What about the neighbors?
To begin with, it's a mutual problem. You may not be the only one rolling your eyes.
When you decide it's time to make site improvements, add a little something, change the facade or color scheme — those decisions and improvements can create an extensive and expensive impact on the businesses (or residences) near-by. Most of us remember the saying: Keeping up with the Joneses. The usual meaning referred to competitive parties feeling that they did not want to be outdone. It is one thing if it only concerns ego and a little jealousy.
However, keeping up with the Joneses where business presentation is concerned is quite another matter, and can seriously affect a neighbor's bottom line.
It's a visible and daunting issue when one operation in a cluster decides to upgrade, while its neighbors are just hanging on. If the venue cluster contains competing, similar offerings, the customer base usually opts for the new and refreshing environment. The pendulum can swing back a bit over time; however, neighboring businesses are definitely challenged when change occurs and they can't keep up with the movement.
What about the neighbors and their dilemma? How much of that reality becomes an added factor for the client who is moving ahead with significant improvements? Is there some shared responsibility? Does the effort to lift the quality of the site cluster justify the negative consequences that may roll over the neighbors?
Design professionals are sometimes caught in the stormy weather that can arise when the client wants to move their environment to an improved level. The surrounding sites are stagnant, and it seems that other businesses are not similarly motivated. Your design team may be able to assist you with engaging your neighbors in some strategies and improvement concepts that would be mutually beneficial.
The most popular (and often intransigent) argument is financial. However, the financial stumbling block is frequently reinforced by misinformation.
Your project plan could include complex elements and design aspects that your neighbors regard as far more than they could also accomplish. Depending on degree, it might even be possible for such concerns to present permitting and other delays.
If communication and positive attitudes exist, you and your team can build on those dynamics and present simple ways for neighbors to gain benefit from your project. For instance, an adjacent site that cannot afford renovation or extensive remodel might be able to afford modest facade and painting improvements or limited signage and external lighting changes.
Perception has power! Influencing the marketplace with visible, though limited, changes can make remarkable differences. Your neighbors are important! Of course, you can steam ahead and leave others to their own situations that could be damaging in the long run. But, where “community responsibility” begins and ends is often a blurred line, and no one likes to shoot themselves in the foot.
Make no mistake: your project impacts the environment around you. The integrity of your investment is connected to that environment. What about the neighbors? Let them in on what you are planning; it's equally important to both — and your professional design team has solutions!
Robert Boccabella, B.F.A. is principal and founder of Business Design Services and a certified interior designer in private practice for over 30 years. Boccabella provides Designing to Fit the Vision© in collaboration with writingservice@ earthlink.net. To contact him call 707-263-7073; email him at rb@ BusinessDesignServices. com or visit www. BusinessDesignServices. com or on Face Book and Instagram at Business Design Services.