Nonprofit plans to help convert empty stores into mixed-use properties

The nonprofit Florida Housing Coalition is converting a former grocery store in St. Petersburg, Fla., that has been vacant for four years into housing and a venue for retail entrepreneurs. This is part of a pilot the group hopes to make national in an effort to help fill empty commercial spaces across the U.S. 

In low-income communities, retail property owners are finding it increasingly difficult to replace the large-format stores and offices that have relocated to higher-income and/or faster-growing areas, the project’s organizers told Reuters. “The idea came through thinking about places I pass by quite a bit that stood vacant,” said Ashon Nesbitt, a technical adviser and research analyst with the nonprofit. “In a lot of low-income communities, there are these resources of buildings. Instead of looking at them as liabilities, we need to see them as resources that need to be redeployed in a different way.”

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Florida is an ideal location to kick off this program, given the state's lack of affordable rental housing, Nesbitt says.

Through a grant from Fannie Mae, the Florida Housing Coalition is drafting plans that local governments, developers, housing-finance authorities and others across the country can use for similar conversion projects. The nonprofit says that municipalities and developers alike have expressed interest in this program.