Old Buildings, New Attitudes

Archive for the ‘Educational Seminars’ Category

Last Thursday (6/19) I was able to attend two seminars in Liberty, MO.  The seminars were sponsored by Missouri Main Street Connection and held in the Pryor Leadership Center on the William Jewell campus.  Representatives from communities all over the state were there, including Warrensburg, Liberty, Chillicothe, Jefferson City, Cape Girardeau and more.  Also attending from Lee’s Summit were Jeanine, Stacy, and Ron Cox with the City of LS.  As always it was great to catch up with all of our revitalization friends.  We were also able to spend some time at the Liberty Square – thanks to Rich Groves from Historic Downtown Liberty for his lunch recommendation!

The first seminar focused on economic restructuring, one component of the Main Street Four-Point Approach.  Linda Sorden from the National Trust Loan Fund came all the way from Washington, DC, to talk with us about financing historic rehabilitation projects.  Briefly, she discussed the National Trust Loan Fund and the National Trust Community Investment Corporation, a for profit subsidiary of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.  The National Trust Loan Fund is a Certified Community Development Financial Institute (CDFI) and “provides financial and technical assistance to underserved communities for commercial and residential redevelopment.” For more information about CDFIs and what they do check out www.cdfifund.gov or www.cdfi.org.  Also check www.preservationnation.org, the National Trust’s website.  They are updating their website, but will have plenty of information about their loan fund soon.  

There are some great examples of major rehab projects on the National Trust’s website.  These projects used combinations of loans, tax credits, donations, and private funding.  One example is the MacGillivray Building in Baltimore, MD.  The building was threatened and was going to be torn down for additional parking.  A group of concerned residents worked with a local Community Development Corporation (CDC) to raise enough funds.  It received a National Trust loan and an HGTV Restore Amercia grant.  For more detailed information about this building check here or here.  

The second seminar of the day was given by Ann Perry of the Missouri Department of Economic Develpment.  She informed us about the various tax credits available for redevelopment projects and who to contact for more information.  Missouri offers many, many tax credits and more and more people are taking advantage of them.  For a full listing of these programs, visit the DED’s Business and Community Services Program menu here.

Here at Downtown Lee’s Summit Main Street we try our best to stay informed about financing and tax credits.  Historic tax credits (federal and state) especially help property owners and/or developers make their projects work financially while maintaining the integrity of our historic building stock.  Ron Cox, City of Lee’s Summit Director of Redevelopment, stays current on these important tools.  The Lee’s Summit Historic Preservation Commission is a great local resource.  Our office also offers tax credit seminars (last one was in November of 2007).  If you have any questions about tax credits and financing, we have resources and contact information for the professionals that can help you make your projects work. 

“Putting Main Street on the Map and in Three Dimensions”

This one was kind of technical, so bear with me.  I highlighted some great advice at the end, so make sure to check that out. 

This seminar included two presentations, one by Tom Pederson, Ph.D. who discussed the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in Main Street programs and the other by Aidan Chopra from Google, Inc. on using their free tools in Main Street programs.  The GIS information was pretty technical, so I’ll just quickly summarize the 3-D mapping portion of the presentation.

Aidan Chopra of Google, Inc. discussed how he helped the Main Street McMinnville, Tennessee program use its free tools to create an accurate 3-D map of their downtown.  Click here to see it.  The manager from McMinnville stood up and described the work that went into creating the map: volunteer photographers (40), volunteer computer modelers, computers, free software, and time (3 months!).  Mr. Chopra showed us the 3-D video of McMinnville, and their historic buildings were accurately portrayed in 3-D using the digital pictures the volunteers took.  The McMinnville manager described how they just had three buildings burn down, a very unfortunate event. However, having the 3-D map should help them as those sites are redeveloped. 

Mr. Chopra described how other Main Street programs could learn to use the free software and create their own images.  He went through an example – creating a 3-D barn on a map using pictures he had taken.  Pretty interesting!  Even though he described the process as being very simple, I still think some people would have a difficult time with the software.  There are tutorials available, and I may check them out sometime. 

