISTRICT, LLC
contact: BARRRY McNEES

The Lexington Distillery District is located on Manchester Street less than 2,000 feet to the west of Rupp Arena and the central business district of downtown Lexington. Manchester Street as it stands today is heavily industrial, characterized by a tow yard, rail yard, decrepit infrastructure, and old warehouses remaining from a time when Bourbon Distilleries were plentiful in this area.  The Old Tarr Distillery and James E. Pepper Distillery still stand and are the center pieces for the adaptive re-use plan. The plan calls for revitalization of many of the interesting and historic buildings as well as residential, commercial and mixed-use infill development.

The Distillery District plan calls for programming that would include but not be not limited to: a boutique hotel, bourbon museum, small batch bourbon distillery, office space, commercial and retail space, condominiums, live work units, multi-family units, open public space, and the Town Branch Trail.

Implementation Hightlights:

• The Distillery District received the state approval for a TIF amount of $45 million in October 2009. The Distillery District is one of the first in Lexington to seek Tax Increment Financing and had received unanimous support by the Urban County Council who had approved the plans to help revitalize Manchester Street on December 2008. The Distillery District also received $2.2 million in bond funds from the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government (LFUCG) for the Town Branch Trail and Manchester Street improvements.

project: BUTLER-AUBURN REDEVELOPMENT PLAN UPDATE
date: 2004 – 2005
location: ATLANTA, GA
client: CITY OF ATLANTA
contact: GARNETT BROWN, SENIOR PLANNER

In 1994, the Butler-Auburn Community Redevelopment Plan (CRP) was approved by city council to address the needs of the blighted, historic Sweet Auburn Avenue neighborhood. With pressure from a strong market resurgence in urban living, Auburn Avenue was facing challenges to preserve not only its low-scaled historic buildings but its commercial orientation. The 2005 Redevelopment Plan Update combines the earlier CRP’s emphasis on specific redevelopment projects with a new sensitivity to Auburn’s historic context and narrative.

The plan update evolved over three phases and several months. A first phase of recording and analyzing existing conditions was supplemented by identification of the conceptual redevelopment projects and the key ownership interests for each. The second phase focused on hosting community workshops, refining the projects and their economics in line with community input. Phase Three consisted of the final drafting of the Plan Update, illustrative drawings, virtual models, final economics, and revising the text of the MLK Landmark Zoning District.

The plan garnered a 2005 ‘Best Planning Document’ award from the Georgia Planning Association.

Implementation Highlights:

• Plan approved by Neighborhood Planning Unit (NPU)
• Plan was adopted by the Atlanta City Council in December of 2005

project: CUYLER-BROWNSVILLE MASTER PLAN
date: 1999
location: SAVANNAH, GA
client: HOUSING DEPARTMENT OF THE CITY OF SAVANNAH
contact: MARTIN FRETTY, DIRECTOR

In the Spring and Summer of 1999, Urban Collage, in collaboration with Al Lindsay, AIA and Saussy Engineering, worked with the Housing Department of the City of Savannah to develop a plan for new single-family housing in a long-neglected community, Cuyler-Brownsville.

Initial work focused on the inventory of existing physical conditions in the eleven acre site just southeast of Downtown and the Garden District. Conceptual site plan alternatives were created for new housing construction, with associated infrastructure and open space improvements. Finally, a preferred plan of development was illustrated and detailed. The master plan involved 35 new homes, one new park, new street construction, re-subdivision of existing parcels and new public improvements. In addition, Urban Collage designed three housing prototypes to be developed in the first phase and prepared design guidelines to direct future development in the neighborhood. All work was done with community review and input by the Cuyler-Brownsville Neighborhood Association.

Urban Collage was then hired to prepare a Phase II companion master plan for 15 additional acres in the neighborhood.

Implementation Highlights:

• Single Family Housing constructed
• Community Park and Gazebo built
• Multi Family projects built

project: ROSEWOOD HILLS MASTER PLAN
date: 2003
location: COLUMBIA, SC
client: THE COLUMBIA HOUSING AUTHORITY
contact: JULIA PRATER, DEPUTY FOR AFFORDABLE HOUSING HOPE VI

In 2003, the Columbia Housing Authority retained Urban Collage to produce a market-based development plan along the lines of the HOPE VI model for the 19-acre Hendley Homes public housing site. The plan emphasized public involvement and architectural compatibility to rally the adjoining neighborhoods around a new vision for the area. The plan and public involvement process sought to position the project not only as public housing redevelopment but also as a traditional neighborhood plan, a unique combination that drew on Urban Collage’s diverse skill set.

Urban Collage built on the consensual vision of four participatory workshops, the continuing involvement of key stakeholders and the Columbia Housing Authority to develop a plan that significantly reworks existing infrastructure to result in a new series of public open spaces. No unit of the diverse mix of housing is more than one block away from a neighborhood park; and the greenway that unites them is anchored on either end by revitalizing commercial and cultural nodes. The plan subsequently became the basis for a successful HUD 2004 HOPE VI application. Since then, Urban Collage has gone on to create sets of design guidelines for both the mixed-use and senior living components of the plan, as well as consulting on the detailed design of the infrastructure.

