New Bottom-Up Approaches to Enhance Public Real/Estate Property

Abstract

The economic enhancement of public real/estate property has become a central theme in Italy. In recent years, public policies have been focusing on the supply-side of the real estate market, assuming that investors and developers could handle the value creation process of the abandoned and underused public real/estate property. More recently, with the decline of the investors’ demand to develop public real-estate assets, new approaches to property-value creation have emerged. These new processes are focused on the demand side, through self-organized grass-roots participation using the assets for profit and not-for-profit purposes. The aim of the paper is to pinpoint some crucial conditions for these bottom-up processes to be effective through the analysis of fifteen bottom-up experiences in Italy. Five conditions emerged to reliably predict a fruitful outcome of bottom-up value-creation processes of abandoned or under- used public assets

From sources of financial value to commons: Emerging policies for enhancing public real‐estate assets in Italy

“…He/she has a social role in promoting profit and non‐profit activities and, at the same time, employs the necessary entrepreneurial skills to ensure the redevelopment project. That is why international literature defines this agent as a social entrepreneur (Bailey ; Mangialardo ; Mangialardo and Micelli ).…”

Simulation Models to Evaluate the Value Creation of the Grass-Roots Participation in the Enhancement of Public Real-Estate Assets with Evidence from Italy

“…The experimental nature of the initiatives and activities undertaken shows a wide variability in terms of success and development, as recent studies show [6]. The lack of historical data on the degree of success of such experiences, and the wide heterogeneity of activities carried out with different outcomes, makes these processes uncertain and difficult to predict.…”

“…This case was selected because it fully reflects the typical Buildings 2017, 7, 100 5 of 13 characters of bottom-up processes in Italy The main representative characteristics in common with bottom-up processes are: some traditional enhancement experiences have failed, a high presence of social capital in the territory, the provisional nature of the initiative, an incremental process, a sole association able to coordinate all the activities, and rental contracts with no charge for bailment [6,30]. The former barracks extend over 4000 square meters (of which 2600 are built) in the center of Ferrara, near the railway station.…”

“…The bailment at no charge-or moderate rents-is a key element in promoting the development of bottom-up practices [6]. The wide flexibility of these practices allows the opportunity to leave the property without any burdens and with an advantage associated with the important element of choice [18,19].…”

“…In some areas, these mechanisms have now become widespread and consolidated, while others seem to lack the bases to stabilize similar processes. The launch of bottom-up collaborative practices is significantly related to the endowment of social capital in the territory [6,12], understood as the human propensity to cooperate [13]. The international literature [12] identifies the endowment of social capital within a territory as the main resource able to stimulate the local community to establish new businesses and to encourage the development of social entrepreneurial and cultural relations in the territory.…”