IMPACT
IMPACT DRIVEN
Renaissance Downtowns is committed to addressing some of the most pressing issues facing the nation today. Disinvested communities, suburban sprawl, lack of housing options, unemployment and rising levels of poverty are some of America’s most urgent socio-economic challenges that our team focuses on daily through the work we do. While conventional approaches to development have not been able to successfully deal with these challenges in the past, Renaissance Downtowns’ impact-driven real estate model has the ability to help respond to these critical needs.
Building on years of experience, research and case studies, Renaissance Downtowns’ approach consists of an integrated framework of solutions and tools that fundamentally alter the real estate planning and development process and the nature of its relationship with communities through a truly ground up and ground breaking approach.
OUR MODEL INCLUDES:
MEASUREMENT AND REPORTING
Renaissance Downtowns is one of the first real estate companies of its kind to create a proprietary impact framework to measure, monitor and guide planning and development efforts to improve the positive impact in each of the communities they work in.
By prioritizing the positive impact for our communities, Renaissance Downtowns has not only become a nationally recognized thought leader in progressive, community oriented and triple bottom line development, but also realized the overall benefit to the business model of real estate development and investing.
METHODOLOGY
Our methodology begins with understanding the values that are expressed from the community members we work with. By utilizing the crowd-sourced placemaking process we are able to better understand the needs and desires of residents which helps us to shape and inform our impact strategy, analysis and approach.
Through in-depth qualitative evaluation processes that include surveys, focus groups, meet-ups and one-on-one meetings with community members in addition to quantitative statistical research we were able to develop an iterative impact metrics framework that focuses on a selection of foundational key performance areas to help us evaluate and support the communities we work in.
- Local Economic Growth
- Education & Training
- Safety
- Environmental Sustainability
- Health
- Social Equity
These areas are further broken down into key performance indicators and targets are set to define the desired improvement in each KPI and establish a benchmark against which success can be measured internally. With a dedicated internal impact team, we are able to customize and evaluate a platform of data collection and analysis mechanisms that serve to continuously monitor changes in KPI levels over the course of our projects. Each impact indicator is tracked and targeted for improvement by implementing carefully selected activities and initiatives that we will help coordinate. The result of these steps are communicated to the communities, municipalities and investors we work with, helping us to establish of a clear accountability system for our stakeholders, whereby success will depend on quantifiable improvements across social environmental and economic dimensions.
COMMUNITY IMPACT HIGHLIGHTS
Fifteen women were honored at Southampton Town Hall for graduating from a 25-hour leadership training program that was hosted by SEPA Mujer (Services for the Advancement of Women) and Riverside Rediscovered (a community-driven revitalization project formed under the developer Renaissance Downtowns). SEPA Mujer which has worked with immigrant women on Long Island since 1993, designed this program to strengthen women’s self-esteem and help them build a bridge into their communities. During the program the women learned about the history of government, the electoral college and local government as well as how to organize meetings and navigate educational opportunities.
In January 2019, seven women were honored by Town of Huntington officials for graduating from a 25-hour leadership training program that was hosted by SEPA Mujer (Services for the Advancement of Women) and Source the Station (a community-driven revitalization project formed under the developer Renaissance Downtowns). SEPA Mujer which has worked with immigrant women on Long Island since 1993, designed this program to strengthen women’s self-esteem and help them build a bridge into their communities. During the program the women learned about the history of government, the electoral college and local government as well as how to organize meetings and navigate educational opportunities.
Children’s Museum of the East End Support
Siris Barrios the Riverside Rediscovered Community Liaison alongside the Children’s Museum of the East End (CMEE) helped spearhead and organize an eight-week “CMEE on Wheels” program at the Riverside Rediscovered office on Peconic Avenue. The after-school program which featured arts and science-related activities for kids between the ages of 2 and 5 was a huge success in the community and signaled the need for this type of programming. Since then Riverside Rediscovered was able to help the museum secure $500,000 in additional funding to build a permanent space at Ludlum Avenue Park in Riverside.
Huntington Station Oral Histories
The Huntington Station Oral History Project was created to bring together activists and residents of Huntington Station to tell us about the forgotten downtown Huntington Station and what the future holds for a once again vibrant community! Huntington Station based production company Photo Plunkett Productions created this video through the support of a StationSix grant.