Downtown development can pay off, experts say

At the First Interstate Bank Operations Center on Tuesday morning, a North Carolina developer touted the public benefits of investing in downtown revitalization.

In the same building a few hours later, the regional administrator of the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development heard about efforts to create a sustainable community in the mostly industrial area that stretches east of downtown Billings to MetraPark.

The speaker at the first event was Joseph Minicozzi, executive director of the Asheville, N.C., Downtown Association. His main message was that cities need to think like farmers — in terms of yields per acre, in this case the yield of tax revenue per acre of development.

By ED KEMMICK Of The Gazette Staff

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