The Unlikely Intersection of Art, Commercial Real Estate, and Location Intelligence

When I was in Louisville, Kentucky a few months ago for a training contract, I noticed a very novel adaptive reuse of a very often overlooked portion of downtown commercial properties – colorful works of art adorned the back doors of local businesses. Yes, the back doors. Doors that faced alleys or parking garages. Doors that thousands of people walked by every day and paid absolutely zero attention to. Doors that had once been covered with graffiti or rust were now the canvasses for some remarkable displays of art.

This clever approach to repurpose one of the most overlooked pieces of a Commercial Real Estate building is called Alley Gallery, a project of the Louisville Downtown Partnership to repurpose alley and back-of-the-building metal doors into an outdoor gallery featuring the work of local artists. Local artists are able to showcase their art, and businesses that take advantage of the new audience that the art provides have placed their signage next to the doors and effectively increased their advertising with nearly zero effort. Win-win.

So where can you find these amazing new doors? Well, there’s Location Intelligence for that. Thanks to an interactive Esri StoryMap you can easily find and visit all of these great works of art (and their associated businesses) if you ever find yourself in downtown Louisville.

Will your city be the next to improve its commercial properties in such a way? How else can art and Location Intelligence be used in concert to improve other aspects of Commercial Real Estate?