Greenville’s continually evolving and vibrant downtown will serve as a backdrop and inspiration for the 25th Small Developer Forum Oct. 18-20 and organized by Building Small LLC, a community of practice supporting entrepreneurial small-scale real estate developers around the country.
The forum will bring together 90 small developers from all over the country to share knowledge while learning about projects and initiatives that have rendered Greenville one of the most developmentally interesting communities in the country, according to Jim Heid, Building Small founder and CEO.
The forums have been hosted in major metro areas like Seattle, San Francisco, Philadelphia and Miami as well as smaller cities like Charleston; Savannah, Georgia; and, most recently, Fayetteville, Arkansas.
Heid said the forums are designed to showcase communities and projects to a national audience of entrepreneurial real estate developers interested in transformative projects.
“These are people who are developers … who really care about the kinds of places that they’re building — what I call transformation, not transaction,” Heid said.
He added the driving idea is to use thoughtful real estate development as a vehicle to create great cities with an authentic sense of place and thriving economies.
What has drawn the forum to Greenville is its reputation for having inspired, entrepreneurial developers, a public sector interested in getting projects done right and a cool vibe, Heid said.
Over the forum’s three-day stay in Greenville, attendees will hear about the people, policies and projects that have reshaped the city. They will also visit sites of infill residential development, adaptive reuse projects downtown and in the Village of West Greenville, and explore Unity Park and its impact.
“We’re always looking for things that people can export and bring back and use in their work and the communities they come from,” Heid said.
Small Developer Forum fast facts:
- Over the past 14 years SDFs have visited 25 cities
- The SDF in Greenville will host 90 developers from 30 states representing 57 cities
- 51% of attendees are members of the Urban Land Institute
