Revitalination 765 621 4190

Rural Indiana — and beyond

Small towns shouldn't just hang on.They should thrive.

Revitalination brings resources, experience and straight answers to rural communities and the people who volunteer to run them. We are from these places. We are still here after the meeting.

Ask us something Who we're for
Two former economic development directors Rural is the specialty, not the exception 40 years+ in rural development Eight years elected and accountable

What small towns are missing is not effort. It's access.

Who we're for

The people who actually run these towns.

Rural communities are held together by good-hearted people doing this on top of a real job. The problem was never willingness. It's that it takes years to learn who to call, what a program really requires, and which step has to come first.

The newly elected official

Six months in, holding decisions you didn't create, trying to work out who has your community's best interest at heart.

The volunteer board

You meet at night, after work, because somebody has to. Nobody handed you a manual for redevelopment finance.

The clerk, manager or director

You inherited three half-finished projects, a filing cabinet of studies, and a phone that rings with questions nobody else can answer.

The town that's been planned before

You've done this. There's a binder on the shelf to prove it. Very little on the ground changed.

The plan, honestly

A comprehensive plan is a starting line.

Most communities need one, and we would be glad to write yours. Strategic planning, facilitation and implementation are what this team does. We know how a plan gets built, what it has to contain, and — the part that usually gets skipped — what has to happen after the vote. We bring additional expertise to the table whenever a community’s plan calls for it. What we will not do is let anyone confuse the document with the outcome.

What the plan does

  • Meets the state requirement
  • Makes you eligible for many grant programs
  • Sets a broad twenty-year direction
  • Puts community input on the record
  • Gives your boards something to point to

What it doesn't do

  • Tell you how to acquire the building on the corner
  • Show what the sewer extension really costs to finance
  • Name who has to vote, and in what order
  • Survive contact with the first hard decision
  • Move anything by itself

Going deeper

We'd rather help you make things happen.

Broad and shallow is what a comprehensive plan is designed to be. The work that changes a town is narrow and deep — one project, one property, one funding path at a time.

01

How the money actually moves

TIF, bonds, incentives, matches and grants with strings attached. What a program really requires, and what it will cost you to say yes.

02

How property gets untangled

Tax sale, clouded titles, heirs nobody can find, demolition, and the long road back to the tax rolls. We have done this, not read about it.

03

How a decision survives a meeting

Notice, sequence, which board votes first, and how to bring a room along instead of surprising it. Most projects die here, not on paper.

04

Who to call

State programs, agencies, partners and lenders — and the people inside them. Knowing the right name can save a community two years.

Before The corner at West Washington, Alexandria — at auction, with no bidder in the room
After The same corner today — national headquarters of Kleenco
Before The storefronts next door, early in the work
After 111 West Washington Street — the block kept going

Twenty-five people came to the auction to see what the building would bring. Nobody bid.

A phone call to a local business owner put it in private hands for $10,000. Two weeks later he told the Mayor it had to come down — the cost was more than the building was worth. The real problem was next door: an abandoned building with a collapsed roof, quietly pulling his foundation with it.

We found a way to get him that building too. Today you cannot see where one ends and the other begins — and the company did not stop there. The storefronts down the block followed, and the corner is now a national headquarters.

That is the difference between a recommendation and an outcome.

Just ask

Call before you need us.

Every community needs engineers, attorneys and bond counsel, and the good ones are worth every dollar. What small towns rarely have is the person in between — someone who knows how the pieces fit together and will take the call when there's no invoice attached.

We have no project waiting at the end of your plan. That is the entire point.

Your community decides what matters most. We have no reason to prefer one answer over another — only that you choose something real and start moving.

Ask the question. If the answer takes five minutes, it's free. If it takes five months, we'll tell you that too.

The team

People who have held the seats.

A small team on purpose. You get the people whose names are on the page.

Darren Reese

Development + Implementation

Darren Reese

Former economic development director in Marion, Indiana, and today president and CEO of CESCO Environmental. Darren works where plans meet reality — redevelopment, development financing, environmental conditions and the site problems that stop projects before they start. He has served in statewide leadership within Indiana's redevelopment community and has held an Indiana real estate license for many years.

  • Redevelopment
  • Development finance
  • Environmental
  • Real estate
John Dockrey

Leadership + Community Connection

John Dockrey

Eight years as an elected city official, and the person who created his community's redevelopment commission. John has served as Main Street director, chamber of commerce executive director and city economic development director — with hands-on experience moving tax-sale and underused property back onto the tax rolls. He is also a licensed drone operator and builds the public-facing tools that keep work visible after the meeting ends.

  • Elected official
  • Tax sale + blight
  • Chamber + Main Street
  • Drone + digital
Phil Anderson

Listening + Strategy

Phil Anderson

Rural strategy, statewide community development and professional facilitation. Phil leads community conversations using a strengths-based SOAR approach — Strengths, Opportunities, Aspirations, Results — that moves a room from complaint to commitment and gives local leaders something they can carry forward.

  • SOAR facilitation
  • Rural strategy
  • Public engagement

Start here

Tell us what is stuck.

A downtown block. A property nobody can untangle. A grant you're not sure is worth the match. A council that can't agree on what comes first. Call and we'll tell you straight whether we can help.

(765) 621-4190 john@revitalination.com 901 North Wabash Ave.
Marion, Indiana 46952

Know who you are. Choose where you are going.
Build the tools to get there.

Revitalination

Rural community development · Indiana