'The Hub' with Michael Allen sponsored by Manpower Richmond

Ep. 27 | Roxie Deer Talks Richmond Neighborhood Restoration, The Deer Family Fund, and More on The Hub With Michael Allen

• Kevin Shook • Episode 27

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A city feels different when a corner starts to glow. That’s the magic of the newly restored Readmore Building—and the entry point to a bigger story with Roxie Deer, Executive Director of Richmond Neighborhood Restoration (RNR), as she joins host Michael Allen on The Hub Podcast, sponsored by Manpower Richmond.

We start with Roxie’s personal roots in Richmond: a multigenerational upbringing, losing her mom to breast cancer, and why she chose to stay when she could have left. That loss sparked the Deer Family Fund, which now supports women’s health, education, transportation to treatment, and access to cooling caps—small interventions with outsized dignity.

From there we dive into the work: how Richmond Neighborhood Restoration grew from a volunteer crew saving one house a year to a nimble nonprofit catalyzing multiple projects, including the Readmore transformation and the shift downtown powered by Revitalize Richmond, a $25 million Lilly Endowment initiative with more than $80 million matched.

Roxie breaks down how RNR selects buildings (safety, exterior impact, end use, financial feasibility), why modern kitchens and bathrooms don’t betray history, and how safeguards like Indiana Landmarks’ 0% loans and realistic covenants protect both heritage and future owners. We also unpack the downtown strategy—recruiting retail with a national partner, supporting local entrepreneurs, and aligning new apartments with property managers so spaces don’t sit empty. And we face the hard calls: the library’s renovation and location, and the beloved but precarious Crane House, where cost, safety, and symbolism collide.

This is a candid, hopeful look at how small cities win: block by block, with clear-eyed budgets, creative partnerships, and neighbors who show up. If you care about historic preservation, downtown revitalization, or what it takes to turn pride into policy and projects, you’ll feel right at home here.


🎙️ Catch every episode of The Hub Podcast with host Michael Allen, sponsored by Manpower Richmond: mprichmond.com/the-hub-podcast

🌐 Learn more about Richmond Neighborhood Restoration (RNR): www.rnrinc.org

🌐 Explore Revitalize Richmond: earlham.edu/revitalize-richmond

💙 Support the Deer Family Fund: Donate at waynecountyfoundation.org
and add “Deer Family Fund” in the donation notes


📱 Follow on Facebook: Stay updated with both RNR and Revitalize Richmond


📢 Share this episode & leave a review: Help more people discover Richmond’s comeback story

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SPEAKER_00:

Welcome to the Hub Podcast, recorded right here in Richmond, Indiana. I'm your host, Michael Allen, and on the Hub, our mission is to share stories of people making a difference in our region. In addition to hosting the podcast, I work with a wonderful team of staffing professionals at Manpower. Manpower is helping companies all over East Central Indiana find staffing so they can continue to grow and thrive. Find out how we can help your company at mprichmond.com. With us today on this episode of The Hub is Roxy Deere. And Roxy is the executive director of Richmond Neighborhood Restoration Inc. in Richmond, Indiana. And she has served in this role for about three years. Roxy, welcome to the hub.

SPEAKER_02:

Thanks for having me. I'm so excited. I'm a um longtime listener of this podcast and first time caller. So I'm excited.

SPEAKER_00:

I'm so glad you agreed. We took a short hiatus, and uh, what a better way to get started than to have you as our guest. So it's so wonderful to have you. So before we um I got lots of things I want to ask you about, but before we talk about R, I'd like to talk about you personally. Yeah. And I haven't really kind of done this before, so I'm gonna try something a little different with you.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

Um, so from what I've learned about you personally and through my extensive research, these words come to mind. Oh no, I don't know what's gonna be there's there's no order, it's not uh all inclusive, but uh, I don't know, it just struck me. I started making this list. Okay. So it's uh transparency, dogs, family, okay, community, friends, fun, yeah, okay, buildings, events, social media. Oh, yeah. Is that a fair list? I think that's a really good I love that it went from personal, professional, fun, all you had a little bit of everything in the So just learning about you and meeting with you, these are just things that kind of came to mind about so so um so why do you think that I I said transparency?

SPEAKER_02:

I try to share everything. I try not to hide anything. Um, and I think that's I don't I think people question too is she being authentic? Is she um is she who she really portrays herself on social media or in the community? Is that real? Um and you know, we have some it's that Instagram versus reality, maybe. And um, but it it what you see in my social media is a big chunk of who I am. It's not all of it, um, but it's a big chunk of who I am. And then dogs, that's yeah, I've got Rosie and Hudson, and they're both foster failures because I continue to foster litters of puppies and they never go away.

SPEAKER_00:

Have you always been kind of a dog lover? Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

We've always had dogs growing up, and um I I'm not only passionate about my two, and they're like my children. You'll when people hear me talking about them and they've never met me, they're like, Oh, she has kids, she takes them to daycare, she's a good mom. And I'm like, these are my dogs, they have four legs, and um, they sleep on certain mattresses and they're spoiled rotten.

SPEAKER_00:

When I um met with you prior to you know going to do this, um just from your our conversation, I really felt like family was really important to you. Yeah, it's at the core of everything. Different part different members of your family. Tell us a little bit about your family.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. Um, so I grew up in a multi-generational household. It was my mom and her parents, and um, I considered my grandpa my best friend. Um, and my grandma had Alzheimer's at a young age when I was young. So I didn't get to know her as well. But my grandpa really kind of instilled my work ethic in me and his story and his, you know, his upbringing. It's he's a farm boy. And um, my mom and I were closer in my as I got older. And um her, she had breast cancer and eventually lost her life to breast cancer, and that's kind of left this legacy, this family. I need to tell this story because it's something the generations of my family are important to me, and our roots are here in Richmond.

