College of Agriculture & Natural Resources

BY: George Berghorn, Post-doctoral Research Assistant, gberghorn@gmail.com

You do not have to drive very far across Michigan, other Midwestern states, or many post-urban parts of the United States before you begin to realize the troublesome scope of private property abandonment. Hulking shopping malls, factories, commercial storefronts, and homes sit vacant in communities in every corner of the country. The process to redevelop these properties can be lengthy and costly, and the costs of demolition and redevelopment often fall to local taxpayers. Michigan State University researchers at the Center for Community and Economic Development (CCED) have been studying ways to stop the cycle of private property abandonment. Early efforts focused on the role of insurance and bonding to ensure that funds are available to demolish or deconstruct structures at the end of their usable lives. The scope of the research team’s work has expanded to include the role of community benefit agreements and other innovative planning tools to help eliminate future abandonment of newly constructed properties; this research has also demanded that attention be given to the implications for construction management if public policies begin to encourage private owners to be responsible for demolition or deconstruction of abandoned buildings.

To expand the impact of the research team, this fall Dr. Rex LaMore, CCED Director, and Dr. Matt Syal, Professor of Construction Management, led an honors college seminar (UGS 200H) focusing on policy and construction approaches related to ending private abandonment in the United States. Professors LaMore and Syal are joined by four research assistants, Emily Bank (MA-HALE), Dr. George Berghorn (post-doctoral research associate), Liria Wu (MS-Urban and Regional Planning), and Shershah Zahir (MS-Construction Management) in guiding honors college students through a research- and experience-based class. Students in the class come from a variety of backgrounds, to include urban and regional planning, finance, James Madison College, economics, and range from first semester freshmen to seniors.

Because of the variety of student backgrounds, the first few weeks of class began with overview presentations from faculty and student team members. Students were introduced to the national problem of private property abandonment and the economic, public safety, and public health implications that come along with it. Concepts of governmental authority to protect public health were explored and led to discussions of the potential role of insurance and bonding to pay for the redevelopment of future abandoned properties. Liria and Shershah shared their master’s degree research with the honors students, providing additional depth in the policy and construction management lines of inquiry. The differences between demolition and deconstruction were explored from the perspectives of methods, costs, market conditions, and sustainability. Sharing research served as the vehicle to move into the second portion of the class, where honors students began to develop their own interests and research concepts around the core subject matter. Research assistants provided students with introductions to conducting research, writing literature reviews, and administering surveys and interviews.

The class offered two field visit opportunities at mid-term. The first was a site visit to an Ingham County Land Bank (ICLB)–owned house that is scheduled for deconstruction next spring. The site visit was led by Jeff Burdick, Executive Director of the ICLB, who provided insights to the class about policies and costs related to deconstruction and managing tax-reverted properties. The class then participated in the Wayne State University re: the city Symposium and visited the Architectural Salvage Warehouse of Detroit (ASWD). The class met with the Construction Director for ASWD, Dan Pratt, who shared his experiences with deconstructing homes in Detroit and the surrounding area, including issues of workforce development and job creation. The field trips were meant to better illustrate concepts for students and provide them with personal contact with industry professionals as they conceived of their research projects.

The latter portion of the class focused on students completing their research projects. Subjects of these projects include evaluating the true costs of abandonment, understanding the reasons why properties are abandoned, market-related aspects of a deconstruction economy, and policy incentivizing deconstruction. Students will share their projects with the full abandonment research team at the end of the semester, and we anticipate that they will present their work next spring at the University Undergraduate Research and Arts Forum (UURAF). The UGS 200H class has been an excellent opportunity to incorporate undergraduate students into the research team and has strengthened their research abilities. The work generated by the students will further the goals of the research team and add important dimensions to the work.

For more information on policies to end private property abandonment, visit the MSU Center for Community and Economic Development website.

https://files.ctctcdn.com/cac54a5b401/3312ae5b-c021-4570-9cff-472be9fcedfe.pdf