Student Corner: One Neighborhood at a Time: The Incremental Development Alliance

<p>In the Town of Riverdale, Betty Cooper is taking a walk through her neighborhood. She notices the dilapidated structures and blight that plague the area, and thinks to herself, “someone should do something about this.” Is Betty just a disgruntled citizen…or a developer in the making?</p> <p>The Incremental Development Alliance (IDA) is a not-for-profit alliance of real estate development practitioners, private sector partners, and grassroots groups who train citizens like Betty to become small developers, helping to support neighborhood revitalization and assist city champions with coordinating development across the country. IDA began in 2015 as a collaboration between small developers John Anderson and Monte Anderson (no relation), who believe that small-scale, incremental development is a key approach to economic development.</p> <p>Incremental development is a strategy that IDA sees as part of the urban redevelopment toolkit composed of real estate investors with small capacity investing in micro projects. The theory behind incremental development is that as disinvested neighborhoods across the United States continue to struggle with blight, vacancy and dilapidated housing, current community development strategies, while helpful, tend to rely largely on tax subsidies, grants, and government resources. This can be a time-consuming process. It is the view of IDA that small-scale development is faster, less expensive, and better suited to creating opportunities for merchants and entrepreneurs to build wealth in their own communities as small developers.</p> <p>Founders John Anderson and Monte Anderson envision a network of small developers who would “build flexible buildings that enhance their neighborhood context and a small business culture.” Their philosophy is that the [...]</p>