SPEAKER_00:

So I think you shared it that you is it a a foundation that was started. Tell us a little bit about that.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, so in 2017, my mom lost her battle to breast cancer, and I that was my last living relative. And so my but my mom was so in love with her job at Reed Health, and she had volunteered for Bravo since its uh its initial year. And a lot of people rallied around her while she was sick and they wanted to support her, and she kept saying, I don't need the support financially. I don't, I have a lot of people that are in my circle taking care of me. Let's support the other women who don't. She was getting her chemo and noticing women were coming in with nobody with them. They were just coming to the so she started, um, she said, wouldn't it be fun if we just raise some money by, you know, making some honory t-shirts and the proceeds go towards Bravo and helping women in our community. And that grew. And then two days before she passed away, we had a major fundraiser at Chuck's Sports Bar and raised like$14,000. And then that just continued to grow after she passed away. People continued to want to support. And so in 2020, I launched the Dear Family Fund through the Wayne County Foundation, and people can participate in various different ways. We have a massive golf outing every year in July that raises money for the fund. Um, but then we also are launching educational initiatives to teach women about women's health. We're working with younger girls. A big component of this is me getting into the schools and into education facilities to talk to women about their bodies, educating them that it's not just their bodies they need to worry about, but your parents, your grandparents. We need to have these conversations and people get uncomfortable, but we want to break down those barriers. So the Dear Family Fund takes the money that we raise and we put it right back into our community, supporting women's health issues, women's education issues, making sure that, you know, we have if there's a cancer patient that needs to get to chemo or get to treatments and doesn't have transportation, do we have that service set up? So working closely with our healthcare providers to make sure that those needs are met met. And then we also cooling caps, which are um kind of new to the cancer realm where you can wear these hats that make your head freeze during chemo essentially, and it prevents your hair from falling out. And so we've been able to purchase those so that um because a big a big part of cancer is losing your hair, and that's your identity. And so many women identify with this has been my look for 30 years, and all of a sudden a big piece of my identity is gone, and it's you're already low, you've already hit probably the lowest point in your life hearing you have cancer and you're gonna go through chemo. Let's not make the situation worse, let's give them a little piece of their identity and let them keep that. So um, these initiatives that we're doing, we're just getting started. This is a lifetime commitment I've made to this community for women's health, and it's become something that I'm really passionate about and I get really excited about.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, that's that's just wonderful. I think uh I we'll try to make sure that Kevin puts it up on the screen when we release this, but how can people contribute to that?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, you can make donations through the Wayne County Foundation um website, and uh you just type in when you make your donation that you want that to go to the Dear Family Fund.

SPEAKER_00:

Awesome. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

That's that's and it would have been today is my mom's birthday, so that's really special to share. That is.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you. Uh community, you've talked touched on it a little bit. I I wrote down community. I I think you're you're all in.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. This this is my community. This is where when my mom passed, I had kind of the opportunity to go anywhere I wanted. And I think everyone said, like, she's gonna leave. Like, she doesn't have anything tying her here. And um, it was when I looked around, I went, well, where else can I go where I'm gonna have a job that I feel supported in, where I have a community of people who are checking in on me and making sure I'm okay, even on my worst days. But it was also gonna give me the opportunity to grow. And who is gonna say, Yeah, you fell flat on your face, you did some really stupid things, but we're gonna help you get back on your feet and we're gonna help you grow into a position that you love, into a community that you love. We're gonna give you a platform and let you be, let you make changes. We're gonna give you opportunity. So Richmond's really uh allowed me to do that.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I think that kind of flows into your your friends. Yes. Because I think you have a lot of friends. I think you're close. You've got a lot of wonderful friends. I see it on social media and I see you out and with people, and and uh I know this community, especially your friends, would really be just be devastated if you were not here.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, my friends are my family, and they are my biggest cheerleaders, my biggest supporters.

SPEAKER_00:

So and you like to have fun.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, yeah, you got it, you gotta try to have new experiences ever all the time.

SPEAKER_00:

I love your enthusiasm. Uh and I because I see you at a lot of events and you do put a lot of stuff on social media.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, I try to tell the stories.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. And then uh buildings, what I mean, you tell us a little bit about first, let me back up just a little about going to college.

SPEAKER_02:

So when you went to college, what was what were you studying and what did you Yeah, I so I went to the College of Worcester in Worcester, Ohio, and I originally went there to be in political science and um just did not love that. I wanted to be a little bit more hands-on, and so I got a um degree, an undergrad in sociology, and actually did my thesis as a case study on Richmond and how people um were connecting to education in Richmond. And that spearheaded me to come back and do some internships with communities and schools, things like that. And through that, I decided I wanted a master's and so um attended Concordia University and um received a master's in education, and then did absolutely nothing with those degrees. I worked at IU East for a few years and realized education's not where I want to be. That's not um, I wasn't getting again to be as hands-on as I wanted to. And so I worked at the chamber for a few years where I really learned about the the opportunities and the issues that our community is facing. And that was where I really it kind of focused me in. Like we've got some big issues as a community that we have continuously tried to address, but I don't know that we've ever until recently really made movements. And so that that job really led to me thinking about what's my next step? Where do I go? Where do I make the biggest impact? And a couple of things, I just I never really fell in love with any opportunity that was coming forward. And it wasn't until Dave Jetmore and I ran into each other at Firehouse Barbecue. And he said, You need to come see this building I'm working on. And I was like, okay, like I'll go, I'll go see it. And I left there feeling very inspired. And I almost made an offer on the house that we were working on, or R was working on at the time because I thought, oh, that would be fun to own that house that they've invested in. And it the next day, um, Jason Troutline called me and he said, Hey, I heard you got a tour of the property. Um, are you interested in working for us? And I said, I've never swung a hammer in my life, never painted a wall, I don't do construction. And he was like, That's not exactly the job we would need you to do in this role. And I said no and kind of hung up on him. And I was like, Oh, I guess I'm not buying that house. And um, he just Jason and Dave and Ginger, that whole team, they were kind of relentless. And um they called my friends and had my friends calling me saying, Hey, this is kind of the perfect opportunity for you. And they saw something in me that I didn't even see, and they continue to do that even now.

