What is Community Core?

Community is at the core. The Community Core is a dense, vertically integrated mixed-use neighborhood (or district) with a mission. Why vertically integrated? Because stacking residential, office, academic, entertainment, fitness, and other uses on top of a visually enriching and socially interactive streetscape of shops, eateries, and other commercial businesses establishes density and substance to a community. A lot of people in the same place at the same time doing different things generates energy, and creates a dynamic, constantly changing environment.

The Community Core is a model Stark Enterprises strives to live out daily.

AT THE INTERSECTION OF MAIN & MAIN

The Community Core must be located at the epicenter of the local community and must have immediate access to primary regional connectors, e.g. light rail and/or freeways. As such, the Community Core serves simultaneously to define the heart identity of the local community and to be the logical hub of the surrounding region. As hub of the area, the Community Core connects various and otherwise disparate assets of a region, natural and cultural, to a common (and shared) point, maximizing efficiencies and strengthening synergies, i.e. actualizing the potentials of regionalization.

Our Westlake, Ohio property, Crocker Park, exemplifies this perfectly. Built over 12 city blocks and located right off major highway exits, Crocker Park is the core to the West side, inviting all traveling from near and far a communal space to create memories and experiences together.

COMMUNITY BEFORE COMMERCE

The Community Core’s mission is not merely physical or commercial but, most importantly, cultural. Its agendas are quality of life in the 21st century and how to be competitive in the global economy. Both agendas are dependent upon a walkable lifestyle that delivers mixed use density interwoven with health and wellness, higher education/research, and the arts. Such rarified environments will attract and keep the best and the brightest, which enables a community to be globally competitive. This principle applies to and is necessary for urban centers, inner ring suburbs, bedroom community exurbs, and major university campus neighborhoods to position themselves in the global community. Interestingly, the most desirable lifestyle of every era seems to derive from a place of gathering characterized by an eclectic mix of commercial, social, scientific, and artistic offerings. In ancient times, the core was found at the city gate where trade routes provided these things. The often-employed central piazza flanked by the palace, the parliament, the great museum, the opera house, the academy, and the cathedral served as the community core for centuries.

Our student housing project on the campus of University of Texas Arlington, Liv+ and soon to be on the campus of University of Florida Gainesville, exemplifies the meaning behind our mission. Starting right in a prestigious university where young adults are learning and thriving, we developed a community living space to feed those sparks and inspiration. Creating a residential space that allows students to both balance their work with their free time allows for one to truly thrive.

ESSENTIAL COMPONENTS OF CREATING THE COMMUNITY CORE

– Retail/Entertainment/Dining
– Office/Corporate
– Residential/Senior Housing
– Health & Wellness
– Higher Education/Information Center
– The Arts
– Civic & Cultural Institutions
– Mixed Age & Social Class
– Culture-scape/Sustainability and Green Buildings

Community Core real estate development services include residential, office and mixed-use developments.

Eton Chagrin Boulevard, our property in Woodmere, Ohio, exemplifies this list by combining all the necessary components into one revived lifestyle center. Fine dining, national and local shopping paired with events, programs, and award-winning gardens creates an ideal center for the community to thrive in.