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Leesburg Economic Development staff members talk about town's atmosphere and future
With the recent and ongoing news of how businesses in Leesburg are closing, the Times-Mirror spoke with town Economic Development Manager Marantha Edwards and Business Retention Coordinator Karen Jones to find out their strategy, plans and ideas for building the town's business base.
Both women said the department is making strides to communicate better with the town's 3,000 business owners -- half of them home-based -- through surveys, studies, forums and round-table events.
“Our job is townwide,” Edwards said. “We have a lot of development going on, a lot of office space to fill, a lot of business to attract, a lot of businesses to keep.”
The department's efforts are directed toward the future of the town, so we asked what Edwards and Jones are doing to alleviate the economic issues now, what their vision is, what their obstacles are and when the plan may come to fruition.
What is the big concern for businesses here?
Jones: The focus is on the typical things of foot traffic, parking and rental costs.
Edwards: And some are myths.
Jones: Parking is a subject that gets discussed quite a bit, but in reality ... every town faces the same problem. Every town thinks they have a parking problem, but its actually a parking management problem. And that is something that is a big issue here and we will be addressing that in the Spring probably with a parking summit.
The concerns that people have in this economy, of course, are different from what they have experienced in years past. And it is tough because there is a lot of pain out there. Businesses that have closed in the last couple of months have had extenuating circumstances – divorce, health and other things. It is not just downtown. It is not Leesburg per say.
We have been meeting with the property owners and they are working with their tenants. They are trying to help to the degree that they can. And this is an ongoing thing. This is not a one time deal. Its just constant that we are working with the businesses to help them if they want to expand or whatever. And sometimes we read about their closings in the paper. We don't always know that either.
Jones: It is pretty clear that the hours and the foot traffic are pretty synonymous. If there are no hours, there is no foot traffic. Not to say people don't come down here. The scope of our shops hours are quite broad. And this is an ongoing discussion and people have a lot of reasons for not wanting to open their businesses.
Edward: Business owners are entrepreneurs and they didn't want to open their store in a mall with set hours. They are entrepreneurs and they have their own notion of when their store is open and their own notion of what their store hours are going to be.
Jones: And we can not regulate [store hours] it is a market function, as is rents.
We have a lot of good things going on downtown. We have businesses expanding, businesses wanting to expand. We have businesses that are very comfortable here that are happy with the way things are going. Obviously the market is off, but the business climate is okay. A lot of people are feeling pretty good about it. So we are all waiting for it to end – and it will end someday – but right now everybody is hanging in there.
Edward: Some of what we struggle with is that there are businesses that close and in downtown where there is a small number, that number seems to have a bigger impact because it is a small number against a small number. But the fact is, those businesses that are there are doing well and so what happens is, when we put this negative flip on what's closing, it has a negative impact on those businesses that are surviving and trying to thrive.
There is a lot happening in Leesburg and with gas prices soaring to over $4, people aren't going to have to leave Leesburg. We have a lot here.
Jones: We have a pipeline for office space. We are not only recruiting retail and restaurants, but we are actively recruiting businesses as well.
What role does the town play in being responsible for how the businesses do?
Jones: Our job, through marketing and all the efforts that Marantha has been working on during the past several years in tourism and all that, is to get the people into the town. The businesses job is to get the people into their doors and make the cash registers ring. We can't do that. But what we can do is help make Leesburg a place where people want to come to. They either want to come here to eat. They want to come here to shop. They want to come here to do their business. And then when they are here, the businesses need to let these folks know, oh okay we are here, come into our store.
Edwards: You have to take it back a couple of levels. You can say, yes, it is Economic Development's role to develop the economy, or to help provide the infrastructure. And that is obviously driven by policy... There is a fine balance between who does what and how they are told what to do what. So, yes, there are some that will say that it is the government's role to provide an environment that is positive for business. That doesn't necessarily translate into, “I'm the one responsible to spend all the marketing and advertising money to get those businesses to come here.”
So, yes, it is our job to grow and attract businesses and to try to help influence the council saying here are the tools we need to do this as a community so we have a positive environment for these businesses to want to come here, stay here and grow a business here.
And then beyond that, once they get inside the door of that business, it is that individual business owner's responsibility to keep them coming back, or have the product that they want.
And part of what is happening downtown, and I am not the first to say it, is that an attraction, you go there because they have something that you want, regardless of what is going on around it. Look at Blue Ridge Grill. That place is jammin'. And where does it sit? Behind a Sheetz. Through a McDonald's parking lot, but it is thriving. But it proves the theory that people are going to go through whatever to get what they want when they get there.
So again, it is a shared responsibility.
Speaking towards the policy that you are directed by, you are going to use the database that you are compiling to recruit different businesses. How restrictive can you be of what businesses come to the town?