SPEAKER_00:

You would have been at the chamber at that time, yeah, right? Okay.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, I was um director of edge workforce education something and loved it. And I was getting to like meet some really cool people, do some really cool things, but it just felt like I was kind of okay, I want to do more now. I kind of want to take on more.

SPEAKER_00:

Because I think I I wrote down buildings, but I think your passion is not just necessarily just like rehabbing old buildings. No, no. But I mean, that's a lot of things that maybe we'll talk about in a minute, about that projects that are involved, especially the the big one, the read more.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

But um, so anyway, is there anything else that uh you think is noteworthy about I mean that's kind of the quick overview.

SPEAKER_02:

Um but that's I mean, we can dive into more here in a second, but it's I think I think people when they see me or they meet me online or they see, you know, this they go, is that really authentic? Like, is that really who she is? She really loved this community at that much. And then you meet me and you realize that's what drives me. That's what gets me out of bed every morning.

SPEAKER_00:

I'll I'll be your testimony. I this girl's for real. So thank you. No, it's been a pleasure to get to know you. So uh we're gonna go back to one thing that I've done every episode so far, maybe not the first one, but and then we uh then we kind of made it part of our our podcast is um asking you, it's because of my association with employment, manpower, and you've if since you've watched the through the podcast, you know the question probably is what was your very first job?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, so this is a good one. Um so this is funny. I was 15 and worked under the table for a local bar doing all of their menu designs. And that so that was kind of the first time I ever had like I showed up on Monday after like when the bar was not open, and I worked in the office and made my little paycheck, and then and I was out before anybody ever opened before the doors ever opened. Um, and then my first official job, like paid my taxes, um, was Subway. I actually worked at Subway with a bunch of my friends. They hired like six of us to work at one restaurant, and that was chaotic and learned a lot of life lessons there.

SPEAKER_00:

I think working I worked fast food too when I was a teenager. And I mean, I thought it was there's an element that's pretty fun about it. Yeah. Because you're hanging out with people mostly you're your age. Yep. And um it's can be chaos. Yep. And there's parts of it that aren't fun. But I don't it's just there's a little bit of a sense of community and you're when you're working in that environment.

SPEAKER_02:

The six friends that they hired, we were all in band. So summer band came, we all had to stop working. They didn't think that part through. And so then one day, you know, they're we're all like, yeah, we have to take the next two months off because we have marching bands, so we can't be here. So it was just like this moment where they were like, Oh, that's why when you hire high school students, you need to know what activities they're involved in.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, I'm glad that you were just making menus at that one at that bar, not serving, not mixing drinks. But that would have been a kind of a cool story, too. Uh you kind of told I wrote down about asking about kind of your journey from the chamber to the position you're in now. I think we kind of hit on that. Yeah. I don't know if we need to talk about that. Um for listeners who uh might not be familiar, let's go ahead and get into like you know what R's mission is and how it plays out in Richmond.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. So Richmond Neighborhood Restoration or RR, as most people call it, um, is we're in our 10th year, we're about to turn 11. And we started out kind of as a volunteer group. It was four men who just had a passion. One of them was a contractor, one of them was an um involved in the arts, one is a retired ENT, and one is a historic preservationist. And they said, there's this really cool house, let's buy it and let's restore it. And you have the construction skills. Couple of us have the money, one of us has the historic piece of it. And they, as a group and a few of their friends, restored this home, realized that when they sold it, they were gonna make money on it. So, what do you do with that money? You buy the second property. And they bought the McGuire home on Main Street, and that's a big home, and it's a very public home. And um, everyone drives by that home and goes, Oh, it's beautiful, it's beautiful. Well, they restored that one, made money, so they bought the third property. And all of a sudden, their wives are going, Hey, can you form a 501c3 so that you can collect donations and it's not just our credit cards being swiped at Menards every day? And so they formed this 501c3, um, created a board of directors, and the goal was one home a year. We'll do one home a year and we'll make a difference on Main Street. And that worked for them until about 2020 when construction prices skyrocketed. And um, they started to think about what are other opportunities, how do we do that? And so it formalized a little bit more than they had and brought in executive directors. And they've had a couple different executive, I'm the second one. And when 2021 happened, when in 2021, they had the opportunity to buy a building downtown, the former secret ingredient. And it was a partnership, first time that had ever been done with the city. And the city said, Well, we have these revitalized these redevelopment dollars, we'll give these to you if you do the work, and then the building can come back to us at the end. So did that and um handed the building back over to the city and realized that that's a really cool model because now a building has been saved in our downtown. It's not fallen to out-of-town owners. It's um, and so we during while we're having that conversation with the city, Earlum has come to us and said, hey, there's this opportunity for this grant of$25 million. Is that something you'd like to be interested in? And we're doing all of that, but we're still doing our residential homes on Main Street. And so we focused on that while we wrote this grant with Earlum, and um, all of a sudden this grant happens, and we're gonna talk a little bit more about that. And so our whole focus has kind of shifted. We're still doing residential, but our big focus right now is this downtown district.

SPEAKER_00:

So we're not really doing anything on Main on Main Street where the residential homes are.

SPEAKER_02:

Not right now. We we have a home on North 12th Street that we're remodeling in the star neighborhood.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay.

