To organize and support an active neighborhood association.
 

To promote preservation, building renovation and maintenance skills.
 

To manage the evaluation, purchase, renovation and sale of Renaissance project houses.
 

To develop marketing and educational programs targeting landlords, realtors, district residents and the public at large; to communicate the benefit of the Renaissance Danville program.
 

To provide long-term commitment and leadership to the Renaissance District neighborhoods.
 

Assist the City of Danville with coordination of:
    Focused proactive housing code enforcement.
    Extra police patrols evolving into an active neighborhood crime watch group.
    Neighborhood infrastructure improvements and beautification.

The Renaissance Danville is not a give-away program, but is designed to stimulate the targeted Renaissance District back to housing market viability.

Due to an abundance of rental property with absentee ownership and decades of neglect the current Renaissance District became a neighborhood filled with derelict housing, littered vacant lots, crumbling sidewalks an a growing crime and nuisance problem. The real estate values in the Renaissance District had seen a steady decline over the last three decades. Home and apartment owners saw little value in their properties and had no incentive to invest in maintenance and would not even consider renovation. Any effort to repair a property was only a band-aid fix.

The primary component to the Renaissance Danville program is the housing renovation effort. With the market bottomed out it is no secret that a renovated property will not return the sum of the purchase price and renovation costs in a sale. Drawing on the historic and architectural nature of the houses chosen to renovate creates a market of those individuals and families with an interest in historic and architecturally significant properties.

Another part of the attraction to a Renaissance buyer is that a home with a reproduction cost of two, three maybe $400,000 is available for pennies on the dollar. With the confidence that this neighborhood is on the upswing the renovated properties become very appealing and a terrific value. Offering a renovated home with all the major old house concerns addressed with the promise that the other neighborhood issues will continue to be improved will yield a selling price significantly above recent comparable sales but below the renovation investment.

The positive results of these renovated property sales is that the new sale prices do pull up existing property values. This shot of reassurance gives owners the confidence that the neighborhood is improving and an inducement to resume maintenance and improvements to their own properties. The positive results of the Renaissance efforts can be tracked by monitoring District equalized assessed valuations and building permit activity. As values continue to increase the District can again achieve market viability.

With the realization that the market in this area is improving, families looking for a secure investment in a safe neighborhood consider the Renaissance District as a good area to purchase a home. The potential for profit from redevelopment stimulates the private sector developer into investing in the Renaissance Districts.

Eventually this new market driven activity allows the Renaissance Danville effort to focus on other endangered neighborhoods.

It has long been a fact that downtown areas rely on pedestrian traffic for economic survival. Turning vacant derelict downtown neighborhood properties into safe comfortable occupied housing will benefit Downtown Danville both economically and visually.

The Goals of the Renaissance Danville for the Renaissance District are:
 

To create a neighborhood which complements Downtown Danville
 

To attract investment back Downtown and to adjacent neighborhoods
 

To encourage home ownership
 

To improve our image
 

To utilize existing infrastructure
 

To stabilize and increase property values and tax base
 

To capitalize on the historic architecture before it is too late
 

To change the perceptions and mentalities that foster the decline of neighborhoods
 

To teach stewardship of the Cities residential assets
 

To compliment the economic development efforts of the community

Consider the cost of doing nothing.