Northfield Downtown Development Corporation

The Executive Directors of the Northfield Area Chamber of Commerce, the Northfield Economic Development Authority, and the Northfield Enterprise Center engaged the community in a discussion about economic development at today’s Downtown Forum. Kathy Feldbrugge, Charlene Coulombe-Fiore, and Blake Abdella shared information with and took questions from the roomful of attendees.

Kathy started out with a presentation on the Chamber. The group conducts a number of activities for local businesses, including Business Retention and Expansion visits, an on-line listing of available commercial properties, and local retail promotions, and initiatives outside of Northfield, through the Conventions and Visitors Bureau, to promote tourism. Finally, the Chamber advocates on issues important to its members. Kathy stressed that the Chamber seeks to work with other organizations, both private and public.

Charlene picked up on this collaborative effort in her opening remarks, saying that it takes a team effort to succeed at economic development. The EDA is the economic development arm of the City of Northfield and is currently working to increase the tax base and number of jobs through a variety of initiatives and programs. One of their key initiatives this year is assuring an adequate supply of land through greenfield and in-fill development and redevelopment of existing sites. Their programs include the Master Development Fund, serving both major retail districts, the Downtown Revolving Loan Fund, the Shearer Grant Fund, for expanding businesses, and, coming soon, a Toolbox Fund with great flexibility to serve a range of business needs.

Blake said that the NEC focuses on both start-up and existing businesses within or relocating to Northfield. Specifically, they can help with business plans, financing options, and connecting to resources. They also have access to additional expertise through the College Board of Business Consultants and the Experienced Business Advisors Network. Blake said that this year they are going to return to conducting seminars to reach larger audiences on common issues and look forward to working with the Economic Development Partners on some of the offerings.

There were many questions from the audience, including “How can the City Council support your efforts in economic development?” The answer was unanimous, “Make economic development a priority”.

Northfield’s Convention and Visitors Bureau invited stakeholders to share input with them as they finalize plans for 2008.

A group of a dozen or so folks, including representatives from the Historical Society, the Arts Commission, the Defeat Committee, both colleges and a number of local businesses, gathered at the Northfield Golf Club this morning to discuss local tourism initiatives.

Questions asked included: Where are the visitors coming from? What brings them to Northfield? and What community tourism marketing ideas would you like to share with the CVB Advisory Board?

The discussion touched upon the powerful draw exerted by the colleges, culture, and athletic events, the economic potential of a hockey rink and performing arts center, and the opportunities/challenges of January, February and March.

Local businessperson Norman Butler summarized it well by saying, “We’re talking about the same things, we’re going in the same direction, let’s see if we can get something done”.

Over forty people, most of them Northfield retailers, showed up at the Grand Event Center early this morning to discuss the Retail Support Strategies Task Force’s report. For those who haven’t been following the work of this group, the Task Force was established in early 2007 to tackle one of the goals of the Northfield Economic Development Authority’s master plan for economic development in the city, “Develop a coordinated retail strategy.” Representing both retail districts, Downtown and “Uptown” (the district flanking south Highway 3), this morning’s gathering considered and discussed the Task Force’s findings and recommendations.

The stated outcome for the today’s meeting was to identify five to seven strategies to pursue immediately (given appropriate resources of time and dollars), with the longer-term goal of implementing some of the almost three dozen Task Force recommendations over the next three to eighteen months. Based on the notes taken by NDDC Board Members, we’ve still got at least a dozen strategies that the group suggested merit further consideration.

Some of the topics discussed at length today were the need for an increasingly sophisticated events calendar that pulls info from a wider range of event sponsors and pushes selective info out to specific segments of the business community, the recognition that retailers need to shape their product mix and marketing appeal to meet both local residents and visitors to build the broadest base of customers, and the belief that public investment should be strategically targeted on projects that will provide the financial leverage to produce significant economic benefits for Northfield.

Next steps includes sending these higher visibility action steps out to the attendees of this morning’s meeting and ask them for further prioritization, as well as soliciting additional ideas that may have percolated since this morning’s cup of coffee. Once we identify these priorities, and have a more focused action plan, we’ll work with our economic development partners, as well as Northfield’s retail community, to steadily implement the ideas.

Okay, maybe you’ve got to be a bit of a building code and the adaptive reuse of existing buildings wonk to truly enjoy it…

…but I’ve got to highly recommend Tracy Davis’ podcast with guest David Hvistendahl and Norman Butler.

If you really want to understand the challenges, and underlying issues, as well as get the minimum necessary background of pertinent details on implementing code requirements in historic structures (as well as get some first-hand insight into this whole “business-friendliness” issue), check it out at: Norman Butler and Dave Hvistendahl on building codes.

Last week I snapped this picture of a film project on a Division Street sidewalk. The timing made me think of a test run for the proposed Outside Dining Ordinance.

Spurred by Griff Wigley and encouraged by Jim Pokorney, the NDDC has drafted language for an Outside Dining Ordinance. Based on input that we gathered at our Downtown Forum on the topic, we are proposing, among other things, that the outside dining area be immediately adjacent and continguous with the building structure, an ADA-compliant pathway must be maintained in the public way, when alcohol is served, a visible barrier must define the outside dining area, and that alcoholic beverages must be served and consumed only inside the defined outside dining area.

The proposed ordinance language is currently being circulated among interested downtown restaurant owners. It will be forwarded to the downtown council members, and copied to the city staff, in the very near future.