SPEAKER_02:

And that home, the Washington Doolin home, built in 1876, is absolutely gorgeous. Mahogany woodwork throughout the whole home. And so we're doing that one. It's the first project we've done in the star neighborhood. Um, but our focus, our biggest focus right now is downtown.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, it's um I guess that says there's still homes in that area that haven't been, I guess, saved obliterated by I guess land people who bought it to rent it, and they've done things in the homes and just and destroyed some of the architectural part of the buildings. I I'm not probably articulating it well, but but it's just, you know, because uh actually I've been I grew up on North 22nd Street, right across from the park. And um uh million years ago when I was in high school, I used to work on a bus route picking up kids for Sunday school.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_00:

And uh my the route was from where I live, North 22nd Street, all the way down to Fifth Street. Okay, East Street, J Street, all those homes. So we used to go knock on doors and see if kids wanted to go to church on Sunday, and we would pick them up on the church buses. And I was in a lot of those old homes, you know, and unfortunately, even back and this would have been in the um late 70s, early 80s, they were even then kind of being bought by people renting them out and chopping them up and whatever. Yeah. And that's um a little disheartening. And uh, but uh I guess there's still lots of opportunity here in 2025, there's opportunities all in that area down Main Street where these some of these homes can be.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, we are blessed as a community that the homes are still here. Um there's a group doing similar work to us in Bloomington. And um I we were visiting them and we said, Can you show us your oldest home? And it was a home built in the 50s because when the school expands, they knock down the historic homes and they build new. And while our homes may not be in good condition, at least they're still standing and they're still salvageable. So the house that we just finished on North 21st Street, the Hill House, um, or 23rd, I can't remember the Hill House, um, right there on Main Street across from the park, is in the inside, it was in horrible condition. It was it had been named the ugliest home in Wayne County at one point. And we were able to clean it all out, gut it down, get it down, you know, it needed everything new. And we were able to save it. And that's one more home that's been saved that now is back on the tax rolls for our community. People are sending their kids to school in the district. Like it is, it's that we've bought into it. We're taking something that probably should have been torn down and we've revitalized it and we've given it a new life. But if we had torn it down, you can't save it at that point.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I've always been I've struggled with when something should be preserved and torn down.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, and there's a lot of pushback. I think people think like if you're preserving it, keep it how it was. Well, no one's gonna buy a garage, a house with a garage with a dirt floor and to park your$70,000 vehicle in. So when we have to modernize, we have to put in a beautiful kitchen with natural light. We know that's what people want. We have to put in modern bathrooms, we have to have the th the washer and dryer. Like we can't we have to have plumbing in these homes. The house on 12th Street didn't have a kitchen when we got there. Um, and so at one point, the I don't know that the original house had an indoor kitchen. We think it had an exterior kitchen. And so we have to do all of that so that a new family will move into it. No one's buying a home today with an old kitchen because that's an investment you have to make. And so we're doing those modern updates to a historic home.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, there's so many, there's so many homes and only enough time and I mean projects can take it on. So it seems daunting, but I mean I I like your approach and about you know keeping the building, keeping the home standing, but understanding you do have to make some adjustments to it to make it.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, keep the woodwork, keep the the beautiful arch architecture elements when you can, but make it livable so that someone can move into it and actually use it as a home.

SPEAKER_00:

So what is uh with your job right now, kind of what's your what's the typical I I think it's probably not fair to say a typical day for you because I mean there's so many things that I think that you could use a day for. Yeah. But kind of what's your I don't know, your work routine, maybe if you if you maybe unfair to ask like a day, but like a week or a month. What's kind of what's your activity like?

SPEAKER_02:

It really depends on where we're at with the projects. So if we're in the planning phase working with the planners to make sure that the blueprints are designed and the renderings and then getting quotes from contractors and making sure the buildings are open. Um all of our buildings get at least weekly walkthroughs. Some of them are getting daily walkthroughs, depending on the condition of them. As we get into the winter months, those become daily walkthroughs for every building because you can't let an old building sit in bad weather. Um, and then, you know, behind the scenes, you're doing marketing, you're doing the day-to-day upkeep, you're, you know, making sure people are getting paid on time, you're doing the board development pieces, you're doing, I I think people see me in front of the computer and then they see me walking down Main Street, and then I'm back in front of a computer. Every day is different. Um, yesterday I got a call from a contractor said, Hey, we have a bit of an emergency. Um, can you can you be here in 10 minutes? And everything I was planning to do that day came to a complete halt. And I had to run to the Menards to help solve a problem. And you just kind of have to be on the fly almost all the time, which is not always a great work environment, but we're lucky that we have a lot of buildings and I can just pop in and work wherever I need to work.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

So what is your project list right now? I mean, what's great? Great question.

SPEAKER_02:

So we have the house on North 12th, the Doolin. Um, we just completed the Readmore building. So that is currently on our list of projects. Um, really, we're kind of in the marketing phase of that one, is telling the story about that renovation. And then we own the second national or US bank building downtown. Um, and we can talk more about that project. So those are the three that we currently own and are working on, but we have about six in the pipeline that we are getting plans for, quotes for acquisition. All of those things are coming down the pipeline.

SPEAKER_00:

These six that you're talking about, are these ones that have already been purchased or ones that you're we don't own them yet.

SPEAKER_02:

We don't own them yet. But we don't typically bone um purchase a property until we have the quotes, um, the renderings, all of those things. Because until I can get an engineer in the building to make sure it's safe, we're not gonna purchase a building that we have to tear down. And RR will not make it a thing to tear down buildings. That's not what we want to do. That's someone else's job. Yeah. And so we make sure buildings are safe before we ever purchase them.

SPEAKER_00:

So this six is just kind of a kind of a wish list. A wish list of ones that would you would love to get your hands on and and and turn it into a project. And it doesn't sound like maybe they're nothing's really happening with them right now.

SPEAKER_02:

Publicly, no. But I mean, just this afternoon I'll go through renderings of one of them with an um a construction team, and we'll if you look at the renderings that we have of Breedmore from when we started to now, the renderings don't even look the same. The kitchens have all moved, the bathrooms have all moved. And that's the beauty of an old building is that once you get in there, everything changes. And so that requires a lot of one-on-one and a lot of time in the building. My design team, once we start a project, we are in a in there once a week, twice a week, making sure that hey, if you put the refrigerator here, it's gonna lean because this floor is not even. So you gotta all those things have to, you know, every little decision uh requires at least two people on it.

