On July 23, 2019 an Empty Storefront Tour in Simcoe, Ontario, Canada was hosted by the Norfolk County Economic Development Department along with members of the Simcoe & District Real Estate Board. 

Downtown Simcoe had been suffering the effects of big-box retail development just outside the city limits that has been sighted as one element leading to the decline of retail and service operations in the core. Several organizations in town decided that we needed to focus resources to assist with redevelopment and revitalization efforts. 

A small group of staff and volunteers began planning for the event about six weeks prior to the launch. We enlisted the assistance of the Simcoe Real Estate Board to identify local properties that were available as well as empty buildings that were technically “for sale” but weren’t currently listed. 

As we began working on the tour there were ten properties included. Then something fantastic began to happen. A flurry of activity saw five of the properties leased or sold within a month! 

Things were starting to happen in downtown Simcoe!

We revamped the tour and saw growing interest in the number of people that contacted us and began to sign up.We started the marketing process and the local media stepped up too!   

A week prior to the event we had over 60 people signed up. Then we had another setback after two owners decided to withdraw from the tour due to unspecified issues with their buildings that needed attention prior to being put back on the market. While we were a little disappointed we decided to carry on with the tour with the three remaining properties.

On July 23, 2019 we opened the three buildings featured below, each staffed with a local real estate professional armed with detailed information. At the end of the day we had over 50 people attend the event.  

We received a great deal of positive feedback from those that attended as well as many business owners in downtown Simcoe who were very supportive of our efforts. And the best part was that after about two weeks there was on offer placed on one of the properties featured in the tour.

All in all we feel the tour was successful; and, more importantly, that we learned a lot about how to design and promote future tours. Of course the one sticking point is the owners who declined to be part of the tour. Wondering if any of your readers might have suggestions about how to deal with this type of a situation as we want future tours to be even more successful!

Clark and Ted at Tourism and Economic Development

Development and Cultural Services Division in Simcoe, Ontario

Readers - please do respond to this email and I’ll share your answers with the folks at Simcoe. 

I do have a few suggestions for Clark and Ted as well. 

• I’m glad you worked with the realtors in town. Be sure to also ask around if there are other buildings/storefronts that might want to be on the tour. Sometimes you stumble over someone who hasn’t made their mind up yet, and this prompts them to do so. It’s also a great way to get more people involved. 
• I did see some posts on your Facebook page that could be construed as negative. Be sure to answer them and get that person offline over coffee to discuss it. (I don’t think it negative,but definitely worth addressing.) 
• Why not share pictures of the places ahead of the tour? This might encourage more people to attend. You could also find interesting facts and stories to share as well. 
• One suggestion for the building owners who backed out: ask those building owners if you can at least list their properties on the tour handouts and give a way for people to contact them. We had a building owner who changed his mind at the last minute. So we took the history of the building that we had over to the barber. The barber had a piece of his property for rent too. He was thrilled to talk about another building too! 
• 50 people is a fine turnout! As you keep talking about the tour and sharing more info you’ll find more people will be interested. 
• Great that folks liked the tour, including downtown businesses. Next time ask those who tell you in person what a great tour it was if you can use their  quote to promote the next one. Or shoot a 30 second video with your cell phone.

Thanks everyone for reading the article from Simcoe. We love to hear how tours went! 

Deb 

Cofounder of SaveYour.Town