Pago USA provides Class A standards that boost community pride, making small town America a place where people have enhanced opportunities for personal and professional growth.
Small and medium size towns have exciting histories and are competing for talent and capital on an increasingly uneven playing field. We want to help make them competitive once again by creating conditions that enhance community pride and inspire people to live a full life in their town.
That’s up to you! Each community is unique. As examples, we may partner with the city government, a chamber of commerce, community foundation, or other organization as necessary. Once the application is completed by a member of your community, we will work together to determine the next steps.
Our focus is on communities that range in population from 8,000 to 20,000 residents, and we consider the entire USA to be our footprint. However, the Midwest is our home so we have begun our work with communities in Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio.
Restore the core buildings in your village (usually downtowns) to Class A standards in a 24-36 month timeframe.
Pago USA has an established set of criteria that helps determine which communities are good candidates, and we proactively reach out to those communities. However, for any community interested in learning more, you can contact us through our website. Ultimately any community we work with will complete an application.
In Latin, “pago” means “village.” We want our company’s name to reflect our vision of restored, vibrant and dynamic small towns across the United States.
Small and medium cities are often overlooked by the development community not only because economies of scale are much easier to achieve in big cities, but because those communities simply aren’t prepared. Leadership, finances, vision, and community support are all critical to the success of any development. Simply put, our application process helps us determine which communities are prepared to move forward.
We believe local ownership is the best outcome for the long term. We strongly believe in public/private partnerships that result in the public gaining something they could not otherwise. In this case, we’re talking about the revitalized public square, or village. Once completed, the revitalized village could be purchased by a downtown trust, community foundation, or not-for-profit that would allow the community to own and operate their village. This would permit the village to pay taxes and be continually improved while giving the entire community a sense of pride and respect.
Generally, we will work with local/regional social impact investors and banks to bring the required equity and debt for the project. Our experience throughout the Midwest and nationally also allows us to bring lenders and investors from outside the area when necessary.
It is important to remember that investors must be able to make a return on their investment. Small cities are competing against the returns offered by “safer” investments such as Wall Street and real estate in large cities. In many cases, local public financing will be required to close financial gaps, thus allowing the project’s expected returns to be competitive.
We bring value to you by:
- Bringing the investors and lenders who can make your restored village a reality.
- Negotiating with current property owners.
- Bringing the tenants who will lease space in the restored village.
- Identifying and securing federal and state resources to close financial gaps.
- Managing the construction process to completion.
In return for this value, we require fees, which are received after we have performed the work and only if the project moves forward. Typically the fees are segmented into a development fee and construction management fee, and both are based upon performance and the size of the project.