ICSC SCTWeek reports store openings up 11 percent in July

Five Guys Burgers and Fries on Fulton Street in Lower Manhattan

Could things be looking up for commercial districts looking to fill vacancies? Shopping Centers Today, a publication of the International Council of Shopping Centers, reports that retail store-opening plans hit a four-year high in July, according to RBC Capital Markets, whose research team tracks 2,000 chains each month. This includes retailers that don't shy away from downtown areas and urban commercial districts, including Dollar General, Family Dollar, Five Guys Burgers and Fries, and Subway. These retailers were cited as having the most new stores on the drawing board, according to the report. In addition, "plus-size apparel, specialty gifts, and crafts are the merchandise categories...show the biggest increase in store-opening plans versus a year ago." 

Small businesses and the digital divide

A few years ago I was doing work in a New Jersey commercial district known for its community of mostly immigrant small business owners. The local economic development corporation had spent at least a year convincing one particular local restaurant owner that he needed to computerize - until then you would catch him pulling out wads of hundred dollar bills whenever he had to pay a vendor. Not only did the failure to maintain proper accounting controls likely affect his profit margin, making it more difficult to manage costs, it had another significant downside. When the business owner wanted to renovate and approached a local bank for a loan, he was soundly rejected. Without proof of income, banks were unwilling to lend to the business owner for a much needed renovation and expansion. Not only was his business growth stymied, the renovations would have turned a trash-filled empty lot into nice outdoor dining. This improvement would have signaled a real change for the district - and perhaps helped other businesses as well.

A new report out by the Center for an Urban Future entitled "Smarter Small Businesses" confirms the depth of this problem - one that is particularly acute many lower-income, minority communities. While nearly 9 out of 10 respondents report having a computer, as many as one in five low- to moderate-income proprietors did not. Getting bank loans is one thing, but the failure to embrace technology is hurting these proprietors in ways that they may not even understand. As more and more people look to the internet for shopping, dining and entertainment recommendations, the failure to have a website, or to engage with social media in strategic ways means missed opportunities to grow a clientele. What can commercial district practitioners do to reverse this trend? Here are a few ideas culled from the report as well as my own experience:

• Greater education is key. Connect with resource providers who can offer classes in the basics, like Quickbooks or marketing through social media. For commercial districts with large non-english speaking populations, see if its possible to offer instruction in the languages spoken by local business owners. Get these providers to come to your district to offer these classes - making attendance for busy business owners a bit easier. 
• Offer access to direct technical assistance. Considering hiring a professional technology consultant to help businesses develop and maintain basic websites, or to set up accounting in Quickbooks. As the report notes, not every business needs a website, but for many district businesses a website will help draw customers. Some businesses can by-pass a traditional website entirely and just go for a Facebook page...an increasingly popular option. 
• If your businesses don't have an on-line presence, create one for them. Use your district website. Make sure you have a district directory where their businesses are listed. If you have a twitter feed, offer to tweet their specials or sales to your followers.
• Support peer-to-peer networking among your local businesses. Host mixers and invite speakers to meetings and breakfasts. Business owners are more likely to adopt tools if they see their peers using them. 

I encourage everyone to read this report - it is chock full of good data and insights, and many of you will likely find the stories and anecdotes extremely familiar. 

Lucky Ant launches its first Coro Neighborhood!

A few weeks ago we posted about Lucky Ant, a hyper-local crowd-source financing mechanism that is working closely with Business Improvement Districts and other community organizations to support neighborhood revitalization. Lucky Ant works with the district organization to select businesses, or exciting public projects, that over time create a critical mass of improvements to a neighborhood. As a result of a collaboration with the Coro Neighborhood Leadership (NL) Program, a New York-based leadership and skills training program for commercial revitalization practitioners, Lucky Ant issued an RFP to the NL alumni community in an effort to identify the next neighborhood in their on-line arsenal. The Fordham Road BID, and Coro NL Alum, Deputy Executive Director Daniel Bernstein, were among the first to get in line. The project is a partnership between the Fordham Road BID, the NYC Department of Transportation and Bronx, and Bronx-based sculptor Christian Marche. To find out more about the project, and to support the BID's efforts with a donation, check out the video below, and click here! For as little as $10 dollars you can make a difference in this neighborhood!