Creating an Exceptional Retail Marketplace Downtown

One of the challenges an emerging downtown city center faces is creating an exceptional retail marketplace.  Creating a destination for shopping, food venues, social hang outs and entertainment takes a certain “mix” of business “personalities.”  This special mix of businesses comprise the genetic make up of a downtown center.  Literally every business makes a difference in conveying the personality and character of a downtown.  That personality becomes the brand in which the city becomes known.

Interestingly, as historic downtown districts go through the rebirth process, there are several stages of the growth process.  One challenge that new businesses face is making sure that they are open for business during peak traffic hours to capture the potential customer revenue.  This is a delicate balance of knowing when to increase operational hours.  Being “open for business” enough hours to send a message that downtown is a destination that IS “open for business” is essential. 

Traveling to a downtown that is being promoted as a tourist location and finding every business closed at 6PM can send a mixed message to the traveling public.  In order for retail venues to extend hours for the shopping patrons, there must be both food service venues and entertainment activities available in the downtown area in the evening.  These three elements are essential to a successful “destination” location.  In this case, Historic Hub City, Centralia is striving to become a “destination” for tourists and an improved city center for members of the immediate community.

Let There Be Light!

Just a quick KUDO shout out to the CDA and Centralia Light & Utility Department for jointly working to replace all the burnt out bulbs in the lights of downtown!  We noticed how all the lights are now in working order and the downtown streetscape is light and bright at night!

 

Thank You for helping to make our downtown beautiful and a pedestrian friendly place to shop for this holiday season! :-) 

HUBBUB 2 Year Anniversary Celebration Event - Nov. 10th

Our fellow business owner and friend, Rebecca, from HUBBUB is celebrating her store’s 2 year anniversary with a party on November 10^th.  HUBBUB is a distinctive shop featuring an amazing collection of unique art pieces and gift items.  HUBBUB’s theme is “Art for Everyday” – a fitting description.  Everyone is invited to stop by for the anniversary party.  Many of the artists that Rebecca features will be there to meet and greet.  Here are the party details:

Please join us in celebrating our second year in Historic Downtown Centralia. Stop by and nibble on tasty treats, enjoy great store specials and meet HUBBUB artists!

Saturday • November 10 • 10:30 am to 9:00 pm
evening reception with wine tasting • 5 to 9 pm

We have lots of fabulous new work at HUBBUB, and more on its way for the holidays. When you come in, be sure to grab a HUBBUB Wish List card — you can fill in the blanks, leave it in our Wish List box, and send your friends and family in to pick out the perfect gift! Also, sign up now to become a member of the HUBBUBCLUB here. It’s a great way to learn about upcoming events, special hours and new merchandise.

Centralia Downtown Association Sends First Newsletter

This week the new Centralia Downtown Association sent out their first email update newsletter.  Great things are happening in the historic downtown!  Here is a copy of the email newsletter: 

Hello all!

This past month has been a very busy one for all of us working on the Centralia Downtown Association.  I wanted to take a few minutes to update everyone on some recent accomplishments and a look at some future events.

1. Hotel/Motel Tax Dollars – I was just informed today that the CDA has been awarded $25,000 by the Centralia City Council from the fund created by the additional taxes that are gathered by the local hotels and motels.  We submitted an application a few weeks ago and then went before an advisory board with our plans for 2008.  There are several ways we can utilize this funding, but, there are restrictions for its use.  First, the money has to be spent on marketing to folks outside our region (which has been decided to mean outside the county).  Next, the marketing needs to focus on getting people into downtown AND spending the night for events, holidays or just to enjoy what our downtown has to offer.  Since internet exposure is now global, part of the funding will be put to use in the development of a professional and comprehensive website (www.centraliadowntown.com) that will become a resource for tourists, as well as, all of us here in the area.  If you have a second, take a look at our homepage!  We expect to have a fully developed and tested website before the 1^st of the year.  Some of the funding has been dedicated to the development of a proposed “Friends of the Hotels & Motels” activity and education program.  Call or email for more information.
2. Website – The CDA board spent a lot of time over the past summer and early fall putting together the layout for our website.  We are going to be contracting with two local people for the production and design of the site.  Joli Winsett, of Jo Designs, and Evan Calkins, of Intrinsic Studio, who are both small business owners downtown, will be collaborating on the construction and design of the website.  Joli is the creative mind and talent behind the current home page.

Thoughts on Centralia Downtown Parking from a “Greenie”

Thoughts on Centralia Downtown Parking from a “Greenie” 

As we get to know more folks in the Hub City Historic Downtown, we learn new things all the time.  Of course as hoteliers and owners of a major rehabilitation project in the heart of the downtown area – we are interested in listening to what folks have to say…  If we were to tally up the sub total of the majority of our conversations with downtown folks – 99.9% of the conversations have included one ‘grip or concern’ - - - the “P word” ~ parking… or lack there of.    

Parking is of course a concern for us as well, as we will soon be operating 50+ hotel rooms with guests who most likely traveled to our location by car and will also need a place to park.  We have been exploring all sorts of information about parking and how similar cities have solved their parking issues.  Our research has also included looking into the parking arrangements of “new urbanist” communities.  As I posted this past week, we liken the concept of ‘new urbanism’ as ‘historic urbanism,’ because new urbanism is based on the model of a historic downtown structure.  Additionally, we have been interested in what new ‘green’ sustainable communities are doing about the parking issue and how they are addressing transportation needs. 

