Redevelopment is replacing new construction throughout
the Greater Boston area, as construction costs climb and
the commercial/retail vacancy rate reaches new (and
alarming) levels.
Redevelopment of highly visible, publicly owned or historic
properties~ such as
shipyards, air bases, and historic mills ~ involves all the
usual steps of Federal and
State permitting and approvals, and the additional layer of
permitting involving
historic, archeological and cultural review and approvals.
At every one of these steps, community or political
opposition can bog a
project down, and that means lost time, lost revenues, and
significant expenses
while people and equipment sit idle, as developers go back
to the designers,
planners, and lawyers for revisions. Just as important is the
potential negative public
relations impact on development plans: once opposition
becomes vocal and reaches
the media, it can spread like wildfire, creating additional
challenges and expenses
for the developer.
Redevelopment projects can displace people and create
opposition, and develop a
negative momentum that’s hard to turn around. But, with
longer-term planning and
community involvement, redevelopment can help
communities feel a sense of
investment, involvement and continuity by engaging the
community in celebrating
its past to build its future.
Engaging the Community Proactively
The Hingham Shipyard project developed by Paul
Trendowicz, President of Sea
Chain, Inc. is a case in point of positively and proactively
engaging the community
around redevelopment. The former Bethlehem Steel
Shipyard was built in 1942 to
support the war effort. The shipyard produced 277 ships,
and employed 30,000
people. It was closed in 1986, and bought in 1997 by Sea
Chain, Inc., as the site for
a $250 million redevelopment project for mixed use; high
end condominium
residential units, some affordable housing, and 200,000
square feet of
retail and commercial space.
Public relations and community relations were part of Sea
Chain’s strategy from the
beginning, to win community support for the project
throughout the planning,
construction and marketing phases. The development was
to be called Hingham
Shipyard and the history of the place and its community
would be part of its cachet.
As part of the community relations project, public relations
counsel The Cohn Group
proposed the creation of a foundation on site to preserve
the history of the
Hingham Shipyard and integrate it into the community’s
awareness of the project as
it progressed. Sea Chain helped create and fund the
Hingham Shipyard Historical
Foundation, a nonprofit organization that would acquire and
make available historic
and archival information and memorabilia.
The Foundation in turn funded the lynchpin of the community
relations
program: creation of a thirty minute, broadcast quality video,
in which the people
who had worked in the shipyard told its story through their
own recollections of the
war years and the shipyard’s contribution to a growing
community.
An advisory group of prominent local citizens was created,
and helped to
identify the individuals, stories, archives, and private and
public archives of
mementos from the shipyard’s peak production years of
building ships.
The video includes historic news footage, photographs and
interviews with
employees who stayed on in Hingham and built their
families after the war.
The video, “Remembering Hingham Shipyard,” was edited
to a format suitable for
airing on WGBH, which accepted it not only for broadcast
but for repeat showing
during pledge weeks, and for use, by the Social Studies
Department of Hingham
Schools. It was shown for the first time at a community gala
at the shipyard’s main
building, and was attended by some 500 local Hingham
residents, including town
and regional officials. Throughout the process, the video
and the Sea Chain plan
were covered consistently, favorably and from a variety of
perspectives by local daily
and weekly papers, reinforcing a groundswell of community
support.
Positive Media Coverage Sustained
Throughout the process, the local media, especially daily
and weekly papers, were
invited to meet with the developers, advisers and featured
residents, to learn more
about the shipyard’s history and the redevelopment project.
Outreach resulted in a
steady drumbeat of positive coverage, as individual
storylines created multiple
opportunities for news and feature articles. Most articles
and editorials mentioned
Sea Chain and credited it for underwriting the Foundation
and the video, praising
the developer’s commitment to the community.
In March 2001, The Patriot Ledger’s Carrie Levine wrote, “If
all goes
according to plan, the Hingham shipyard will soon
resemble an upscale shopping
center rather than a former military installation. But those
nostalgic for the
shipyard’s glory days- when workers built destroyers during
WWII- are in for a treat
… Sea Chain, which plans to develop the site with
condominiums and thousands of
feet of retail space, funded the video, and has said they
plan to include a historical
center in the new plans. The redevelopment proposal is
scheduled to be heard
before town boards next month.”
James Kirkcaldy, Director, K-12 Hingham Social Studies
Department, wrote that “The
Hingham Shipyard Project is a great teaching tool… a
lasting legacy… and a unique
example of a redevelopment project with care and patriotic
spirit making a
difference in a community’s identity.”
Ultimately, the Planning Board’s approval of the plan cited
the video and the
foundation as a major influence in approving the permits
throughout the pr ocess,
as evidenced by commentary of many local leaders in the
community, the
conservation commission, the Planning Board itself, and
the Zoning Board of
Appeals.
Lessons Learned
Even though the developer and the Planning Board did not
agree on all
requests, a positive and mutually respectful relationship
continues. Sea Chain’s
Paul Trendowicz told The Hingham Journal, “The (Board’s)
contributions have
resulted in numerous improvements to the redevelopment
plan for the shipyard.
The board’s attention to design and legal issues and to
defense of community
values should be appreciated by the town, as they are by
Sea Chain and its
consultants.”
Community relations that acknowledge the importance of
the history of a place and
how its community connects to it can greatly improve the
chances of a smooth
development and permitting process, as the Hingham
Shipyard did in several
specific ways:
• The early development of a foundation to anchor the
program as a nonprofit
project established credibility and public interest
• Building a community advisory board brought in respected
community opinion
leaders as a source of ideas, and these early adopters
became constructive critics
and champions of the overall project.
• Engaging the community in telling its story created a deep
investment
throughout the community in seeing the project through, and
appreciation for the
Foundation that would preserve its history and their stories
for future generation.
• Sea Chain built up a reserve of good will by proving itself a
good
corporate neighbor, and learned in the process what
problems would arise, and
what compromises would be workable for all concerned.
• The permitting process was completed in a smooth
process and in good time,
with the constant interest and support of local papers and
people.
Sea Chain has created a cachet about the Hingham
Shipyard which will give it
prestige and interest in the marketing phase: it’s a property
people will be glad to
own and lease, in part, because of its intelligent use of
history in creating a new
future for the community.
In The Hingham Journal, editor Mary Ford wrote, “… thanks
to the developers and
the Hingham Shipyard Historical Foundation, area citizens
who will someday occupy
the shipyard condominiums won’t forget how local
members of what Tom Brokaw
calls “The greatest Generation” made a contribution on that
same piece of
waterfront property that helped turn the tide of war.”
“Redevelopment projects take a substantial commitment of
time and
resources”, says Trendowicz, “and we wanted the
community to know we respected
its history enough to honor it, and make it part of the
distinctive nature of the
project. It was a win-win approach.”
Marty Cohn and Ann Getman are senior level public
relations practitioners and
frequent collaborators, with over 20 years experience each.
They can be reached
at http://www.cohnpr.com
or http://www.getmanpr.com<
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