But probably the best piece of advice he gave I can quickly pass on to you.  I think we’ve all looked up the satellite image of our house or business on Google Maps .  It’s pretty cool, isn’t it!?!  But have you ever noticed that some pointers aren’t in the right place?  What a shame if someone looked up directions to your business and they were directed a block away!  You can actually move that pointer!  Just click “edit” in the address box and “move the pointer”.

Next summary…”Volunteer Trends and Recruitment Techniques.” 

Sarah

 

The Opening Plenary was jam-packed with speakers, so I’ll briefly summarize the major points addressed in the nearly 3 hour opening event.

First, all Main Street communities sat with their state programs.  So all of the Show-Me-Staters sat together wearing our bright red fleece vests.  We all cheered when they showed Missouri’s four Nationally accredited Main Street communities on screen – and Downtown Lee’s Summit is one of those four! 

Doug Loescher, Director of the National Trust Main Streets Center (NMSC), gave his annual “State of Main Street” speech.  NMSC had sent out a survey several months ago, the National Trends Survey, and he reported on the results (DLSMS filled out the survey).  

He said approximately 750 people responded and that on average, the communities had populations between 5,000 – 50,000, were Main Street and/or LISC neighborhoods, and had been Main Street communities for 6 months to 10+ years.  He also said that while overall there was “no change” in business and sales, both public and private investment has increased. 

Since one focus of this year’s conference was diversity, he mentioned that while the United States is approximately 30% minority, survey respondents reported communities were less diverse than the national average and their Boards of Directors are less diverse than their communities.  He said diversity relates not only to ethnicity or cultural background, but age, gender, sexual orientation, etc.  

The other focus of this year’s conference, entrepreneurship, was also discussed by Loescher.  He mentioned that they didn’t notice anything new per se, but just slightly “different”.  Four major categories of entrepreneurship on Main Streets emerged in the survey: green, experience economy, wellness, and micro enterprises.  He gave national examples of each category, and the coolest part was that he featured Downtown Lee’s Summit’s A Thyme for Everything!  Since we had filled out the survey, and mentioned many of our businesses, National contacted us for more information.  Experience economy based businesses not only offer products, but offer customers an experience – just like Jet does with her cooking classes.  All of our Missouri friends cheered when Lee’s Summit was mentioned.  It was great! 

Richard Moe, President of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, also spoke.  He stated that the Main Streets program continues to be one of the best ideas the National Trust ever had!

Our keynote speaker was Della Clark of Philadelphia’s The Enterprise Center.  She talked about entrepreneurship in general, and what the Enterprise Center does to help small businesses.  She talked about her entrepreneurial “toolbox”, and her “cultivation list” – her list of people she wants to meet to expand her network.  That was a great take-away from her speech – her cultivation list helped her focus when going to meetings or other events so she could seek specific people out and talk to them about whatever it was she needed to talk with them about.

Finally, we heard from both the Governor of New Jersey, John Corzine, and the Governor (and former Philadelphia mayor) of Pennsylvania, Edward Rendell.  Governor Corzine talked about how revitalization efforts have helped Hoboken, and generally welcomed us all and encouraged us to take advantage of public transit to New Jersey (it’s just across the Delaware River).  Governor Rendell also welcomed us, talked about the revitalizations efforts he oversaw as Mayor of Philadelphia and the improvements being made in towns all over PA, and encouraged us all to eat a Philly Cheese steak while in town!  That part was pretty darn funny – he said that people try to imitate them and they just can’t get it right for three big reasons: you can’t use good meat (it has to be fatty and stringy), you can’t use real cheese (it has to be whiz), and you can’t drain the grease off the onions (must include the grease to get the taste right).  He also got somewhat political, which I guess isn’t too surprising in an election year. 

Overall, the Opening Plenary was fun, informative, and started the conference out on a high note.  We also learned that the National Main Streets Center will start giving out Great American Main Street Awards again in 2009 – we’re ready to nominate Downtown Lee’s Summit! J    

Sarah

First in a series of summaries from the National Main Streets Conference in Philadelphia…

This session focused on new retail sales and events that are working in Main Street communities, and learning how to plan and fund retail events.  I would also like to take this chance to mention that our Shop Downtown Lee’s Summit postcard was mentioned in this presentation! Kathy pointed out that she chose this because of its fresh design and bright colors.  Hooray for us!  Below is a list of important tidbits I took from this session.