Historic Fox Theater Repurchased by the City of Centralia

According to the Centralia Chronicle, the City of Centralia has made a HUGE step of progress in the downtown revitalization effort by repurchasing the historic Fox Theater on the corner of College Way (Locust Street) and S. Tower Avenue. 

KUDOS to the City of Centralia for stepping in to lead the way with the restoration efforts to bring the Fox Theater back to glory!  Again the City of Centralia City Council has stood behind their public commitment to a complete and total revitalization of the historic downtown.  The Centralia City Council has demonstrated their true devotion to the success of the downtown business community by committing to do the work to properly restore the Fox and return the theater to operation.

Historic Hub City Holiday Activities Planning Meeting

Thursday, November 1, 9am:

Historic District business owners & interested community members are invited to come to the theater at the Olympic Club to share ideas and hear about other plans for holiday activities downtown. 

New Urbanism = Historic Urbanism

One of the development concepts that we have been doing a lot of research on is ‘new urbanism.’ We have been taking an interest to study successful historic downtown areas that have been restored to thriving city centers, as well as areas that are adopting the modern development model of new urbanism.

In essence – new urbanism is really historic urbanism. If you look at how city centers were established pre-1900 you will notice that almost all downtown areas were bustling economic centers with a high level of density. Looking further back in historical times to the towns across Europe you will find this urban model mimics itself over and over - - why… because it was a successful way to build new urban centers for commerce and ultimately sustainability.

The Main Street Program also closely mirrors the concept of new urbanism or historic urbanism as we prefer to call it. The Main Street Program deals specifically with the rejuvenation of the economic component of a city center revitalization. Additionally, the Main Street principles that support the ‘livability’ of a city center are in concert with the ‘urbanism’ approach.

Following you will find the 10 Principles of New Urbanism taken from the http://www.newurbanism.org web site. In reading them you will see how closely they reflect the city scape of Centralia, WA and many other historic downtowns. The key to the success of this model is the economic revitalization that will occur as more people move into the downtown core and see the viability of living there and creating an enjoyable life in the city center.

As you read through these principles, consider what Centralia, WA USED to be - - can you see how the revitalization process can restore the city center to the vital and economically robust community that it used to be? We CAN, and that is why our investment dollars are hard at work rehabilitating the famous Historic Wilson Hotel in the heart of the historic district of Hub City!

The revitalization of Hub City will ultimately be the restoration of historic urbanism in Centralia.

Hub City Window Display KUDOS Go To…..

One fun aspect of the shopping experience is ‘window shopping.’  Did you know that there are entire certified course curriculums on creating effective window displays because they are a critical element to drawing in patrons from the sidewalks to the cash register???  Window display marketing is essential to the greater success of a retail business’ bottom line. A stroll down Tower Avenue reveals much about the current retail conditions in the Centralia, WA Historic District.  You will find a myriad of different window display conditions; from hip & trendy window displays that produce the retail ‘wow’ factor to empty windows in empty buildings. 

This current state of window displays is actually a very clear picture of the retail conditions of the area.  For example, if all the store fronts were empty, this would indicate that the area was desolate and there were no favorable economic conditions.  If there were empty windows and very poorly crafted window displays, this would indicate an area that was tired and suffering economically.  If there were poor window displays, many empty spaces and the majority of the windows had for sale signs in them, this would indicate that there is an exodus of business leaving the area.  And lastly, if there are empty windows, poor displays, building for sale signs, coming soon signs of new businesses moving into the area and NEW, HIP, ON TREND, COLORFUL and HOT window displays - - HONK HONK HONK…. There is a message being sent - - there is a RENISASANCE movement going on in the retail sector.  Which set of ‘window display conditions’ do you feel the Hub City Historic District currently portrays???  Clearly, the last example.  

USGBC Establishing New LEED Program for Historic Building Rehabilitation

According to the grapevine of information in the green building industry, word has it that the USGBC is currently revamping the LEED guidelines in order to create a new program specifically designed for the rehabilitation of historic buildings.  HooRay! At the National Trust Preservation Conference I had the opportunity to take several classes that incorporated ‘green’ into the curriculum.  Having attended all the national green building conferences, i.e. Green Build sponsored by the USGBC and Green Building Conference sponsored by National Association of Home Builders, as well as many regional conferences on green building - - I have discovered that there has been a disconnect between the green building community and the preservation community.  It has been my experience that there is tremendous focus at the green build conferences on NEW construction ~ the ultimate in new construction, achieving the platinum rating for a new building using the LEED building criteria.   

We are both green builders and historic preservationists.  At the NTHP conference in St. Paul two weeks ago, ‘green’ was the hot topic - - it was not a new topic, it has been THE topic for as long as preservationists have been doing the work of preservation.  We share the common theory that the very “greenest” you can get is to take and old building that has been through years of service, fallen into blighted conditions, rehabilitate the building and restore it into service capacity.  The icing on the cake is restoring the building using all green built technologies to improve the overall function of the building and preserve the building for many years of use to follow. 

 The preservation community has been practicing ‘green building’ since inception of the preservation movement.   The need for the LEED program to revamp their program to suit the historic rehabilitation project is essential.  It is my understanding that as it stands with the current LEED building guidelines, you only receive THREE points for REUSING a building.  This is a faux pas in the program.  The value of rehabilitating a building with green built technology and restoring it to working capacity is obliviously worth far more than three points.  It is awesome that the USGBA is bridging the gap and creating this new program to address the needs of a historic rehab project properly.