Creative placemaking is the art of installing public art and other attractions that are intended to drive foot traffic, to generate buzz and to create explorable and interactive environments. And if MASSIVart does it right, it drives the bottom line, too.
For 16 years, the Montréal-based company has advised commercial real estate developers from Canada to Latin America on how to implement the practice. That can mean coordinating with local performers to provide live entertainment in shopping malls, fabricating and installing eye-catching art pieces in high-rise office courtyards or crafting strategies for master-planned communities.
Green Street News spoke with MASSIVart founder and chief executive Philippe Demers about how placemaking can unlock value for commercial properties.
What is creative placemaking?
Creative placemaking transforms spaces into destinations and gives people a reason to stay or to return. It’s about creating an emotional connection to a place which in turn improves leasing strategies. Every developer knows and wants to create a destination or a sense of place for their development, specifically if it’s a commercial property.
Creative placemaking is actually not new. It was born in the ’70s, and it was really more grassroots and occurring in the community. Now we’re seeing more developers leading their strategy with placemaking.
What matters the most is integrating your placemaking strategy early on by aligning it with a project’s commercial goals and providing enough space for it to live and evolve.
Can you provide a recent example?
In Toronto, we’ve been working on the Downsview project. It’s an ex-military airport where they’re creating seven new neighbourhoods. There was literally fences and barriers, and now they want more foot traffic so it becomes a whole community.
We’ve been working hand in hand with [developer Northcrest] on creating some of these strategies. It’s a developer that’s really visionary in the sense that they’re using creative placemaking as a predevelopment strategy to shift people’s perception of the space. And it is working very well. There’s a lot of attractions.
What are placemaking’s benefits?
“The data shows that placemaking leads to a higher asset performance, both from a financial and reputational standpoint”
We did a study with Toronto Metropolitan University, and the data shows that placemaking leads to a higher asset performance, both from a financial and reputational standpoint. We’ve seen a 50% increase in the time people actually spent in a place and a significant increase in positive perceptions . So, it really drives foot traffic. And we know that in commercial real estate, the more a visitor stays in a property, the more they spend. We also saw an overall increase in the positive perception of a space that was creatively placemaked and a higher probability that people would actually tell their friends about this site.
We’re seeing leasing rates way faster in retail spaces enhanced by placemaking. We’re seeing faster property sales, increased brand value.
We haven’t mentioned faster municipal approvals for the developer. Because if the community already has an acceptance of the project, if there’s all of these things happening, normally it’s going to be faster to get city approval. If you get a faster approval, you can start making a return on your investment faster.
I think there’s a responsibility for developers that are shaping our urban spaces to also create spaces where people want to connect. So, on top of being economically viable, it’s also doing good for society.
What is the level of buy-in for this coming from the commercial-property industry?
Compared to when we started in 2009, the buy-in is growing fast, especially post-pandemic. Community-, identity- and human-centred design have become top priorities. The users of our spaces are getting a bit younger, and these things are more important now for consumers.
“We’re seeing more and more leading developers shifting from a ‘nice-to-have’ to a ‘must-have’ [mindset] when it comes to placemaking”
We’re seeing more and more leading developers shifting from a ‘nice-to-have’ to a ‘must-have’ [mindset] when it comes to placemaking, especially in retail. Residential, we’re seeing more and more. Hospitality, obviously, is kind of a no-brainer. Office is catching up. Industrial is a bit later to jump in. I know a lot of industrial owners that I talk with, they have to hit certain ESG criteria. Why not create a place for your employees to enjoy while hitting your ESG milestones? So, there are opportunities in the industry.
I always say that there’s going to be a future where everyone will be working with a placemaking firm to create destinations.
How much of a development budget should go toward placemaking?
You’ve got to be a bit creative on calculating the ROI. A practical rule of thumb is 1-3% of hard construction costs. Sometimes, it’s a bit harder to understand and quantify the return. The perception of a place and changing how people behave does not happen overnight.
“Great placemaking can happen for $50,000 or $5m”
That being said, it’s more about the intentionality than the size of budget. Great placemaking can happen for $50,000 or $5m, depending on the vision and the scope.
