Preservation means profitable businesses

Ewert and Co. has developed a downtown revitalization plan that calls for spending $72.4 million in public money in an attempt to make downtown Galveston a sustainable shopping and entertainment district.

This is an admirable goal that might be worth the investment if it actually can be accomplished, but there are serious questions about whether or not this city has the right demographic profile or can attract enough tourists to make this happen.

There are certain critical steps that must be taken to give any downtown revitalization plan a chance of success, and specific changes that need to be considered before the Ewert plan is funded with taxpayers’ dollars.

For example, downtown merchants must decide whether they are willing to form and fund a management district.

Any revitalization plan must focus on ways to help businesses become and remain profitable in order to preserve our magnificent historical buildings.

If these businesses do not make a profit, they will fail, and the buildings will become empty, leading to their eventual ruin and destruction.

No amount of wishful thinking, government assistance and philanthropy will keep this area healthy, functioning and vibrant without profitable businesses.

Downtown Galveston is the crown jewel of the city, and the historical ambience created by its buildings is the unique feature of the district that must be fully exploited to give it an advantage over other shopping areas; but it also must adopt modern retailing strategies to be successful.

When my first guest column on local retail sales was published, no one was shocked that they were below par, but many were surprised at just how bad they really were.

Since I do not pretend to be an expert on the retail market, I went looking for someone who understood that downtowns needed to be profitable in order to survive, and how to help them do just that.

The name that was referred to in many articles was Robert Gibbs. He is an internationally renowned retail consultant who started in the business by working for shopping centers, but in recent years, he has spent more time on revitalizing historic downtown shopping districts.

Gibbs Planning Group has performed more than 200 urban retail studies since 1988. One of their best-known revitalization efforts was their 2002 plan for King Street in Charleston, S.C.

Gibbs says that for historic downtowns to be successful, they must be guided by retail experts, and not by urban planners or historic preservation groups.

They certainly can make them look good, and “preserve” these areas for a period of time, but they often make changes that greatly hinder the flow of commerce. Without profits, downtowns will not survive, no matter how good they look!

Detailed suggestions on how to make downtown Galveston profitable, based on what I learned while doing research on the work Gibbs did in other cities and from other retail experts, can be accessed using the link with this article.

Hopefully, the city of Galveston will hire Gibbs to do a complete study, but until then, my simple efforts will have to suffice.

David Stanowski is a co-founder of the Galveston Open Government Project.

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On The Web

galvestoneconomicreport.com/Without-Profits-The-Strand-Will-Not-Survive.html