Studer to talk about Janesville rebuilding itself from the inside out

Oct. 16--JANESVILLE -- At the corner of East Milwaukee and Main streets in downtown Janesville, Quint Studer watched Sunday afternoon traffic pass. He began to make calculations.

He pointed south down South Main Street.

"Look down that way. You could narrow that whole street by putting in angled parking. That would slow traffic down. And it could add some parking," Studer said.

Walking around downtown with Studer is like watching a painter position an easel at the end of a street and set to work with brushes and paint.

Except this painter, a former health care consultant turned developer, minor league baseball club owner and community fixer, likes to sketch mental outlines of what's already there--and then rework the landscape based on what's there and what it could become.

It's a little like dreaming, except that in Pensacola, Florida, he actually has helped turn parts of the downtown into a canvas of family-friendly retail, apartment spaces and sports venues.

Thursday, Studer will deliver a keynote talk at Forward Janesville's 2018 Rock Regional Business Expo kickoff luncheon at the Pontiac Convention Center.

At the sold-out event, Studer's talk, "Attracting and Keeping Talent Home," will weave in his experiences of redeveloping parts of downtown Pensacola--where he lives--which a decade ago were part of a blighted, underused area that bore scars of hurricane damage.

Studer has invested millions of dollars to refocus storefronts downtown, reworking the spaces as hearths of niche retail and dining. He has redeveloped office spaces and built apartments in the same area. Not least notably, Studer built and owns a baseball stadium in downtown Pensacola that in 2012 lured the Blue Wahoos, a minor-league affiliate of Major League Baseball.

On a smaller scale, Studer has turned his eye to Janesville, where he once lived.

Two years ago, he and his wife, Rishy Studer, spent $2 million to transform a series of storefronts on North Main Street into Block 42, a set of niche shops and restaurants with a fenced courtyard that faces one of his favorite amenities: the Rock River.

Studer made a fortune as a fixer of financially-strained hospital groups, but in the last few years, he has pivoted. Studer now operates the Studer Community Institute, a nonprofit group that teams with local businesses and university systems in the Pensacola area to focus on community building from within.

The group focuses on skill building for existing employers and small businesses and cultivating a workforce by focusing on children earlier in the educational process. Among other things, the group has focused research on early brain development in learning.

The ultimate goal, Studer said, is to improve communities at their core--which he believes attracts new people--and keep young people who grew up there from wanting to leave.

Over the last year, local private investors have anted up millions of dollars to revive areas of Janesville's downtown riverfront in tandem with the city's ongoing ARISE strategy.

In an afternoon walk downtown with a Gazette reporter, Studer talked about his experiences in Pensacola and took stock of Janesville's downtown. He walked along streets that are blocked by construction work and watched as a family wearing church attire ran through the new water feature in the town square.

Studer said strong communities have ties to universities and institutes of higher learning, and that private businesses and public officials should work together to "program the heck out of" their downtown with events big or small.

He said the biggest leverage might come from local people who have the financial means to create and improve a city.

"It takes getting the wealth in the community off the sidelines," Studer said. "They might not make as much money as they would in wealth management, but if they put it back into the heart of their community, they've got a shot at keeping their grandkids in town. If you can do that, it's a huge win for a community."

Studer believes downtown Janesville is off to a "solid" start in a revitalization effort that has both the city and some deep local pockets involved.

He looked at torn-up streets, a work-in-progress riverfront town square, and a new hotel development blocks from a few vacant properties that don't seem to be getting much attention from their owners.

"What it might feel like for some people is, 'When is this going to start looking like something?' That's because you're in the early phases of a downtown's changes. You're where things haven't quite meshed up yet," Studer said.

It took nearly 10 years of work by Studer and others in Pensacola before downtown revitalization got a foothold and developed its own discernible character, Studer said.

"It's important to know that these things don't just happen overnight, even when you're doing the right things--which I think Janesville is," he said. "It just takes so darn long. You work like crazy, and you work and work some more. At some point, you will hit the point where things tip in a good way."

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