Redeveloping Derelict and Underused Historic City Areas: Evidence from a Survey of Real Estate Developers

38 Pages Posted: 11 Sep 2008

See all articles by Paolo Rosato

Paolo Rosato

University of Trieste - Department of Civil Engineering; Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM)

Anna Alberini

University of Maryland - Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics

Valentina Zanatta

Polytechnic University of Turin ; Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM)

Margaretha Breil

Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei

Date Written: July, 21 2008

Abstract

Infill redevelopment - the transformation of previously used urban sites - is generally regarded as an important way to attain environmental and urban sustainability goals. At many locales, however, such urban renewal, community development, and tax revenue goals must be reconciled with historic preservation objectives. Are economic incentives and regulatory relief useful tools for encouraging reuse of abandoned or underutilized urban sites with historic buildings? Answering this question is of key importance for many European cities and for older US cities, and has important implications in terms of urban sustainability and "smart growth" initiatives. We use conjoint choice experiments to explore the relative importance of economic incentives, regulatory relief, land use and property regime offerings at underutilized historical sites in Venice, Italy. We survey real estate developers and investors, and ask them to choose between pairs of hypothetical projects in three Venice locations, as well as between one of these projects and the alternative to do a development project elsewhere. Statistical models of the responses to these choice questions indicate that respondents are sensitive to the price of acquiring the land (and hence to any policies that influence prices), and especially sensitive to the property regime that would be granted to developers and investors and to the allowable land use. Contrary to expectations, our respondents were insensitive to tightening or relaxing the stringency of building conservation restrictions. Our findings sound a common theme with Howland (2004), who warns that redevelopment of previously used sites in Baltimore is impaired by obsolete land uses, zoning and infrastructure (but not by suspected or actual contamination). We conclude that the City should focus on offering land uses and property regimes that are more in tune with developer demand.

Keywords: Conjoint Choice Experiments, Real Estate Developers, Building Conservation Restrictions, Redevelopment Incentives, Brownfields, Infill Redevelopment

JEL Classification: Z1, R52

Suggested Citation

Rosato, Paolo and Alberini, Anna and Zanatta, Valentina and Breil, Margaretha, Redeveloping Derelict and Underused Historic City Areas: Evidence from a Survey of Real Estate Developers (July, 21 2008). FEEM Working Paper No. 60.2008, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1165169 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1165169

Paolo Rosato (Contact Author)

University of Trieste - Department of Civil Engineering ( email )

Piazzale Europa 1
34127 Trieste
Italy
+39 040 5582569 (Phone)
+39 040 676 3580 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://www.dic.univ.trieste.it/perspage/rosato

Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM)

C.so Magenta 63
Milano, 20123
Italy

Anna Alberini

University of Maryland - Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics ( email )

Symmons Hall, Rm 2200
University of Maryland
College Park, MD 20742-5535
United States
301-405-1267 (Phone)
301-314-9091 (Fax)

Valentina Zanatta

Polytechnic University of Turin ( email )

Castello del Valentino
Viale Mattioli 39
10125 Torino
Italy

Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM)

C.so Magenta 63
Milano, 20123
Italy

Margaretha Breil

Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei ( email )

Campo S. M. Formosa, Castello 5252
Venezia, 30122
Italy
+390412711453 (Phone)
+39 0412711461 (Fax)

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