City Tries to Help Downtown Businesses

City of East Lansing staff have been trying to help get the message out to consumers through a dedicated P.R. campaign that “downtown is open during construction.” The “East Lansing Buzz” campaign represents a dedicated effort to keep existing stores, restaurants, and other businesses from being harmed by the Center City District redevelopment project.

But some business owners are expressing a desire for what they see as potentially more effective solutions to the challenges of construction and to the project’s design for the future of Albert Avenue. In response, City Council members have been asking staff to consider various ideas put forth by business owners.

While only one side of one portion of one road is currently closed for construction – namely, the eastbound lane of Albert Avenue between M.A.C. Avenue and Abbot Road – the loss of surface parking Lot 1 to the Center City District project has presented a major challenge according to business owners and managers who have spoken with ELi.

The City and businesses have been trying to impress upon consumers that 94% of pre-existing downtown parking (in garages, lots, and on the street) is still available. But many downtown visitors had a strong preference for Lot 1, with some telling ELi they don’t want to be bothered “hunting” for parking and driving around the detour. That’s having a negative economic impact especially on businesses nearest the construction site.
 

Outreach via the Buzz Campaign

Recognizing that major construction is always going to be disruptive to a busy downtown, before ground was broken for the Center City District project, City staff started preparing to help downtown businesses manage during the construction.

With the backing of the Downtown Development Authority (DDA), they hired East Lansing P.R. firm Publicom to develop what became the East Lansing Buzz campaign. The goal of that campaign has been to keep people informed about construction and to keep them coming downtown.

At its April 10 meeting, City Council heard a presentation from Amy Schusler-Schmitt, East Lansing’s Community Development & Engagement Manager, about the campaign. She noted that Publicom’s bee mascot (shown below) recently won a major national design award.

Schusler-Schmitt provided a slide presentation that reviewed informational material and signage produced and distributed, and she explained promotional events like “Find the Bee, Park for Free,” which provides free, unlimited parking at a few downtown meters each day. The “Find the Bee, Eat for Free” social media campaign allows people to enter into a drawing for gift certificates at downtown restaurants. The idea is to make it fun and rewarding to come downtown.

The following slide from the presentation summarized the outreach efforts of City staff:

As indicated by the slide, businesses have been taking advantage of the free parking vouchers being provided by the City, and about $33,000 has now been spent “on marketing and parking initiatives.” This includes funding for signs reminding people that downtown businesses are still open, and handouts businesses can give to customers to explain where to park.

City Council members expressed excitement and appreciation at Schusler-Schmitt’s presentation.

  
Business owners are looking for different results

Downtown business owners appear to be less upbeat than City Council about the results of the Buzz campaign.

ELi reached out to about twenty businesses to ask what was working and not working for them, and of the six that responded, one had no opinion on it and five said they were concerned that the campaign was not getting the results businesses need. (Not all were willing to have their names used in conjunction with their remarks.)

As several noted, City staff is measuring outreach effort, and that’s not the result businesses care about. They care about whether customers are showing up and spending money.

Linda Dufelmeier, co-owner of Mackerel Sky with her husband Tom, summed it up this way: “It does not seem as though the campaign is result-driven, and if it is, what result was the goal and how is it measured?”

She added, “It is wonderful that the ‘Buzz Campaign’ won a national award, but I believe the award was for graphics and concept, without success of the campaign as a factor.”

Meg Croft, owner of Woven Arts on Grove Street, said, “I feel the City is throwing resources at the issue, but I can't tell if it is working or not. I see campaigns running, but I honestly don't feel my business benefits from most of them.”

I asked Schusler-Schmitt if the City could provide some data that might speak to what the businesses value. For example, are there data showing that particular interventions (like the free parking vouchers or the Find the Bee events) are resulting in business revenue increase or at least more people coming downtown? We received no response to this inquiry.

Dufelmeier said she believes there has been “a waste of money.” The high-gloss brochures and other handouts are largely given to those people who are already downtown, and the “businesses are open” signs are limited to being seen by those who are already downtown. She would rather see funds used on radio and TV advertising and on signage that brings people into the downtown area.

Luke Hackney owns RetroDuck, a custom t-shirt shop located above Noodles & Company on the northeast corner of Abbot Road and Grand River Avenue, and is also Chair of East Lansing’s Downtown Management Board (DMB). He tells Eli, “I feel like we have all put a fair amount of work into the marketing, but I will admit that the campaigns haven't done as well as I would have hoped.”

He says the DMB will be working more with the DDA and City staff to try to effect more of the results that matter to businesses. He remains “optimistic things are going to get better.”

  
Is parking really a problem?

Whether parking is really a problem depends on who you ask. City staff say there is plenty of parking vacancy. But business owners say customers are reluctant to have to park in unfamiliar places and to walk farther than usual.

Woven Art’s Meg Croft explains that, “once the Grove Street Parking Ramp [across from her business] is full, my customers will try to come back at a different time rather than park farther away and walk.”

She explains it isn’t that her customers are lazy: “I have a number of customers with mobility issues or young children. It is too much to ask them to walk a few blocks.”

