Study: Downtown needs home-grown retail

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BY ZACH PLUHACEK / Lincoln Journal Star

Revitalizing downtown Lincoln retail should start by making the area more hospitable to local, independent retailers, according to a study presented Tuesday by two Denver firms.

Parking, then vacant buildings were the biggest problems for downtown retail, according to those surveyed for the study: downtown employees, University of Nebraska-Lincoln students and faculty, downtown retailers, and members of the Chamber of Commerce Young Professionals Group.

The 2007 Retail Retention & Recruitment Strategy was commissioned by the city, Chamber of Commerce and Downtown Lincoln Association. The study cost $68,000, of which the city government's share was about $20,000, said Downtown Lincoln Association president Polly McMullen.

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Cassey Morton shops for music at Homer's downtown store in May. The location closed this spring.(LJS File)

Cassey Morton shops for music at Homer's downtown store in May. The location closed this spring.(LJS File)

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Of stores already operating in Lincoln, the largest percentage of people surveyed wished for large chains, like Target, the top requested business. Wal-Mart and Barnes & Noble also ranked high on the list.

But representatives from the two firms chosen to complete the report — Progressive Urban Management Associates and The Laramie Company — say nurturing homegrown businesses is the key to a successful downtown that would attract more regional and national names.

Bradley Segal, the president of Progressive Urban Management Associates, said shop owners who run their own businesses and know customers by name will pave the way for better retail downtown.

“We have to create enough of a critical mass and enough of a buzz,” he said. “If we can get good clusters of local independents … then the brands will come.”

Downtown needs more successfully operated local independents like Stella Clothing, Licorice International and The Black Market, said Mary Beth Jenkins, president of The Laramie Co.

The study highlighted a few national and regional businesses that would be likely to move in downtown, based on their trends and Lincoln’s demographic. Those included stores like American Eagle, The Limited and American Apparel.

Target and Barnes & Noble weren’t on the list.

Still, Segal has faith some of the big names will come.

Both Segal and Jenkins emphasized the quality of Lincoln’s current downtown retail, as well as the need for cooperation among downtown stakeholders.

Many potential entrepreneurs are recent university grads —like Juliane and Sheila Glasco, owners of Stella Clothing at 101 N. 14th St. Jenkins called them “local retail heroes.”

The consultants recommended a sort of unified retail incubation program among UNL, the city, local businesses and the Downtown Lincoln Association, that would help foster creation and growth of new retail business downtown.

“Never have we seen a market where we can put all those things together,” Segal said.

A suburban retail mall’s owner has advantages, they said, with unified ownership and management of store leases in that kind of enterprise.  

Downtown, with hundreds of tenants and property owners, is different.  

“It’s like herding cats,” Segal said.

The same goes for the city’s parking system, they said. The disconnection among all of the agencies that deal with parking creates circumstances that are less than customer-friendly for downtown visitors, McMullen said.

So the study suggests better management of parking before addressing new parking spaces, perhaps a unified parking authority — something used in Boulder, Colo.

First, change the city’s whole attitude toward parking, said Segal, to make it part of the city’s economic and urban development strategy.  

Then give customer friendliness a higher priority, he said.  After the private and public sectors manage that, the city can address longer-term planning for parking infrastructure, Jenkins and Segal said.

Given that most people who shop or eat downtown live elsewhere in the city, there is a need for parking to sustain economic vitality, Segal said.

“In this town, a pedestrian is someone who found a place to park,” he said.

Specifically, they recommend implementing the plans from the dust-covered 2004 Downtown Parking System Assessment, which called for the creation of an authority to coordinate parking downtown.

Mayor Chris Beutler said a group will be called together to resurrect the parking issue, which he called the “toughest nut to crack” for the city.

The retail study addressed changes and goals to take place over the next five to 10 years,  shortening the outlook from the 20-year time period addressed in the Downtown Lincoln Master Plan compiled in 2005.

The study recommends concentrating retail along P and O streets, as well as in the Haymarket, then bridging the gaps among the shopping areas.

“Up until now it has not been concentrated in a single area the way a shopping mall is,” McMullen said. “There are beginning to be clusters that are emerging in different areas.”

To those involved, including members of the 2015 Vision Group, getting the stakeholders to work together will be the key issue.

“I think anything that unites the university along with the downtown community is a great thing for our city,” said Tonn Ostergard, CEO of Crete Carrier Corp. and a Vision Group member.

Reach Zach Pluhacek at 473-7395 or zpluhacek@journalstar.com.