BID

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BID works to fill empty store fronts

by: Jessica Lewis

The Norwich Business Improvement District’s mission centers around making a downtown that is vibrant, friendly and can draw people from near and far to work and shop. In 2007, the BID completed several projects its members hope helped to achieve that goal, and for 2008, many more are in the works.

Executive Director Pegi LoPresti explained that the BID works to provide leadership by partnering with others to facilitate action and encourage communication between agencies.

“In many instances, the BID acts as a catalyst,” LoPresti said, explaining that the organization often helps businesses to make a change without being affected themselves.

As a self-sustaining agency, the BID works to continuously improve the downtown area solely supported by a a special assessment within the 12-block radius of the district. “We use our funds to bring additional money to the properties and property owners within the district,” LoPresti explained. The BID budget is generally less than $50,000 a year, but that money is used to fund grants and projects that bring more money into the community. “We’ve made wonderful progress this year,” said BID Board of Directors Treasurer Teddi Arnell. “We’re trying to make Norwich as beautiful as possible.”

This year, LoPresti explained, much of the BID’s time and effort was spent on the implementation of the Main Street Grant. The grant, offered by the New York State Housing and Trust Fund Corporation, is organized through the Norwich BID, and aids local businesses in need of improvements. The Main Street Grant allows local businesses to make improvements, with half of the money coming from the grant and the other half paid for by the business owner.

The BID received two rounds of funding for the grant, for a total of $400,000 in grant funds, and a total of $800,000 in improvements to downtown businesses. “It’s been so exciting seeing it come to fruition,” LoPresti said of the grant, which included improvements to Chiarino’s Insurance, The Tavern, A Cut Above, The Coffee Connection, Garf’s Deli, Hayes Office Supplies, Ives Cream, McLaughlin’s, McNeil Jewelers, Irmin Mody Real Estate, The Masonic Temple, and the vacant store fronts that were previously home to The Corner Cigar and All American Sports Shop. “We’ve been working on this grant for three years, and it’s great that we’re finally getting to see the fruits of our labor,” LoPresti said.

BID Board Member Marylou Stewart explained that while downtown had the opportunity to take advantage of such grants many years ago, at that time businesses did not have the money to make improvements to the exterior of their stores. “It’s really good now that business owners are willing to make improvements to the outside of the buildings. It makes such a big difference visually. Old buildings need a lot of work, and this is a great way to help business owners to make improvements,” Stewart said.

To administer the grant, the BID worked heavily with the City of Norwich. The Common Council supported the program and Economic and Community Development Specialist Todd Dreyer helped to secure the grant funding.

Also in conjunction with the City of Norwich, the BID worked to replace the bluestone strip in the downtown sidewalks with a more durable brick-type material. The bluestone material, which was only installed a short time before, had chipped and cracked in many places leaving the sidewalks unsafe. “I’m thankful that it’s done and over with,” LoPresti said of the bluestone replacement. “It [the new material] makes the downtown look nice.” The replacement of the bluestone cost the BID and the city $36,000 each. Arnell said she is pleased with the way the downtown looks, especially after the Main Street Grant funded facade improvements and the upgrades to the street lights and sidewalks downtown.

In addition to making the city look nicer, the BID tried to make it a more family friendly downtown as well. LoPresti explained that due to the efforts of the BID, Gary Brightman, Burrell Excavating and the Norwich Career Firefighters, Santa’s Cottage was returned to the downtown and in conjunction with the Friends of the Park, a “Great Gatsby” style fund raising event was held in East Side Park to raise funds and awareness for the parks project – a million dollar plan that would include the implementation of a permanent stage, changing the layout of the sidewalks to make it closer to the way it originally looked in 1908, moving the pavilion to the front of East Park and putting it at ground level, adding permanent public restrooms and making all entrances to the park handicap accessible.

“The parks are in the heart of our district, and we want to see them well maintained and well utilized,” LoPresti said. The BID Executive Director explained that the BID wants to ensure that the parks will continue to be used for current events and hopes this project will bring more events to downtown Norwich.

While the BID has seen many successes this year, LoPresti said one of the things that is harder to control are the empty storefronts downtown. One of the major reasons LoPresti gave for the number of empty storefronts are the high rents that many landlords charge for the buildings. “Outside buyers come in and purchase these buildings because of the low prices in this area, but then they want to charge the high rents that they are used to in the more urban settings. It’s a huge problem,” LoPresti explained. “There are a lot of inquiries about the space, but many of these businesses can’t make the rents work.”

While the problem has left many store fronts in the downtown area empty, LoPresti explained that the BID along with Commerce Chenango is working to open the lines of communication between the property owners and the business owners to determine how to address the problem.

“There are a lot of empty storefronts right now, but there are always ebbs and tides, and now we are in one of the downturns,” Stewart said. One of the reasons Stewart sees for the empty storefronts is the increasing competition from chain stores. “It’s getting tougher and tougher to compete with big box stores, but that forces the community to focus on what they want to do,” Stewart said, explaining that some downtowns have focused on being known for one thing, like antiques, to bring people into the area. “We need to keep moving forward. The rehab was a positive thing, and eventually it will pay off,” she said.

Even with some storefronts left vacant, LoPresti said there is much to be proud of in the downtown Norwich has today, compared to other cities like Utica and Moravia where the downtowns have virtually disappeared. “People have to realize that you need to keep supporting your downtowns, otherwise they disappear,” Arnell said.

“We’re going to continue to work with other organizations to address the property issues and fill the storefronts, which will benefit other retailers downtown and the city in terms of sales tax revenue,” LoPresti said. She explained that with the help of Maureen Carpenter and Jennifer Tavares at Commerce Chenango, an action matrix has been created to address the problems facing downtown businesses.

While there are issues that need to be addressed, LoPresti said she is hopeful that people will continue to shop locally and support downtown retailers. “There is a resurgence of people wanting to do business downtown. It ebbs and flows in cycles, but people seem to be coming back to downtown communities,” LoPresti said.

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