Implementation Highlights:

• Project awarded $10.5 million dollars as part of a successful 2004 HOPE VI Grant Application
• $4 million dollar infrastructure improvements package funded by the City; streets and public spaces complete
• Design guidelines completed for solicitation of development partners
• Final Phase of development, with the senior complex slated for occupancy late 2009 and a future mixed-use building awaiting final design

project: EAST END SMALL AREA PLAN
date: 2008
location: LEXINGTON, KY
client: LEXINGTON FAYETTE URBAN COUNTY GOVERNMENT
contact: JIM DUNCAN, DIVISION OF PLANNING

Urban Collage, Inc. in association with EHI consultants created a revitalization plan for the historic East End Neighborhood. A diverse neighborhood originally home to professionals, entertainers, and even some of the first African-American jockeys. Plans center on balancing affordability while creating new investment, including plans for a rejuvenated Third Street Corridor.

The East End Small Area plan makes recommendations for revitalization of the neighborhood such as;

• Residential infill and rehabilitation throughout the neighborhood
• Revitalization of the once thriving commercial core at the intersection of Third and Race Streets as well as along Midland Avenue
• Increased ecological awareness and standards throughout the industrial core
• Infrastructure upgrades; sidewalks, roadways, and green space
• Increased connectivity throughout the East End Neighborhood as well as improving connections to surrounding areas and Downtown Lexington

project: CAMPBELL TERRACE AND DELONA GARDENS HOPE VI MASTER PLANS
date: 2006
location: FAYETTEVILLE, NC
client: TCG INTERNATIONAL, LLC
contact: CHARLES J. BILLAND, AICP

Urban Collage contracted by TCG International, LLC, to work along side the Fayetteville Metropolitan Housing Authority, developed a 2006 HOPE VI plan for the communities of Campbell Terrace and Delona Gardens in Fayetteville, North Carolina. The project included a variety of development considerations including adaptive re-use, community gardens and orchards, senior housing, townhomes, single family homes, existing institution / educational structures and several additional areas under city ownership in the Old Wilmington Road neighborhood.

project: NICHOLTOWN MASTER PLAN
date: 2003
location: GREENVILLE, SC
client: CITY OF GREENVILLE & THE GREENVILLE HOUSING AUTHORITY
contact: GINNY STROUD

The City of Greenville, SC in collaboration with the Greenville Housing Authority, focused on a long-range master plan for the revitalization of the Nicholtown neighborhood and the Jesse Jackson Townhomes. The team of Urban Collage, Inc., URS Corp., Robert Charles Lesser & Co. LLC. and J. Peters & Associates were selected to work with the City, GHA, and community stakeholders to develop a strategic action plan which identified opportunities, projects and partnership consistent with the community’s vision. This redevelopment project will be “the largest revitalization project in city history” according to the Greenville News.

Building on the consensual vision, the Urban Collage Team developed a plan for Jesse Jackson Townhomes that would ultimately serve as a catalyst for redevelopment in the Nicholtown community. In addition, the plan reaches into the Nicholtown neighborhood to propose preservation and restoration of existing single-family homes, infill single-family and multi-family residential and infrastructure improvements, including a greenway trail connecting to the Reedy River, and streetscapes.

Implementation Highlights:

• GHA awarded a $20 million 2004 HOPE VI Grant for Jesse Jackson Townhomes
• Successful tax credit application for senior housing development
• Greenville City Council committed $4 million in property and infrastructure improvements
• Development of Comprehensive Design Guidelines

project: BELMONT AREA REVITALIZATION PLAN
date: 2002
location: CHARLOTTE, NC
client: CHARLOTTE/MECKLENBURG PLANNING DEPARTMENT
contact: DEBRA CAMPBELL, DIRECTOR OF PLANNING

The Belmont Area Revitalization Plan is a planning effort sponsored and funded by the City of Charlotte and the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Planning Commission. This project focused on revitalizing one of Charlotte’s oldest inner city neighborhoods into a safe and sustainable community. The project study area encompasses 522 acres equivalent to 1,647 parcels.

Through a four-phase planning process, the planning team, led by Urban Collage, Inc. in collaboration with Asset Property Disposition, Inc., GNA Design & Assoc., and Robert Charles Lesser & Company developed a strategic action plan for implementation which identifies opportunities, projects and partnerships consistent with the community’s vision, focusing on community improvement. In particular, this plan  provided parcel-by-parcel recommendations for land use, implementation and capital improvements.

The primary redevelopment opportunities in the Belmont area include:

• 150 Single Family homes on infill lots;
• Growing the Central Avenue commercial district;
• Adaptive reuse of the Hawthorne Mill for residential units and office studios;
• Redevelopment of Piedmont Courts as a mixed-income community;
• Create community and civic pride through public improvements to the Hawthorne Middle School and Little Sugar Creek Greenway.

project: EAST ROME REVITALIZATION PLAN
date: 2008 – 2009
location: ROME, GA
client: NORTHWEST GEORGIA HOUSING AUTHORITY
contact: SANDRA D. HUDSON, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

The Northwest Georgia Housing Authority in Rome has retained Urban Collage to lead a multi-disciplinary team to prepare a master plan for the revitalization of the East Rome neighborhood centering on the redevelopment of the obsolete Altoview Terrace public housing complex. The team deliberately expanded the original study area to trace the boundaries of the entire East Rome neighborhood, with the goal of creating a community-based Official Redevelopment Plan that would be the policy foundation for future Housing Authority and private development as well as public improvements.

The cornerstone of the redevelopment plan is the 12th Street Corridor Focus Area which transforms several vacant or blighted sites including Altoview Terrace into new mixed-income communities that are the basis of a federal HOPE VI revitalization grant application. Combined with potential mixed-use projects along Maple Avenue – the neighborhood’s onetime main street – and infill housing in the adjacent historic areas, the HOPE VI revitalization program provides the final element in the ongoing resurgence of Rome’s south side.