Jones: That is all market driven, for the most part, but what we can say is, we can go to the property owner and say here is a list of restaurants that we know we [would like to have]. But we are trying to put together a plan or a map of, if you read our business marketing study you will see that theses are the types of businesses that we needed to enhance what we already have.
Now we can be specific, sure. But if there is somebody that comes here and they fit into the zoning ordinances that we may or may not need or don't want, no, we can't say they can't come. And we wouldn't even begin to try and do that.
Everybody thinks we should be out there telling landlords what they should do to rent their space, but we can't do that.
What areas, or other towns, are you looking to for guidance when it comes to branding Leesburg?
Jones: The Main Street communities. Stanton is one example. It takes a long time by the way. They just don't happen over night. Our planners are learning these things. And there are a lot of practices that we are trying to pick-up.
Edwards: I don't mean to sound bureaucratic, but a lot of it is determined by the town plan. When the town plan was written in, it involved the community and town officials saying this is what we think we want downtown and grow up to be like and then that ultimately guides what it is they do. And a lot of creative thought went into that. Our planners have a lot of really rich experience in community development.
Middleburg has that aura. Where, when you say Middleburg, people know what it is. They have policies, such as no big-box stores, no corporate businesses or franchises. It is a lot of mom and pop type stores. With what you are working with – the town plan and all of the studies done – what is it you would like to see taken out of the plan or implemented into the plan, to get Leesburg to where you want it to be? And what you see holding Leesburg back from having that pull that Middleburg has? The benefits of Middleburg – the history, the downtown, the mom and pop shops – Leesburg has that. But Leesburg doesn't seem to have that draw. So what is missing?
Edwards: I'll tell you this. Whoever has the answer to that question is going to be a really wealthy person, because I don't think anyone has the answer to that. That is the weird thing.
That question is a real tough one. Back to 1758, when Leesburg was a farm to market community, and the court – what kind of influence does that have over time?
I don't know how to answer that question other than the mystic of Middleburg. It seems like you have a higher percentage of walking down the streets of Middleburg and running into someone famous. You don't necessarily have that experience here in Leesburg. Is that all it is? I don't think so. It is something else, but I am not sure I can put my finger on it.
Do you think any kind of policies that you would like to see implemented or removed in the town? Like no big-box stores?
Jones: Obviously, it is too late for that.
Edwards: I necessarily wouldn't want to go there.
Jones: We are what we are and the plans and the studies that we have done over the past several years have all been leading us up to where we are today. Can we go back and change anything? No. Can we make things better? Probably. And we have a lot of good people working on trying to do that. And if it changes policy, or an approach to the zoning ordinance, the town plan is what really guides what goes into the zoning ordinance. It's a good plan and we are working toward that. There are pieces of it that may work and some that may not. But it is a town wide plan. But history has a lot to do with it.
Edwards: My perfect Leesburg does have a performing arts center, it does have downtown urban living opportunities, and it does have a university. It does have walking capabilities and bike trails everywhere. Cool condos where you can live and walk to work. A water feature coming through it. This is where I would love to see it go.
In the plan that is written and the policies that you are given, do you see that as being a feasible future for Leesburg?
Edwards: I do. I think the momentum from the public side, the private side is more pronounced now than it has ever been.
I think people get frustrated that it isn't happening fast enough, but it is moving faster than I have seen it. It does take time, and we all get frustrated because we all want it now. But I think it is more likely now than it has ever been.
Jones: Everything that we have been doing for the last several years is leading up to this point. And timing is everything. The reorganization of the town staff, the developers that are in town, all of these things have happened because of things that have been going on for the last ten years.
With the way that things are moving along right now, when would be the soonest you would start to see some of these changes happen and then being a little bit more realistic when will we see change happening?
Edwards: Some people have been asking if we will see it in our lifetime. [The Waterford Development projects] are close. Once [the developer] gets his approvals and once someone puts a shovel in the ground, it is about 18 to 24 months.
[Waterford Development is working on bringing commercial developments with retail and parking to different locations in the historic district.]
Jones: I think we will start to see some significant changes in 24 to 30 months.
Thinking more into the future, basing off the economy right now, 22 banks in Leesburg and with the way they are being hit hard right now, do you think there is too much of a bank hold or atmosphere here? If they start to go down how will you fill those spaces?
Jones: I don't think it is a hold, I think it is what is happening in the banking industry nationally and the real estate industry is in the same boat. Banks don't need big buildings anymore, but these banks were planned. They have been here for a while. Same with real estate companies. You see real estate companies everywhere with a lot of buildings, but you aren't going to see that in a few years.
The segment of banks and real estate is going to change our industry. And yeah, we are going to see empty bank buildings around here. But there is a lot of adaptive reuse. Some of them could be reused very successfully for things – restaurants. There isn't going to be an issue with that. I think we will always be able to use them.
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