We’ve been running a series of interviews with Comstor Outdoor founder Jason Duff. Last week Jason talked about a billboard advertising success for a client. This week he talks about steps he’s taken to keep his downtown vibrant.  A thriving downtown means a thriving out of home company.

Tell us about your urban development projects.

I fell in love with the small hallmark historic downtowns that are peppered around the Midwest.  These towns are not great at telling their story. They need help from the outdoor advertising industry. We can put these towns on the map! We began our work in Bellefontaine Ohio a few years ago. We set out to create Ohio’s most lovable downtown. It started with buying empty buildings and recruiting new businesses and coffee shops and restaurants. Fast forward to today: we’ve purchased 66 buildings and and invested about $40 million in capital.  We started 7 new restaurants 2 coffee shops 2 craft beer bars, 40 new loft apartments… I have to credit the success of this to having outdoor advertising tools to market each one of our tenants – their businesses, their needs for hiring employees, whatever. We’ve built a vibrant downtown.

How was the Bellefountaine project financed?

There’s a lot of traditional bank financing. We have not taken on any investors. Three community banks have funded $20-30 million. These community banks were my original billboard customers. That’s how I got a relationship. I know the the marketing person at these institutions and they trusted me.

Billboard Insider’s Take:  Become part of the fabric of your community like Jason and you’ll have fewer obstacles to expanding your out of home business.  What are you doing to become part of the fabric of your community?  How are you helping your downtown flourish?  Email davewestburg@billboardinsider.com and we’ll run a followup post.

To receive a free morning newsletter with each day’s Billboard insider articles email info@billboardinsider.com with the word “Subscribe” in the title.  Our newsletter is free and we don’t sell our subscriber list.

Paid Advertisement