SPEAKER_00:

So the uh hit on this a little bit, but part of one of my questions I'd written down was like, how do you decide what your next project will be? And I I mean, you kind of hit on that, but is it is it about a strategy or is it about an opportunity? I don't know if you know what I mean by that. So I mean i it's like oh, here's a great opportunity with this building that we didn't know and we can really do some good here, or do you have I don't think you have this well when it was Main Street, the properties, that was maybe a strategic plan. But I don't think we do a little bit.

SPEAKER_02:

So it's a little bit of both, I think. Um when we're look we have a selection criteria, we evaluate every home or building, and one of the things we look for is how does it look on the outside? Because if we are only improving the inside, that doesn't improve the community or the neighborhood. So one of the highest priorities is is it safe and what will the impact of the building be once it's completed? And you can see the visible difference on the readmore corner because we were able to not just give it a fresh coat of paint, but we've created an energy there. And that's what we look for in our projects, especially in downtown Richmond. But when we're looking at residential, how much money is it going to cost to put into this project? Can we sell the building for that? And what you know, the acquisition cost of these properties is astronomical, and which is unfortunate. So a lot of times that's the first hiccup is can we even purchase the property? We have a property that we would love to own. It's marked at$80,000 and it's valued at about$8,000. So this these are things that we're constantly evaluating. Obviously, we like to stay in similar neighborhoods. Downtown Richmond is an easy neighborhood. Main Street, those are visible neighborhoods. Stars not as visible, but the historic architecture and the importance of that neighborhood matter to us. Um, when we're evaluating projects in downtown Richmond, what's the end goal with that building? How will it be used? Is it usable? Um, will is the storefront space attractive to a potential business owner? Um, those are all things that we look at.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, the exterior has a huge impact because you know, I don't know. I mean, I think of the readmore building and what it looks like. I mean that corner now, it has a kind of a glow. Yeah, it sparkles. Yeah, I mean it's just it definitely creates a different type of vibe and feel when you drive by there. And and uh I think we business owners uh underestimate how important it is to have the exterior of their business looking nice. Yeah. I mean, and it's not always about money, it's just it's about cleanliness and trash and like someone lives there.

SPEAKER_02:

It's yesterday I was walking into Reedmore and this is like eight o'clock at night. I was working pretty late last night, and I'm I'm unlocking the door, and you know, it's dark outside or getting dark, and cars are going by, and someone shouts at me, Wait. Something's happening in that building. And I said, Yeah, it's been restored. We're, you know, people are going to move into it. And they went, That's so cool. And they're just looking up, they're at a stoplight, just looking up at the building. And it you could see them processing, like, oh, that building's been saved. And oh, something cool is gonna happen there. And the light turned green and they're still sitting there staring at the building. And that's kind of a moment that happens all the time down there is they're what's happening? What's going on in that building? They shout at me, you know, every time they see me. And it's just fun to see people walking by and they stop and they stare. And it's just it's a cool mission that we have.

SPEAKER_00:

And hopefully with other projects that aren't necessarily RR related, you know, that's gonna add to that kind of feel.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Especially in the downtown area.

SPEAKER_02:

Kevin has a great photo of downtown Richmond that I've recently used that you can see all of the buildings. And I can go down each building from I think the picture starts at the courthouse and goes, I think, all the way down to eight to the bar. And there's a plan in place for almost every building in that that radius. And that's something that's truly incredible for a community our size is that we have invested so much money that in five years this downtown will not look the same.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Um I believe it's it's definitely heading in the right direction. And I I I love to see all the things that's going on. I mean, I'm part of the downtown. So I mean, I I'm have interest in wanting to go that way.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, and you've invested in this downtown when no one else was investing in it, right? You've continued to be that building at the end of the block that you've maintained your yard, you've kept it up, you're not letting your building fall apart, and now we're all catching up to you. And we're all like, oh wait, hold on. They're doing something really cool down there. Let's let's support them. So thank you for your investment.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, thank you. Uh let's talk about uh I had a note here about money, about navigating funds and partnerships. Um well, how do you navigate funding and partnerships in a smaller city like Richmond? Yeah, but really I think it comes into we could talk about the Lily money and all that stuff. And I don't know if maybe we start.

SPEAKER_02:

I'm just gonna hand it off and you can try to make this a hot potato question.

SPEAKER_00:

My question uh look a little bit better.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, so let's start with Revitalize Richmond and kind of what that grant looks like. Um so Revitalize Richmond is funding through the Lily Endowment. And Dakota Collins and the Earl team can get into all the weeds with you on these. But essentially, um, the Lilly Endowment said, hey, if you're a four-year institution in the state of Indiana, we have an opportunity for you to apply for$25 million for a project in your community. The goal is that your college is connecting to your community with this these funds. And so Earlum back in 2023, in the January, February, March, pulled a team together of community developed, you know, community people, community leaders, and they said, where's our biggest need? And where can we leverage? Because Lily said also find matching funds. And the more matching funds you find, the more money you get. And we knew that the Elder Beerman housing complex was going in. We knew that that was coming, or we thought it was coming in at that point, we were pretty sure. And so that's a huge investment. And so we could use the funds that they were planning to spend there as part of the matching funds. So that does not mean that the Elder Beerman building is part of revitalized Richmond. It's just counting the money that they're using is counting, was we were able to leverage to gain more money.

SPEAKER_00:

Because they're not getting any of that money.

SPEAKER_02:

I don't believe so. I I'll let Dakota answer that question. He knows the grant better.

SPEAKER_00:

I wish we had like a call-in line. Because we give Dakota call in right now.

