How do we make this street ours?

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Lance E

Lance E

SGF, Supreme Grumble Framer
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Joined
Oct 31, 1999
Posts
3,869
Loc
Hamilton, New Zealand
Business
Imageland
My main retail shop is on the main street which has recently been ripped up, blocked and "upgraded", people stayed away in droves and we want them back! Although it is functionally not much different to what it was before it does give us an opportunity to make something great happen with the "refreshed" look.

It has a large central median, very wide footpaths and lots of gardens & trees. There is a range of retailers down the street covering mostly higher end fashion products and homewares. There are also lots of Café's a bit further along. The feeling of "community" on the street has lessened over the years and I am wanting to try and breath some life into the area - especially to get everyone thinking outside the skware and making use of our new space.

Has anyone had a good experience that they can share which has improved the space in which they operate which in turn created a more vibrant business community?

Ideas, things that worked and things that didn't are all welcome, this is a bit of an attempt at brainstorming.
 
The former owner of my shop was involved in creating our Downtown Bozeman Association. It's a non-profit which promotes our downtown with special events and promotions. Businesses can be a member, and the membership fees fund the DBA. It easily took 10 years for the effort to really begin to take hold. But we have a very vibrant and active downtown, even with a full range of big box stores in other parts of town, including a Walmart supercenter.

I'm not sure I know of anything 1 business can do alone. But if businesses will band together for their mutual benefit, it can work.
 
city of bradenton, fl did this to a CBD area a few yrs back-----actually made it very limitied parking w/lots of center greens....looked really nice/comfortable and people still visited the shops and were able to park(sometimes?) close to their destination....dont know how the looong term results are(no real reason to drive down there to see)----anyone from there on here for update??????????
 
downtown ( the circle) Sebring did this..nice park..ole timey signs and street lights...resulted in limited parking and little traffic..our downtown developement committee had mediocre support from some of the businesses...lots of bickering among all involved on how to spend the money to get people out there...this went on for years ( still status quo..nothing works) so I figured out how to get my business back...I moved out on the hwy (27) where all the traffic and shopping takes place and never looked back...but our old place was very charming and neat for a gallery and frame shop if only we could get traffic there and they could find a parking place.
 
Yes, a block party is very much on the agenda. Ideas for a theme are the problem - trying to get a diverse bunch of businesses to work together is a diverse problem...

Currently I am thinking about how so many of the businesses are locally owned/operated and/or have a manager that really does know his/her stuff. From this I am wondering about the viability of "Home of information and knowledge" (but worded betterer) as the theme - any thoughts?
 
Lance E said:
Yes, a block party is very much on the agenda. Ideas for a theme are the problem - trying to get a diverse bunch of businesses to work together is a diverse problem...
Click to expand...

Why not skip the theme. Just have local bands/musicians for concerts on your street. Everybody has fun, people walk around and see your business, etc. It would be an easy way to create a draw to your business district without alot of organization, etc.
 
Elvis!

I think you need an Elvis impersonator or a guy in a chicken suit!
PF
 
We lost our lease last July and had to move across down to a street that had been virtually non-existent for years (only a real estate office at the opposite end of the street. Owners in this small city want outrageous rent for their main street buildings. Even the "dumps" are outrageous. The only things we had going for us in our new, old area was affordable rent and a historical city building on the corner.

The first thing we did was add huge signs that only a blind person could miss. We also hang a large open flag on the side/corner of our building. The best thing we did for an attractive storefront was to add huge shutters (4) on each side of our two entrance doors. The bench and planters add an inviting appeal.

Since we moved in, three other businesses have moved in and last two vacant spots are being renovated by the owners. We got together and went to the city to make landscape improvements and get the parking space lines repainted. It needs repaving but we knew that was out of the question. I'll post pictures when I find the hidden files?????
 
PicturedFramer said:
I think you need an Elvis impersonator or a guy in a chicken suit!
PF
Click to expand...
No, no, no.....he has to be in a 'Kiwi' suit!

Hobbitses......what a great idea! Shame it's a bit late to capitalise on that theme!

Hey Lance, what about a 'Flog the Aussies' theme.......you know lots of people dressed in black with footballs, and people with big Dennis Lillee mustaches waving cricket bats and balls? Bung on free beer and then you could take lots of photos, frame them and flog them to the participants!
 
"Currently I am thinking about how so many of the businesses are locally owned/operated and/or have a manager that really does know his/her stuff. From this I am wondering about the viability of "Home of information and knowledge" (but worded betterer) as the theme - any thoughts?"

Sounds too formal. Better would be like "Craftsmen Center" or "Neighborhood Knowledge" or "Shop Local" themes like that.
PF
 
Try to get some shops together, so everyone will have some input.

To me; Street festival! Music, dance, bbq, art etc. Like a big fairground really. Bring some atmosphere into it and make sure you're out there making yourself known.
 
"The Neighbourhood of Knowledge" - could be a goody! Thanks for the ideas, I am getting a group together but it really helps to have a bit of a plan going first otherwise everyone will end up talking about individual concerns that are not condusive to going foward.

The end goal is to foster an atmosphere that is unique to the street - currently it is "nothing in particular".
 
When I had my shop in Grand Haven, every Sept. after the tourists left, we had "Streetfest" downtown. We closed off the 3 blocks of the downtown and each merchant contributed their own ideas. The resturants did "A Taste of Grand Haven".

Some of the things that were done:

Facepainting
Rubberstamping
Police Department -- K-9 Unit and Fingerprinting the kids
Fire Department
One shop had small bars of homemade soap
I cut some 8x10 mats to paint on
Fingerpaint
Sidewalk chalk
A Jeweler had a small diamond hidden in an ice cube. The rest of the cubes had cubic zirconia's in them. When the ice melted, they checked the stone right there to see if you had the diamond. He had a line all day.
Cotton Candy
Popcorn
Fashion Show from all the clothing stores.
The Card and game shop had board games and some kind of competition

Everything was free. They always estimated about 10,000 people came down during the day. It was a lot of work, but also a lot of fun.
 
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