Downtown Blackstone Inc.
P.O. Box 417
Blackstone, VA 23824
434-292-3041

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Economic Restructuring

This element of the Main Street Approach™ concentrates on strengthening and growing the district’s economic base by developing effective strategies for business retention and recruitment. The Economic Restructuring Committee has the job of identifying new market opportunities for the traditional commercial district, finding new uses for historic commercial buildings and stimulating investment in property. To succeed, this committee must develop a thorough understanding of the community’s economic condition and opportunities for incremental market growth. Specifically:

Chairperson: Beth Winn, Blackstone Emporium
434-292-3330 bethandfrankiewinn@blackstoneemporium.com

Committee Members:

Barbara Gibbs
Carolyn Davis
Joe McMillan
Chuck Nunelly
Shirley Wilkins

SO FAR IN 2010

The Economic Restructuring Committee is planning to organize a meeting with experienced entrepreneurs with a track record of success in this area to convene with a consultant/developer to explore ideas for re-use of various vacant properties in town. This group is also working to create a survey to uncover the shopping needs of permanent and transient staff at Fort Pickett. In the works is a pocket sized downtown directory along with a map to show where all the stores and businesses can be found complete with addresses and phone numbers.

COMMITTEE MEETINGS

Met on Thursday, April 2nd at 7:30 a.m.

Updates on Downtown Revitalization was discussed along with the status of the business surveys. The progress of a business recruitment packet was reported on and assignments were given toward its completion.  Market Research can now be accessed online. Pursuit of a dry cleaners to replace Cavalier Cleaners was discussed and a strategy put into place to address the situation.

May 7th

The business owners meeting was discussed, and an update on the progress of the facade program was presented. J & L Renovations have closed on the property at 120 East Broad Street and have been approved for the balance of the loan pool totalling $20,000. The Pick Up your Pride Day was discussed. Tax Abatements are still on our radar but we are giving the topic more research and more study considering the impact on property owners and the feedback we have gotten from the Nottoway Board of Supervisors on this issue.

We would like to get VECTEC to do an analysis of our website. We feel it is a good site but when you do a search, it does not come up high in the list unless you search under downtown so we are interested in a search engine optimization.

The big need in town is for a dry cleaners that will do quality work to replace Cavalier who have closed their doors. To pursue this with all due speed, we are looking at putting together a business recruitment package. Each attendee was given an assignment and we set a time to meet to report our findings during a working lunch.

June 4th

Facade Program Progress Update was shared.

The Business Recruitment Package was scrutinized and fine tuned.

The subject of Tax Abatements was discussed and a document from Harrisonburg was read for ideas.

Shirley Wilkins was tasked with contacting Barry Kelly, a developer who is currently involved in renovations of the Urban Exchange and Walton Hotel buildings in Harrisonburg. Carolyn Davis was given the assignment to research tax rates and Beth Winn is doing further research on the topic of a "Property Assessment freeze". Lafayette Dickens will tweak the recruitment packet and contact Ed Conley about designing a professional cover for the packet.

Chairperson Beth Winn suggested taking a day soon to go on a "field trip" to several potential drycleaning businesses to both sell the concept of coming to Blackstone and uncover the issues and challenges involved.

July 2nd

The loan status of the last $20,000 applied for was brought up. Three new businesses have opened in the last two months! Blackstone is growing because two of the three that left from downtown simply changed locations so only Cavalier Cleaners closed their doors which means we have a net gain in merchants in the town at large! The committee is still working on the recruitment package and we simply need to work up an impressive cover for it. A July 14th meeting is planned to come up with an alternate location for the dumpster in the Bevell's parking lot and the grease drums.

August 6th

The workplans for 2009 was updated. Educational workshops will be planned in the future. A business advocate team was proposed for the purpose of researching issues. It was decided that we would benefit from meeting with developers who can help us prepare for future business recruitment. Shirley Wilkins is tasked with researching current ordinances and a meeting was set up with Ed Totanes to help coordinate initiatives between DBi and the Chamber of Commerce that relate to establishing a liaison between downtown and Fort Pickett. A proposed design for the cover of the recruitment package was critiqued and suggestions made for a final revision. A copy of the recruitment packet will be provided for the DBi board at the upcoming board meeting.

September 4th

The meeting was opened by Committee Chair Beth Winn recapping that several select members of the group had met with Ed Totanes to discuss how DBi could partner with the Chamber of Commerce in our effort to link up with and reach out to Fort Pickett. Specifically, there was an interest in surveying the needs of the troops and involving any input that the Chamber might want to gather as part of that same effort to avoid unnecessary duplication of effort to accomplish similar goals.

It was decided that we need to design a useful piece that would map out the town complete with locations of all the businesses that are downtown and make it detailed enough for a visitor to find his way to the store or business he may seek to patronize.

We discussed what information that needs to be on hand at the DBi booth for distribution at the Arts & Crafts Festival. Also we looked at the Business Recruitment Packet which is now complete. We have a cover design and now we need to add images for the various sections as well as an index and maybe an available properties page for potential developers or a business opportunities list for potential entrepreneurs.


 

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