SPEAKER_02:

Hey, Dakota, and he's done some great podcasts where he's answered some questions too. So, and they have a great website that I'm sure Kevin can link to and to provide more information. Um, so that$25 million, though, um, if we're able to leverage that plus some other investments that are being made downtown, we were able to kind of put them into three categories activate, build, and connect. And so inside that$25 million, you have the RR projects, which are four to five buildings downtown that we restore small buildings. Um, and then they've also um they're working with the parks department to do some of the work in the gorge activation plan. There's some beautification efforts, but there's also money for some of the bigger buildings downtown, um, including Oddfellows, which we're in right now. And that's a partnership with a private developer. Um we were Revitalized Richmond was able to give him some money to help support that project, but he took on the Oddfellows, the Nolenbergs building, the Hiddle building, which is that big, ugly green one, Caddy Corner from the Reed Moore building, which a lot of people just drive by and like don't even acknowledge because it's so ugly looking. Um, he also took on the Cheese Grater building, which, you know, that's that building, you love to hate it because it's just kind of an eyesore. And so his investment coupled with the money that Revitalized Richmond made that project possible. And so you've got this 25 million, but then I think there's like 83 in matching funds. So where you've got over a hundred million dollars being invested. And most of these projects, I think anything with revitalized Richmond has to be completed by 2028. So we've got a timeline, we've got checkpoints that we have to meet, met metrics that we have to have throughout the, you know, we do quarterly reports, monthly reports. Um, Dakota and I talk, I think, daily on every project that we're working on. Um, and RR is taking on those small buildings because we're a small organization doing this work, but those big investments will make the big impact. So that's revitalize Richmond. And I think that's where people are like, well, is that federal funds? Is that state funds? It's all private funds through the Lilly Endowment. Um, RR also uses other funds to help support our organization. So we work with our financial institutions. We're so blessed with great institutions here in our community that support us with low interest rates on construction loans. We also use Indiana Landmarks. They're a major partner of our organization, and they do 0% interest loans for us on every project that we do residentially. They're also helping us when we purchase a property downtown to make sure that that property stays in good hands and has um protective covenants on it so that if the building were to ever go up for sale, um, that the person doesn't paint the building hot pink, you know, and that would and ruin all the work that we've put into it. So um, but also being aware that you can't sell a building with a million protective covenants on it because nobody wants that either. You want to you want to buy a building and do with it what you want. Right.

SPEAKER_00:

We have the liberty to do some of the things you would like. And a lot of the things that you own.

SPEAKER_02:

And they're really great to work with because they understand that it it's better to have the building than to have the building with the original windows. Like let let's work with everybody and make sure that this is applicable and real life and usable.

SPEAKER_00:

Um I'm gonna go I I'm gonna go and ask you a couple of questions uh toward the end here, but I had just some random things that I wanted to ask you about that I wrote I put in the middle of my notes. Library renovation. What are your thoughts about that?

SPEAKER_02:

That is a beautiful building, and I wish that there was a silver bullet that we could find to solve this problem. Um, I haven't looked at the renderings, I haven't seen, I don't, this is not a project we're taking on. Um I trust their team. We have to have a library in this town. We can't not have one. And so maybe there's an alternative an option B, C, or D. Um, and I really hope that as a community we come together and support whatever the best option is. We have to have a library though.

SPEAKER_00:

Don't you think though it should stay where it's at?

SPEAKER_02:

I mean, I think it's a great location, especially with all the investments we're making downtown. As someone who needs co-working space, I need an office that's I don't want to be in the same office every single day. So the library is a great opportunity for that. So I hope it stays in downtown Richmond.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I just would like to see, I think where it's at, and I do believe the building needs a majority.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. Oh, absolutely. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

And uh, but I just think that it complements what we're trying to do down here.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, and I worry about if they if you know they don't get the funding that they need, what happens to that building? And now we've invested all of this money in downtown Richmond and we have a major building sitting empty. So we have to find a solution. And everyone needs to come to the table and work together. And I think I've said this to you. This is the first time in my 12 years of being back in Richmond that I've seen everyone working towards the same goal for downtown Richmond, and we have the funding. Can we do that for I think we've set the the model for how this works. Let's do this for other projects in town, and the library is a good example.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, I'm hoping to have them on good this program because I I think there's some information that they can share about the programs and what's in the library and what could be offered to community. And I think not that it's not out there, but I just think more and more information we can get out there about what goes on in the walls and there it would be good for people to hear about.

SPEAKER_02:

I work in the library a lot. I go in and I, you know, I get a small office space or I work at a big table, and I've done just last week I did a presentation for them, a community like presentation about downtown. They offer so many resources that are untapped. I mean, you can print in there, and it's way cheaper than if you printed at UPS or anything like that. You can rent cooking sheets, you can rent tools, you can check out, I mean, besides the books and the the movies and the all those things, but they have become very creative in how their library can be used. And it's matching, I just wish everyone was using it. Like I carry my library card, I'm a proud library card member, library member, and I wish more people took advantage of that.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

We'll see how that goes, and we're definitely gonna keep our eye on it. You have all the apartments down here.

SPEAKER_02:

Uh-oh.

SPEAKER_00:

Can we fill them up?

SPEAKER_02:

Yes, absolutely. I get daily questions about when can I rent the readmore pro apartments and when when will they be available? Are they pet friendly? Or how much is rent and everything? And we aren't the organization who's gonna manage that. We do the construction and we hand the project off. And but I it's a daily question. There I have I think the statistic is like 40% of our workforce lives outside of Richmond. If they live closer, they're making an investment. They're they're coming here. And we need them to live in good housing options because you have kids, you know that if they're living in unsafe, not quality housing, they're not going to stay. They're going to leave, they're going to go to the next best option. So let's give them great, beautiful places to live that they're proud to call home, even if it's a temporary home. You know, they haven't bought it, they don't have a mortgage yet. Um let's give them quality homes because then they're more likely to stick around and become lifelong residents.

