Downtown Three Rivers planning its next round of advancement, and is asking the public to help by providing its opinion through a short survey. Building upon its success at opening new businesses in the historic downtown district over the last few years, the Three Rivers Downtown Development Authority and Main Street Program (TRDDA) is receiving a technical assistance service from Michigan Main Street (MMS) and its consultants to begin more proactive business recruitment.
TRDDA Executive Director Tricia Meyer said the goal is to continue filling empty storefronts on Main Street. “Even with the COVID crisis, our businesses have remained strong, and now we want to look to the future. We want to look ahead, and we want to be really mindful of what people’s needs are,” Meyer said. “The Economic Vitality Committee is kind of running with it, but in collaboration with (MMS).”
Called “The Recruitment Test” by MMS staff, the service allows the community to try its hand at working with developers through a rehearsal run with a consultant who plays the role of a prospective business developer. “Practice is the intent before they actually interact with a real, potential developer who may want to come in and look at a site,” MMS Manager Laura Krizov said.
“What this service does is it allows communities to get their ducks in a row before actually going through and recruiting somebody. Based on the demographics within the community, the community will choose a type of business that they feel will fit within their demographics. Once they choose that type of business, they are interacting with a site consultant who plays the role of a prospect for that type of business.”
The consultant heading up the service is Jay Schlinsog of the Downtown Professionals Network. The Tennessee-based consultant has experience working with similar programs across the country. He has consulted on other MMS technical services in Three Rivers.
The survey is part of TRDDA’s legwork for the service that Schlinsog is helping execute, which Krizov says “gets them all in line with all the collateral material they need to have to entice development within their downtown.”
At the onset of its participation in the MMS program, TRDDA executed surveys that went into the creation of a comprehensive Market Study. It periodically does follow-up surveys to keep its information current. “We did a survey not that long ago as a follow-up to our market study. That survey, we had a couple hundred people respond,” Meyer said.
“As a follow up to that, we were awarded a technical service from Michigan Main Street, where we would work with (Schlinsog),” Meyer said. “So, this survey is what they’re calling a ‘Top Prospects Survey.’”
“When they did the survey before, we heard from those couple hundred people, ‘hey, this is what we really would like to see.’ This is kind of fine-tuning that a little bit more,” Meyer said. “It’s primary retail and restaurant related, mainly because what we hear still is, we need to diversify our retail, and even though we have a lot of great restaurants, restaurants are still a great thing for a downtown like ours, especially to diversify them even more.”
Krizov said, “The survey helps just to get a better understanding of what the community sees the need as, but then also having an in-depth property and business inventory, knowing what storefronts are vacant.” Meyer and members of TRDDA’s Economic Vitality Committee are also gathering other documents, including marketing materials. “The Economic Vitality Committee is kind of running with it in collaboration with (MMS),” she said. “We’re definitely working on our promotional materials, making sure our promotional materials are (in good shape).”
“Once they pull all that information together, they actually interact with this “prospect,” and they will send him a letter and offer him to come to town.” The community and the consultant will schedule a site visit in which the consultant plays the role of the prospective developer.
“It may be a little different this year just with the situation we’re dealing with, but typically, he comes to town and they pick him up from the airport or hotel,” Krizov said. “They will spend the day giving him a tour, taking him in and out of properties, and meeting with key leadership and business folks. At the end of the day, he will give them a grade as to how they did, and talk about what they did really well, things they may want to do differently, just to give them the opportunity to go through what it really is like to bring a developer in and take them through the process.”
Operated by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC), MMS works with designated Main Street communities around the state on downtown revitalization. Communities earn the Main Street designation by having an intact, historic downtown building stock, active volunteer and business engagement, and the support of the community and municipality. Three Rivers was accepted into the program in 2013.
Once in the state program, a community must achieve a series of milestones in order to remain eligible, and in order to qualify for various technical services. MMS staff first began considering Three Rivers for the business recruitment service for in 2017, shortly before it advanced in its accreditation level from Select to Master.
Meyer is optimistic about the next stages of growth for downtown. “We’re very serious about using this for business recruitment,” she said. Meyer encourages members of the public to participate in the survey. “Even if we did two percent of what’s on there, it would be exciting,” she said.
The survey is available on the Downtown Three Rivers Facebook page, as well as the TRDDA website.
Dave Vago is a staff writer and columnist for Watershed Voice. A Philadelphia native with roots in Three Rivers, Vago is a planning consultant to history and community development organizations and is the former Executive Director of the Three Rivers DDA/Main Street program.
