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Downtown SR: After several tries on their own, merchants look to national model for help revitalizing business district

February 17, 2002

By ERIN ALLDAY
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

When Santa Rosa native Pamela Rees wanted to relocate the small business she had started in Central California, she briefly considered moving back to her hometown.

But then she looked at Rising Sun, Ind., a town of just 2,500 people that was hundreds of miles from her family and friends. It was also a participant in the Main Street USA program, a national redevelopment model with droves of devoted business fans.

Rees picked Rising Sun.

"Rising Sun recruited really hard for us," said Rees, who along with her husband moved their harp-making shop to Indiana two years ago. "They restored this city from death. It was amazing. It's just a very supportive business climate."

Santa Rosa, Rees said, could learn a thing or two from Rising Sun. And frankly, Santa Rosa business and city leaders agree.

Last April, Santa Rosa started funding efforts to adopt the Main Street model, which was created by the National Trust for Historic Preservation to revitalize America's aging downtown business districts.

In Santa Rosa, the model will work as a nonprofit umbrella group designed to unite and revitalize Railroad Square, the Santa Rosa Plaza and the downtown business district.

"Probably our biggest challenge in the past has been to get everyone together," said John Sawyer, owner of Sawyer's News on Fourth Street and chair of the Main Street board of directors. "But once the ball started rolling with Main Street, there was a great deal of buy-in. It's not easy, but we feel the timing is right."

The Main Street model has been adopted by more than 1,600 U.S. cities since its inception in 1980, according to the National Trust. It has helped communities invest $15.2 billion into their downtowns, create 206,000 jobs and build 52,000 businesses.

That level of investment, roughly $9 million per community, isn't easy. It requires hundreds of volunteers. Most business districts end up taxing themselves to pay for improvements. In Petaluma, the program folded in 1993 after businesses refused to pay for it.

In an area like downtown Santa Rosa, it would be easy to assume that skepticism runs high. The city, after all, has been trying to renovate its downtown for at least the past decade through a handful of programs, none of which have produced impressive results.

"The only way I'll be convinced is if I see actual projects set up," said Bernie Schwartz, owner of California Luggage on Fourth Street.

Sawyer, meanwhile, said he sees Main Street as the final answer to building a strong downtown.

"The rumblings for change have never been louder," he said. "We will have to prove ourselves. But business owners will reach a comfort level when they see some of the things we've done."

Santa Rosa first took an interest in the Main Street model about a year ago, when the city paid $45,000 to hire consultant Kent Burnes to study the downtown area. City officials then toured several other Main Street communities, including Livermore and Davis.

The Main Street model will take over where previous redevelopment projects, like CityVision, left off. CityVision will fold in May, when some of its staff most likely will join the Main Street program, said Susan McCue, Santa Rosa's economic development manager.

The Main Street program will cost the city about $150,000 for its first year, mostly to pay for a small staff. In 2004 or later, business owners will need to create a tax assessment district to continue funding the program, Sawyer said.

Santa Rosa's program already has about 100 volunteers, split among a 21-member board of directors and four committees. The committees are the key to the Main Street model, McCue said.

"All Main Street programs function along the same lines," McCue said. "And one of the first things you have to do is your homework."

That means doing intensive research into the business environment in downtown Santa Rosa, including which industries are under- and over-represented, how many people work there and how much commercial space is available.

The research phase, which will start this summer, is expected to take one year. Then the action begins.

A big part of the job is recruiting. "We're headhunters," Sawyer said.

If the initial research indicates, for example, that the downtown area could use more restaurants, the economic development committee would compile numbers on what space is available and how that space is zoned. The marketing committee, meanwhile, would contact potential restaurateurs and convince them to at least consider downtown.

In Rising Sun, Rees said it was intense recruiting that ultimately persuaded her to move there. In fact, the business climate was so supportive, she said, that a few months later she convinced a friend from Santa Rosa to move her business to Rising Sun.

Rees learned right away that the Main Street program would pay for half of the sign for her business and half of any national advertising she wanted. Volunteers offered to help her find low-interest loans and gave her a list of contractors to help her build a shop.

"When we first were considering moving to Rising Sun, the state actually sent somebody to walk us through all of the programs," Rees said. "You'd be lucky to get a brochure from the state of California.

"I can't imagine how Santa Rosa couldn't be successful with Main Street," she said.

In a way, the Main Street model is very similar to the redevelopment that has already flourished in Santa Rosa's Railroad Square, said Lynda Angell, president of the Historic Railroad Square Association.

Railroad Square redevelopment worked, Angell said, because business owners stopped simply discussing what was wrong with the neighborhood and actually set about fixing it. If they didn't like the color the benches were painted, business owners spent a weekend repainting them.

"We rolled up our sleeves and did the job," Angell said. "There's a lot of enthusiasm, a lot of energy. Certainly we see a light at the end of the tunnel at this point."

You can reach Staff Writer Erin Allday at 521-5494 or eallday@pressdemocrat.com.

Links: National Main Street Center, National Trust for Historic Preservation, California Main Street