Croft calls “the most beneficial business support that I have received from the City” the one hundred free validation tickets she and other nearby businesses are being given each month during construction. But, “I go through them quickly… and it compensates me for a fraction of the loss of business.”

With Lot 1 gone, the Grove Street ramp is in high demand, even on Sundays. Croft has traditionally offered a lot of Sunday classes at her store because parking is free on Sundays, making that class day more attractive to customers. “But we are now finding that the garage and surrounding city blocks are completely taken by parishioners attending services as they are squeezed for parking as well.”

She adds, “We have adjusted the start time on some Sunday classes to help. But parking continues to be my number one concern with ongoing construction. I hope that [developer] Harbor Bay can finish the Center City parking garage component along Albert Street as soon as possible.”

City staff has said they expect that new garage to open in about a year. Before that happens, all of Albert Avenue will be closed for months for reconstruction of underground infrastructure.

Says Hackney, “I believe the validations are a good idea, but it doesn't seem like enough of the eligible businesses are utilizing them.”

He encourages people who are not mobility-limited to remember that “A very small percentage [of parking spots] was actually removed from the downtown area” and that there is generally still parking available not too far from anywhere one wants to go.

Hackney sees an upside to people parking in unfamiliar spots: “They might be stumble across a store or restaurant in the process.” And he notes they can use other forms of transportation besides their own cars—biking, walking, CATA, and ride-share services like Lyft and Uber.

   
Going straight to Council

A few business owners have opted to appeal directly to Council with their ideas of how to make sure things go as well as possible with the Center City District redevelopment.

This week, Pat and Trisha Riley, owners of Harper’s Restaurant and Brew Pub, came to City Council to suggest what they see as a better redesign of Albert Avenue than the one planned. The Rileys explained to Council that the narrow sidewalk outside their establishment causes problems during busy periods, with people spilling out onto the street and into the path of oncoming cars.

The current redesign of Albert Avenue calls for a very wide, plaza-like sidewalk on the south side of Albert Avenue. The Rileys suggested that the sidewalk on the south side be reduced just a few feet so that that space can be used on the north, creating not only a wider sidewalk on the north, but offering the opportunity to beautify the north side in the way the south side is planned: with planters, benches, and the like.

The Rileys noted that, not only would this make the whole street much more attractive, it would also create useful safety barriers (in the form of planters and benches) between pedestrians and the roadway.

Members of Council said they thought this had been the plan all along, based on renderings provided of the Center City District proposal.

At this week’s Council meeting, Council Members generally supported the Riley’s idea and asked City planning and engineering staff to see what could be done to make it happen.

  
Beier follows-up on other interventions that might help

Following concerns passed on by ELi from the Dufelmeiers, Council Member Ruth Beier recently asked City staff to look into changing out signs that say “ROAD CLOSED” with signs offering “DETOUR.”

As noted above, no road is actually closed at the moment; only one lane of one stretch of one road is currently closed. Yet the Dufelmeiers have noted that signs have been suggesting Albert Avenue is closed, suggesting along Abbot Road essentially no hope of access to much of downtown. (They supplied the photo below.) The sign also seems to imply businesses are not open along Albert Avenue, when they are.

Following Beier’s intervention, staff from the City’s Department of Public Works have put up a number of signs around the downtown indicating how to detour around the lane closure on Albert Avenue.

That said, those detour signs currently direct people to go around the closure via Grand River Avenue. The Dufelmeiers have previously suggested to staff it would be more useful, especially for people coming from the north, to be directed into the downtown via the streets just north of City Hall, down M.A.C. It would not only be easier, it would reduce traffic backups on Grand River Avenue caused by the construction.

Says Linda Dufelmeier, dealing with the construction problems “has developed into a second job for us, especially aiding customers in figuring everything out.”

Could the City help by providing valet parking? Research by ELi indicates that some American cities have opted to offer publicly-run valet parking services to solve perceived problems with parking.

This has been tried, for example, in Delray Beach, Florida, for a parking garage that is otherwise underutilized, and in Auburn, Alabama, to help visitors who want to be dining downtown. Rochester, New York, has considered city-run valet parking because, as one commentator put it, “There is not necessarily a parking problem….There is a perception that there is a parking problem.”

Following questions from ELi about whether East Lansing might consider providing valet parking downtown during construction, Beier has asked staff to look into whether it might be a viable option.

One intervention everyone wants to see? Better communication—between staff and businesses, between the City and potential downtown visitors, and among businesses.

Said Hackney, “I also feel like more owners and managers should be coming to the business huddles Amy mentioned [in her presentation], as I believe that is the best way to discuss what can be done to help businesses that feel like they are hurting from the construction. I also encourage anyone interested in coming to our Downtown Management Board meetings, which are open to the public.”

He tells ELi, “I will say this has been a challenging experience and I hope businesses can weather the storm, because this is a massive undertaking with great reward potential.”

Hackney reminds people who are hoping to keep alive their favorite shops, restaurants, watering holes, barber shops, and the like, “The best way to support an establishment is to be a patron of it.”

Unless otherwise indicated, photos by Kepler Domurat-Sousa.