SPEAKER_00:

R and R, you're you're not in the landlord business. No, and we don't want to be. So once you get into like the project you've done with Reedmore, that that has to be handed off to someone else, and then they're going to whoever that is, and and that's gonna now that's gonna be rented and whatever. I mean, because those apartments are not rented.

SPEAKER_02:

They're not, and unfortunately, I just I secret ingredient, I just don't know that that the the current owner of the city um has been able to put the time and energy. They're just overworked in the city right now. And so um, but the future R and R projects, readmore moving forward, every project from Readmore forward will have a different owner. And it's I'm not gonna make that announcement today, unfortunately. I wish I could. Um, but they will make that announcement um pretty soon, I think, that they're what properties they're purchasing from us and they outside of readmore and they have property managers already in place. They are already talking to business owners to fill that storefront. They are already moving the needle so that this next owner is can open the doors and move in. So and we've done everything on our end. Wi-Fi's hooked up. The everything is move in ready. You've been in there, the appliances are there, everything is they're move in ready.

SPEAKER_00:

Is I didn't get to see the apartments at Secret. Yeah, are those apartments similar? Yes, very similar.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, it's kind of same layout.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I'm not trying to not try to cause trouble. But I'm just yeah, I'm just curious about it just because it would be nice if they were rented. And I don't think something like that is useful sitting empty over a long period of time.

SPEAKER_02:

It's not, it's really unfortunate. It's and it's no fault to anyone in the city building. I it's just they have too much on their plate right now with all the other problems. And so I'm hopeful I've heard rumblings that something's happening with that building. Um, I can't that's not my story to tell. Um, but it was a perfect partnership as far as we have a building that's gonna go up for sale. Let's not let it fall to out of town owners, let's put some money into it and invest in it. And now whoever takes over it, or if the city decides to manage it, they've got a beautiful property that they can just put storefronts in, put renters in upstairs, and it'll be ready to go.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I mean, retail can work in that in that building because it worked for a really long time for secrets. I mean, they had a nice run.

SPEAKER_02:

Yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

And uh so it can be done. And I I think with some of the other housing in the in the area, it's it's gonna help places like that, storefront and others to have a better opportunity for success. Yes, because there's gonna be more people here that would buy the goods, services, or whatever.

SPEAKER_02:

We've always had this conversation in town. Is it the chicken or the egg? Is it the people or the businesses which come first? And revitalize Richmond is the first time that we've said, let's not pick one, let's do both. Let's put we've got a recruiter looking to fill the storefronts with um revitalize Richmond. We've got John Shebish now in the small business support role. So if you're a business that's just starting or an existing business that's been here for 50 years, you have someone supporting you to make sure your business is a well-oiled machine. And now we've also got this apartment piece going in. So you don't have to worry about are there people that are going to come downtown because they're already down here. So it's kind of a burger. Yeah, he is. He's I see him up and down the street all day. So, John, feel free to stop by May Power.

SPEAKER_00:

We'd love to see you.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, he's doing an awesome job.

SPEAKER_00:

And it's okay that you're not gonna make an announcement today. Although a lot of people choose the hub to make major announcements. I'll come back for another. This is a great venue to make some big time announcements. Um let's see. I t I spoke about a little bit about retail. I think it is important for down here in this area.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Um how are we going to whose job is it to kind of help that going? Is it the chamber? Is it someone like Sheebish?

SPEAKER_02:

Or is it I mean who And that's that's been the million-dollar question is who's responsible for all of this? And the, you know, you have the main street organization, you have the chamber, you have the foundation, you have the EDC, you have the city. Everybody cares about it, but no one kind of had the role of it being in charge. And so Revitalize Richmond has said, hey, there's this great group called Retail Strategies, and they recruit, they're they're based in Birmingham, I think is where they're at. And their sole job is to come into small towns like ours, look at the open office spaces that we have, the open retail spaces, and go, this is a perfect fit for regional that need to expand or get their first. So maybe it's a farmer's market person who is ready to take on a storefront. They've done it, you know, at home for years. Now it's maybe it's a state, you know, somebody who's in Indianapolis and needs a second location. Or maybe it's a national chain and they're looking to have smaller pop-up, you know, smaller, not pop-up, because that means they're here for a little bit and gone, um, but smaller scale stores in downtowns. And that's becoming a bigger trend too. You're even seeing it like Kroger is now doing small bodegas in small towns because they don't need to have a big, massive grocery store, but they can have a small store with just the essentials and be just as successful as their great big warehouse store. So we're seeing these trends change. And obviously, if you look at the population that's downtown right now, there's not a lot of people, but we know that we need to plan for five years. What happen what happens in 2028 when all of these apartments are starting to fill? What storefronts do we need? So there's a needs assessment that's been done. We need groceries, we need something that brings people down, places to eat, places to hang out, those kind of third spaces where people just relax and hang out.

SPEAKER_00:

Where do you see kind of R in the next five years? I mean, that's maybe I don't know. It's kind of a stock question.

SPEAKER_02:

No, it's a great question.

SPEAKER_00:

But I just like, you know, the scope of what you're doing.

SPEAKER_02:

I mean, so yeah, that's I mean, 2030 seems so far away, but it's right around the corner when you start to think about these projects. I'm hopeful by then we have completed, I we have to have completed our work in downtown Richmond through Revitalized Richmond. And I hope that that serves as kind of a nucleus for our neighborhoods now. So then we can go back to the residential pieces and really beef up the residential because we're so focused on these big projects right now that when we are when those are gone, it's gonna feel kind of like an uh like we've we're just working on one house now. So I'm hoping that we can ramp up our residential and do either focus all in on one neighborhood and have multiple properties going, or can we be in multiple neighborhoods doing one house each place or two houses each place? So I think we're gonna really, once the downtown's taken care of and we can say, Yep, that's checked, let's go to the next neighborhood. Let's go to, or maybe we go back to Main Street and say, okay, if you're driving in, what do you see and what can we fix? So we'll go back to residential full time.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, if we can that's uh that's a really great point about the the Main Street part, because if we kind of take care of Fifth Street up to the theater, maybe and then it's just a few blocks further, we we start getting into those those homes, and it would be a great area to try to take care of up to Glenn up to the park at least.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, and I think about how do you get into Richmond? So you come in off 70. What are your touch points? What are the first things you see when you walk when you come into our community? When you come in off 70 um on 40 and you're driving down the street, you see all these retail chain stores. We look like every other town in Midwest America, but then you get to the core of our community, you go, this place is a little bit different. Let's make that sparkle, let's make that read more corner happen all across our community.

