Bartow Community Redevelopment Agency
Making Community Reinvestment Visible
The Bartow Community Redevelopment Agency works to strengthen downtown and surrounding neighborhoods through public reinvestment. HCP Associates helped connect that work with the community through strategic communications, annual reporting, a dedicated website and video storytelling that earned two Silver Telly Awards.
Bartow Community Redevelopment Agency
Government Agency
Community Redevelopment and Economic Development
Residents • Business Owners • Property Owners • Developers • Investors • Community Partners • Public Officials
City of Bartow • Bartow CRA Leadership • Bartow Chamber of Commerce • Bartow Economic Development Council • Citrus Connection • Habitat for Humanity • Keep Polk County Beautiful • Main Street Bartow • USF Access 3D Lab
2026 Silver Telly Award, General / Public
2026 Silver Telly Award, General / Corporate Social Responsibility
Executive Summary
The Bartow Community Redevelopment Agency invests in the future of its downtown and surrounding neighborhoods.
Communicating that work requires a clear connection between the agency’s mission, the opportunities it offers and the improvements people experience in their community.
HCP Associates brought together public reporting, digital communications and video storytelling to help explain that connection. Our work includes the CRA’s 2024 Annual Report, a dedicated website at bartowcra.com and the Bartow CRA 2025 Impact Clean Up video, which earned two Silver Telly Awards in 2026.
The engagement also reflects a broader strategic communication direction. In February 2025, the City of Bartow ranked HCP first in its evaluation of proposals for the CRA’s Strategic Communication Plan and Implementation engagement. Our approach connected community understanding with practical communications tools, giving the agency a framework for explaining its work and inviting participation.
Client
Client
Understanding the Landscape
Established in 1990, the Bartow CRA works to address blight and encourage reinvestment within its redevelopment district.
Its responsibilities extend across commercial properties, housing, public infrastructure and community spaces. Those activities reach audiences with different needs: a homeowner seeking assistance, a business owner considering improvements, a developer evaluating an opportunity or a resident trying to understand a public investment.
The communications challenge was to make this breadth of work understandable. Project updates need context. Program information needs a clear next step. Financial reporting needs to show what expenditures mean for the community. HCP’s approach addressed these needs through complementary formats, each serving a different purpose within the larger redevelopment story.
Research
For the 2024 Annual Report, HCP reviewed financial statements, program metrics and interview notes with CRA leadership.
This work provided the factual foundation for a 20 page publication that paired narrative with graphics and explained the agency’s fiscal year activity.
The report documented $1.94 million in Tax Increment Financing investment during FY 2023/2024, including $1.36 million for public infrastructure. By organizing the underlying information around tangible improvements, HCP made the report useful to readers beyond those already familiar with redevelopment finance.
For the broader engagement, HCP’s proposal established a discovery framework that included reviewing existing communications, gathering stakeholder perspectives and using those findings to guide audience priorities and messaging. This framework positioned research as an input to communications decisions throughout the engagement.
Strategy
HCP served as the strategic planning facilitator, leading sessions with the CRA’s executive director and its full board, which brought together residents, business owners and other community representatives. HCP also worked with City of Bartow officials to connect the agency’s communications direction with the city’s redevelopment priorities and responsibilities.
These sessions were essential to understanding how Bartow was changing, how the CRA should be positioned and what its brand needed to communicate. Board members brought different perspectives on the community’s needs and future. HCP guided the discussions, organized that input and helped participants build agreement on a shared direction.
The planning process informed the new logo, tagline and brand identity. The challenge was to represent a community people already call home while communicating the redevelopment shaping its future. HCP translated that direction into a brand that could reflect Bartow’s character and remain relevant as projects and opportunities developed.
Building consensus was central to the work. By facilitating planning across the board, executive leadership and city officials, HCP helped establish a common understanding of the CRA’s positioning and how to carry it into public communications. That shared foundation guided the website, annual reporting and community storytelling, connecting individual deliverables to the larger redevelopment mission.
Marketing
HCP developed bartowcra.com as a dedicated public destination for the agency.
The website brings together the CRA’s mission, district information, meetings, public documents and redevelopment projects, creating an organized place to explore its work.
The grants section groups commercial, residential and community programs and explains how to begin an application. Visitors can check the district boundary, review program information and contact the CRA about eligibility. Redevelopment pages present projects and opportunities for potential partners, connecting the public story with practical information for people considering investment.
Annual reporting provided another important layer. HCP translated the CRA’s financial and program information into a publication that readers could follow, using written explanations and graphics to connect investment with community improvements.
Video added a human dimension. The Bartow CRA 2025 Impact Clean Up production brought a community initiative into the agency’s communications through visual storytelling. Its two 2026 Silver Telly Awards recognized the work in the General/Public and General/Corporate Social Responsibility categories.
Impact
Turned complex financial and program records into a 20 page annual report that explains how public reinvestment supports improvements in Bartow.
Created a dedicated website that connects the CRA’s mission with projects, public records, meetings and opportunities to participate.
Provided clearer routes to grant information, district eligibility guidance and contact with CRA staff, supporting the transition from awareness to inquiry.
Connected redevelopment opportunities with project information, giving businesses, property owners and potential development partners a practical starting point.
Earned two Silver Telly Awards for the Bartow CRA 2025 Impact Clean Up video, bringing external recognition to community focused storytelling.
Established a strategic framework for aligning audience needs, messaging and communications tools as the CRA’s work continues.
What We Learned
Redevelopment communications work best when they connect the public purpose of an agency with specific information people can use.
A report helps explain investment. A website helps people find opportunities and take the next step. Video helps audiences see the community behind the work.
For Bartow, these formats reinforce one another, making the agency’s story more understandable across its different audiences.