Opening day should feel like the payoff of a story the community has already been following, not the first chapter of one they've never heard. Here's how to build that prior investment.
The most successful destination openings I've been part of felt inevitable. By the time the doors opened, the community already had opinions. People had stories about watching the construction progress. There were email subscribers who had been following the development for 18 months. There were journalists who had covered the project multiple times already. There were neighborhood advocates who felt genuinely invested in its success.
None of that happened by accident. Every piece of it was built deliberately, through a structured pre-opening community strategy that treated the construction period as the most valuable marketing time available.
Opening day should feel like the payoff of a story the community has already been following, not the first chapter of a story they've never heard. Building that prior investment is the work of pre-opening community strategy.
— Leslie Himley, Founder & Fractional CMOWhy Pre-Opening Community Building Is Different From Pre-Opening Marketing
The distinction matters because it changes how you invest your time and budget during the construction period.
Creates awareness.
Tells people the development exists and what it will offer. Reaches people. Generates impressions and recognition. Essential, but insufficient on its own.
Creates advocates.
Creates genuine investment in the development's success among the people who will determine whether it thrives. Advocates tell the story to their own networks with the credibility of personal conviction.
Marketing reaches people. Community building engages them. And advocates do something marketing cannot: they tell the story to their own networks with the credibility of personal conviction rather than paid promotion.
The LHSA Pre-Opening Community Stack
Five audience layers that should be systematically built before a development opens. Each layer compounds the others, and together they create opening momentum that feels organic but is systematically built.
Email Subscribers
The owned, high-intent audience that receives the development's story directly. No algorithm stands between you and this audience. They are the most likely to become first-day visitors and long-term community members.
Social Community
The ambient audience that follows progress and amplifies moments of sharing. Broader reach, lower intent than email, but essential for brand visibility and generating the social proof that others find credible.
Neighborhood Advocates
Local residents and community leaders who champion the development to their networks. Their endorsement carries the credibility that no paid communication can replicate. Cultivated through genuine relationship-building, not manufactured.
Media Relationships
Journalists and content creators who have covered the story and are invested in its next chapter. Relationships built during construction mean coverage at opening is a natural continuation, not a cold pitch.
Prospective Tenant Advocates
Businesses that have been in relationship with the leasing team and are actively anticipating their opening. Tenants who feel genuine excitement about the destination become advocates before they even open their doors.
The Email List as the Anchor Asset
If there is one pre-opening community asset I prioritize above all others, it is the email list. Email subscribers are the highest-intent, most valuable pre-opening audience available. They have actively opted in to the development's story. They receive communications directly without algorithmic filtering. And they are the most likely to translate into first-day visitors, social advocates, and long-term loyal community members.
Building this list before opening requires intentional capture mechanisms at every touchpoint: the development website, social media profiles, community events, press mentions, and partnerships with aligned local organizations. Every person who becomes aware of the development should have a clear pathway to join the email community.
The Neighborhood Advocacy Program
One of the most underinvested pre-opening community strategies is the deliberate cultivation of neighborhood advocates—residents, business owners, community leaders, and local influencers who become genuine champions of the development in their own networks.
Advocates cannot be manufactured. But they can be cultivated through genuine relationship-building, early access, honest conversation, and a real effort to hear and respond to neighborhood concerns and interests. Advocates who feel genuinely seen and respected by the development team become its most powerful marketing asset. Their endorsement carries the credibility that no paid communication can replicate because it comes from people who live in the neighborhood, who understand the community's values, and who have chosen to champion the development of their own accord.
Programming the Construction Period
The construction period is not a marketing dead zone. It is a storytelling opportunity that most developers leave almost entirely unexploited. The narrative arc of a destination being built from the ground up is inherently compelling. People are drawn to stories of creation, of vision becoming reality, of a community's future taking shape.
In my pre-opening strategy work, I build a content and programming calendar for the construction period that treats each milestone as a story moment.
The Groundbreaking Event
Framed as a community celebration rather than a developer announcement. The moment the neighborhood is invited into the story.
The Topping-Out Milestone
Behind-the-scenes content that gives followers a sense of insider access. Reward the most engaged subscribers with a view from the inside.
First Tenant Announcements
Each framed as a story about who is joining the community and why. Not a lease signing—a character introduction.
First-Look Interior Walkthroughs
Creating anticipation and rewarding the most engaged subscribers with exclusive access before the doors open to the public.
Pre-Opening Community Programming
Events and activations that begin building the destination's identity before a single tenant opens. The brand in action, not just in print.
The developers who build genuine pre-opening community share one orientation: they see the construction period as a narrative asset, not a communications gap. They treat every milestone as a story worth telling, every interested community member as a relationship worth building, and every email subscriber as a future opening-day visitor worth earning.
If you're in the construction period of a development and want to build a pre-opening community strategy, we would be glad to help.
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