Texas-based firm picks four locations in Lynchburg that may play a role in economic development
Jill Nance/The News & Advance
Jim Trikur sets up tables outside of the Main Street Eatery in downtown Lynchburg. City officials will receive a detailed report on four sites in the area that reflect a good fit for retailers and restaurants to help boost economic development.
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By Bryan Gentry
Published: June 13, 2008
Economic development officials in Lynchburg have identified four sites in the city for a study of potential retail and restaurant locations.
A final retail report on the city’s retail — including a list of 15 retailers for whom the city would be a good match — will be delivered in about 60 days.
A Texas-based customer analysis firm called Buxton is studying the demographics of potential customers within driving distance of locations selected by the Lynchburg’s Office of Economic Development.
The sites include downtown, midtown, River Ridge mall, the planned location for Lakeside Centre at the corner of Lakeside Drive, and the Lynchburg Expressway.
Marjette Glass, director of economic development for the city, said, “We selected the areas where there has been redevelopment or development interest. We were also trying to cover as much of the City’s retail potential as possible.”
Buxton will provide a report on the trade area, showing the audience a store or restaurant could capture within a 12-minute drive, and some larger areas as well.
The city’s Industrial Development Authority directors voted in February to pay Buxton $55,000 to play matchmaker for the city.
At the time, members of the board of directors said the study would be important for keeping a strong retail sector in the city.
It could be helpful for attracting potential stores, or for helping existing ones expand.
Buxton specializes in matching companies to communities with the demographics that make the companies successful.
It uses a database of demographic data for the area —including customers’ income and shopping habits and available commercial sites — with information on over 4,000 chain stores and the demographics that tend to make them successful.
Buxton’s CommunityID service routinely examines three areas. However, it’s common to add another area, according to Courtney Hall, communications specialist for Buxton.
The research doesn’t involve any primary data collection, like phone calls. Instead, Buxton uses an existing database that is updated frequently.
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Posted by ( alfadoc ) on June 26, 2008 at 3:46 pm
“...people do not, have not, and will not shop in downtown Lynchburg”
Really? People in Charlottesville used to say that too. Been to the C’ville downtown mall lately?
Change will happen, with or without the naysayers. 20 years from now you’ll be able to fill the armory with people who will wish they’d bought downtown property in 2008. You’ll see…
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Posted by ( damalama ) on June 17, 2008 at 10:30 pm
the higher ups that “donate to the campaign funds” of the city council, or in other words slip them money for favorable outcomes that involve their community don’t want retail stores in their area so don’t look for that anytime soon, they freaked out and got the council to shoot down the idea of a person who owned the land to do with it what they wanted and that was to build single family homes, and i believe some retail space. the city council is made up for morons that couldn’t find their butt with their two hands, they are completely idiotic when it comes to any good outcome from the city, all they know how to do is approve everything and worry about the problems it will cause later, that of course being if it doesn’t involve the 03er neighborhood. the only people that actually plan the way this city will develop and where is Liberty University, they buy up the land in the name of the church not to be taxed, tell the council that they are going to sell it or use it for this, and the empty headed members nod without looking at anything, and liberty sells it completely abusing their tax exemption status.
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Posted by ( midtown ) on June 15, 2008 at 4:44 pm
Seems like the Office of Economic Development could have done something similar, perhaps with a little more guesswork but far cheaper.
Anyway, I hope they also include people who are able to walk or bike to the retail areas. The city’s midtown plan called for mixed use stuff, which doesn’t allow that much parking. It seems like this survey is going to recommend a mall-type of development (i.e., all customers drive and park) rather than a mixed-used development that the city has planned for already—for the Plaza, at least.
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Posted by ( markluvslabs ) on June 15, 2008 at 11:21 am
What a complete waste of the public’s money. Hey City of Lynchburg, people do not, have not, and will not shop in downtown Lynchburg! They haven’t wanted to be there since the 70s and with your tax rates and meddling, people won’t come back until the City demonstrates that it actually wants to be commercial friendly. The people who authorized this expenditure of money for another stupid survey to once again try and gain interest in their pet projects should be terminated immediately. Malls are increasingly unpopular, the Lakeside project is dying before even being started, downtown is still on life support. Lynchburg has plenty of restaurants already and businesses do these studies themselves. Why should the City taxpayers be forced to waste money like this? Wouldn’t that money have been better left in their hands to actually have been spent in the establishments already here, instead of sending the money to Texas?
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Posted by ( bigjimm ) on June 14, 2008 at 7:20 am
I must be missing something. Why is it that all of us that live in 24503 have to drive either downtown or to Ward’s Rd to buy something. Has it been decided that all you can buy in Boonsboro is an over-priced cup of coffee? Oh, sorry, I forgot about Burger King. It’s easy to forget about BK.
It’s pretty amazing in these tight times that the city has plenty of money for more surveys. It was a parking survey last year for $50K that came up with the genius idea of parking meters for downtown. Now it’s $55K for another survey that doesn’t actually survey anyone. Heaven forbid the city fathers actually hear anything that the people want. It might skew the plans that have already been made.
I would like to offer my services as a surveyor of needs and opinions. I wouldn’t talk to anyone except the city manager, find out what he wants and return a survey right on the money. This seems to be the way it’s done now since the results of these surveys don’t seem to make sense to anyone but the city manager. I’d do it for $30K and spend the money right here in Boonsboro. That’s a lot of coffee, even at Starbucks.
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