Several West Michigan downtown developers shared ideas and visions for recruiting new businesses and building the economies of their downtowns at a recent conference in Grand Rapids. Developing relevant marketing materials and relationships with commercial real estate brokers topped Grand Rapids developers' list.
According to excerpts from the story:
In Greek mythology, Sisyphus was doomed to push a boulder up a hill, only to have it roll back down and have to start over every day.
Downtown Kalamazoo Inc. Business Recruitment and Retention Director Rob Peterson compared Sisyphus' fate to the task of attracting retail businesses to central business districts.
"There are days we all feel that way," Peterson joked at the International Council of Shopping Centers West Michigan Alliance program last week in Grand Rapids.
He led the roundtable "Sisyphus Speaks: Recruiting Retailers to the Urban Environment" with Anne Marie Bessette, development specialist for the Grand Rapids Downtown Development Authority.
With the current economy, and the struggles of retail especially, it has become even more important for downtown development organizations to work closely with brokers and property owners to attract and retain businesses.
A few years ago, the Grand Rapids DDA decided to make retaining and attracting businesses downtown a priority, Bessette said. One of its efforts last year included building a database of available storefronts, and the DDA works with brokerage firms to keep that up to date.
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