Empty stores create challenge

They’re ghosts in any downtown. And they frighten away business.
Empty storefronts and vacant buildings plague many communities, and Portland is no exception.
“So what do we do? We don’t know what to do,” said Sandy Evans, longtime owner of Evans’ Fine Jewelry in downtown Portland, citing the negative impact vacant buildings have had.
Downtowns in most communities are struggling and there is no easy answer to the problem, said Jay County Development Corporation executive director Bill Bradley. 
“There are a multitude of reasons why people don’t shop downtown anymore. Hours, parking, and here in Portland, one of the big issues, I think, is truck traffic going through the downtown area, which becomes a safety issue,” Bradley said.
He does, however, think downtowns that develop an identity have a better opportunity of drawing shoppers.  
 “Some communities have … niched themselves, have become a specific locale for a particular genre,” Bradley said noting Berne’s Swiss motif or Winchester’s mixture of stores and restaurants downtown.
Bradley noted that large retail stores are not going to locate in small downtown areas, but storefronts are usually filled with local entrepreneurs taking a risk and developing something unique.
“When you look at downtown redevelopment, are you creating a business center that is reflective of how people shop today or are you trying to be nostalgic about the past and bring back the past?” Bradley asked rhetorically.
“So the downtown you want to create is reflective of today  … not of nostalgia past.”
Portland Mayor Randy Geesaman is hopeful that an effort to partner with Ball State University will bear fruit.  
“What we’re hoping (is that) what we’re doing by hiring Ball State will give us our first step towards what are some of the needs downtown and then we can go and seek after. One of the things that we want to do is find what are some of the possibilities if they were here in Portland, that people would visit them and do business with them instead of driving to Muncie, driving to Fort Wayne, driving to other locations. So we’re hoping that the Ball State study will give us some of those ideas,” Geesaman said. 
Geesaman said an idea that has been presented is to open a microbrewery in the downtown to draw visitors there after 5 p.m. which is the time most businesses close.
Scott Truex, associate professor of urban planning at BSU, said microbreweries appeal to millennials and smaller cities that don’t have a college or university.
Students unveiled some of their proposals at a public meeting last week, and another session is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Dec. 7 in the Community Room of Jay County Public Library.
Ball State University urban planning students surveyed 45 merchants and business owners and 44 retail customers. Another 77 surveys were completed online.  
One question asked those who work in Portland but live outside the city limits if they would consider living in Portland.
“More than 60 percent of the people said yes, which is a great statistic, which means that people have a general positive outlook toward the City of Portland, which is a good thing for prospective families, prospective businesses … which bring more investment toward downtown Portland,” urban planning student Brandon Burgoa said at an October meeting.     
Another conclusion from the study found that 58 percent of the 77 respondents felt they are not given sufficient opportunities to contribute their views for downtown revitalization.   
Attracting new businesses to the downtown area is only part of the problem. It will be difficult to find a building that isn’t in need of a lot of repairs.
A study was done by Ratio Architects in 2014 of three of the worst buildings in the downtown — the Bailey Building, located at 201 to 207 W. Main St., Tom & Rod’s Steak House, 214 through 216 W. Main St., and the McClurg Building, also on Main Street.
The study concluded that it would cost $575,000 to $790,000 to make mechanical, electrical and plumbing repairs to the Bailey Building  and between $222,000 and $306,000 to make repairs to Tom & Rod’s.
Geesaman said there are a dozen more buildings in the downtown area that are in poor condition but he is hopeful that results from a recent income survey could provide some help with grants. 
Results from the income survey, conducted by Dr. Bob Smiley, were given to Geesaman on Nov. 1 and the survey is the first step toward being eligible for Office of Community and Rural Affairs (OCRA) grants, with more than one being able to be applied for at once.  
The study had to show at least 51 percent of households in Portland with low to moderate incomes and Portland came in at 61 percent. 
“You’re hoping you’re not on that list ’cause you’re hoping a lot of the medium income and the income survey would show that we have a lot of high paying jobs. But when you are trying to find grant money it’s a great thing,” Geesaman said of the survey. “It’s like a double-edged sword,” he added.
But even with the possibility of applying for OCRA grants in 2017, there is still the issue of downtown flooding. 
At its September meeting, the Portland Board of Works approved a proposal from Jones and Henry Engineers to add an additional sewer line along Harrison Street. The engineering designs would lay out specifications for a line that would be built to receive sewage and drainage water from lines west of Harrison Street in an effort to take pressure off the Millers Branch line, which has contributed to the city’s flooding issues.
“That will redirect a lot of the flooding that’s been down the main drag here. It will take the pressure off that, redirect that,” Geesaman said. 
The Army Corps of Engineers is also set to provide a flood control proposal by the end of the year.
“So I think if some of these are announced and we have a plan of action on the flooding that will ease the concern of people to invest in the downtown,” Geesaman said.
He, however, cautioned that the solution won’t happen overnight. Geesaman estimates changes will take two to three years to implement and the Army Corps of Engineers estimates three to seven years.
Other incentives Geesaman suggested is having building owners offer lower rent to incubator businesses and then bump it up as the business grows or offer something similar to tax abatements or EDIT funds.
He also suggested offering incentives for investing in the downtown area and wonders what role the tax increment financing (TIF) district and Jay County Redevelopment Commission will play in revitalization.
The big question, according to Geesaman, “Can we attract retail to the downtown area and can we get the cooperation of the building owners in partnership with the city to revitalize some of them that are sitting empty?”
“When I look at cities like Greenville (Ohio) or Fort Recovery, they have a downtown that’s thriving and we need to strive to see what we can do — to see if we can make that happen,” Geesaman said.