•  This past holiday season, cities that promoted a buy local campaign saw an increase of 2% in sales in their downtown.
• When creating a co-op ad make it look more like a feature story instead of just small equal boxes for everyone participating
• Cute idea for Christmas, run a series of ads that say “There is Someone to Shop for in Downtown Lee’s Summit”.  Then include a photo and a story.
• Around Valentine’s Day you can send out a “I love my Downtown letter” and ask for a $25 donation from people in the community if they Love Downtown.
• Encourage restaurants with long waits to have pagers and encourage guest to shop around while they wait for their tables.
• Don’t forget the effectiveness of buttons.  Ask your retailers to wear them to promote upcoming events.  These would be great for Third Thursday Art Walk.
• Remember to stay strong when trying out new hours.  It takes 3 years to reeducate the public about changes in store hours.
• Moonlight Madness Sales
• Kathy suggested that the next time you do a postcard offer a free gift with purchase instead of discount.
• Event idea: Let’s Wine about Winter.  This is a great event for after the holiday season.  Cute wine glasses would be made with Downtown Lee’s Summit on them and sold for $5 a piece.  Shoppers could then visit participating stores and sample free wine and of course do lots of shopping!  Wine = more money being spent J
• Bounce Back Weekend.  Pick a Friday and Saturday, and whenever a customer spends $30.00 at a store they receive a $5.00 coupon that must be used that day, and is valid at any other participating store.  The $5.00 is good on purchases of $25.00 or more.  This encourages cross promotion and introduces shoppers to new stores.  It also creates that hurry up shopping frenzy.
• Write a cute poem about the types of things that can be bought with Downtown Lee’s Summit Gift Certificates and stuff in the envelope.
• During Ladies Night Out create a scorecard.  This would involve teams of women signing up and tallying purchases of the day.  Which ever group spends the most wins a prize.  This is also a great way to track sales for the day.  Competitive Shopping… sounds like a great women’s sport!
• Show us your produce.  This idea was thought up to encourage visitors of the Farmer’s Market to visit the local shops.  If they go into the stores and show a tomato they can receive a small discount, free treat or whatever the shop owner decides to do.
• Kathy also mentioned that we should encourage any business with a website to make sure to link up with www.shopmainstreet.org

Gina

Well the conference is coming to a close and we will be on our way home this afternoon.  We had a great time walking around Philadelphia over the weekend, and have attended some great seminars the past few days.  I just finished one on how to produce a podcast – which would be a nice companion to the promotional DVD we have been working on.  We look forward to getting back and sharing what we have learned with you.  I plan to summarize our sessions daily for the next few weeks – and will also throw in some fun pictures.  See you all soon!

Sarah

DLSMS Staff will be in Philadelphia, PA. from Saturday, March 29th until Wednesday, April 2nd.  This year’s National Main Streets Conference will focus on entrepreneurship and diversity, and we’re all looking forward to some great seminars and some historic sight-seeing as well!

We applied for and received an Aquila Economic Development Tuition Scholarship, allowing all three staff members to attend this year’s conference.  Thank you, Aquila! Chris Flory, Brad & Carole Culbertson are volunteering in the office while we’re gone, so we thank them for helping us out!

There are many things I am looking forward to this year.  Since this is my first trip there, I can’t wait to see the Liberty Bell, US Mint, Independence Hall, Reading Terminal Market…the list goes on and on.  The National Main Streets Conference always puts together some great educational tours!  Second would be the daily educational seminars – we will each attend at least six seminars so we should come back with TONS of information.  We will also be scouting out a speaker on retail niches, so hopefully we come back with a slate of names to choose from for an educational seminar right here in Downtown LS!  Third is the opportunity to network with other Main Street professionals!  Typically 1,400 “Main Streeters” attend, so we should have fun meeting and trading ideas with a diverse group of folks from across the country!

I’ll udpate the blog as soon as I return.  And by then hopefully we can post pictures!

Sarah