SPEAKER_00:

At least the entrance isn't it's not too overwhelming retail. It's like driving into Muncie. Yes, McGaggard. Yes, awful.

SPEAKER_01:

Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.

SPEAKER_00:

McGaggard. It's just like it's just it's that's not what we want. I don't think we're gonna have that. Our our grid's not that way. But um I think if we can kind of stick with what we have and the themes, I think we'll be good. Um so here's a question I thought of. So what's your favorite hidden gym in Richmond? If you could restore any building in Richmond, no budget constraints. No, what would you do? What's kind of have you come across one like that that's kind of are you and are you allowed to say yeah, I'll say it and I'll talk about why we can't redo it right now.

SPEAKER_02:

Um it's the Crane House on um there across from the park, the old sanatorium.

SPEAKER_00:

And that building is a couple blocks from where I grew up.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, and right on Main Street, and that house and the brick building next to it. Yeah, um, I if I could, I would stand on the corner every single day and collect money from every car that passed by to save that house. Um, but it is in a red tape mess. And, you know, you have owners, you have renters, you have had people throughout the years. And you go if you go through the building or you pop your head in, um, which I don't recommend doing because it is don't be on the property. Um, I I always say that because I don't want people to be like, well, Roxy said, go look at it. Um it is down to the studs on the inside. So there is no historical significance to the inside of that building. But that building means so much to our community. Not because we all have stories there. It's not like the read more, right? Where everybody has an experience where I went and got my coffee, I got my magazine on Saturday mornings. But you drive by that building and it sets the tone for how you feel about our downtown area. And but it's about a million-dollar project.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

And that's you'll never get that out of that property. And unfortunately, I don't know that that we can save it. I really want to save it. And we're having some great conversations with all of the stakeholders about that property, but nobody wants to take it on.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Actually, we had um manpower, we had looked at that corner at one time to move our business at that corner. I mean, we're I'd have to talk to my father who was running the company at that time. But I mean, and this goes back even before we're in our current building. You know, this is probably back in the 80s or something. But that was uh kind of a location that was kind of we were thinking, how could we maybe we just thought it might be a good spot for us. But but ultimately, I don't think uh parking and that kind of uh needs like we have uh with all the people that come in out of our business looking for jobs or or whatever it would would really match. And that's why the building that we're in on 5th and Maine has been so good for us. Yeah. Um so well that that's interesting. Uh it would be nice, um, but may it's it sounds iffy that building that existence sounds a little iffy.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, and it's unfortunately it's just it's weathered so many storms, and it's I drive by it every day and I go, oh, I just I want to go in and I just want to like start painting and start, you know, I want to get an electrician in there and start fixing it. And we're just not in the place to do that yet. And I don't know that we'll get there to do it, honestly. Um, and it's it's gonna be a tough conversation for our community to have because everyone wants to save that building, but we've had the professionals in there, we've had landmarks has been in there, the city has been in there, and I don't know that there's a solution for it, but man, if I could find one that was realistic and cost effective, if I had every dollar, if Lily Endowment came in and said, We'll cover that one too, like we would do it in a heartbeat.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

But it's just it's not a feasible project right now.

SPEAKER_00:

So what's uh kind of a message uh you like listeners to take away from the work you're doing and how can people learn more or support uh Ring Forward?

SPEAKER_02:

We love all support that we can get, either financially volunteering. We have Saturday morning volunteer groups that get together every Saturday or most Saturdays. Um and so you can follow us on social media, Facebook, Instagram, um, check out our website, rnrinc.org, um, or just reach out to me and you can find me on all social medias, LinkedIn, whatever you need. Um, and we want you to be a part of this community. So if people ask me, what can I do? Be a cheerleader for us. Even if you don't want to get in and get your hands dirty, you don't want to be a part of it, celebrate it. Spread the good word that we're doing. Um, you know, we have a lot of people who love to be loud. I won't say a lot, a few people who love to be loud and not positive. And I don't ever want people to walk away feeling bad about the community that they were born and raised in or that they've moved to and invested in. And so keep it positive, keep it happy, support the people who are doing the work. Um and that doesn't mean just RR. We have hundreds of people, thousands of people who are investing in this town every single day. And the volunteers who work for Meltdown, from the restaurant owners, the business owners, support them. Don't criticize them. Be happy that they're doing something in this town, as big or as small as they can possibly do. People are the people who are making a change are doing the best they can. Let's support them. Let's not be critical and have conversations. Listen, learn, um, get to know each other before you are hyper-critical about anything people are doing.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, some great advice from Roxy Deere. Thank you. I I'm really surprised that uh so you're gonna go you're gonna be like a political science major, right? At some point, yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

I thought I thought that would be a great idea.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, um I think you I think uh folks, uh we could be looking at a really good potential mayor role. I think you would be wonderful in that role. Uh I bet I bet I think you would excel at anything that you do. You're just such great positivity and you're super smart, and I love your uh your passion for our community. So so glad that we got to have this conversation. And thank you.

SPEAKER_02:

Thank you for having me on and chatting. I I've loved getting to know you, and I love sharing the stories of what we're doing downtown.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you so much. That's all for this episode of The Hub. Thanks again for listening, and we'll see you next time for another conversation with a difference maker from our region. Manpower is proud to support the hub. Find out how they can support your business at mprichmond.com.