Home / Archive / Creating Cohesion
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Regional Focus: January 2006
Creating Cohesion
An Auburn business collective hopes the Main Street route proves lucrative
Story by Patricia Kutza
When nasty, wintry weather forces Interstate 80-bound motorists to seek shelter, Thomas Smith doesn’t like the fact that they often stay in Rocklin or Roseville. Bedding down in Auburn would be just as smart, says Smith, president of Auburn’s newly formed Sierra Gateway Business Association.
Business owners in the 2-mile business-strip area of Bowman Road and Lincoln Way that hugs I-80 would like nothing better than to change those travelers’ habits — for good, not just when road closures make motorists their captive audience. “We specifically put this association together,” says Smith, “so that we can better market ourselves.”
Though not a legal entity, the Sierra Gateway Association performs a very important function, says Ron Yglesias, senior redevelopment specialist for Placer County’s Office of Economic Development, who is working closely with the association. It must generate ideas and a budget to receive funding from Placer County’s Redevelopment Agency.
Taking a page from the success of similar programs in Grass Valley and Lake Tahoe, the association is using the Main Street Approach, a community-driven methodology that is the brainchild of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Central to the Main Street Approach are four tenets: organization, promotion, design and economic restructuring. They are tried and true principles, but getting approximately 160 Auburn business owners to support them will be quite a challenge, says Smith.
Take the organization principle. “We are kind of rugged individuals,” says Smith, who has been a practicing therapist in the Sierra Gateway area for the last 19 months.
“So far, our biggest drawback is that people don’t understand the importance and benefits of being organized and acting unified. As the president of the association, I am tasked with communicating why we need to present an organized front. Every day, roughly 81,000 commuters on I-80 pass by Auburn exits. They’re going very fast, and there’s a lot of our businesses located right off these exits they don’t see.”
Part of getting motorists to “see” Auburn will be handled by more effective promotion, the second Main Street principle. Partnering with the Placer County Visitors Council should jump-start Sierra Gateway’s marketing strategy.
“We must be perceived as offering much more than a stop-off
for fuel and fast food.”
— Bob Holmes, board member, Auburn’s Sierra Gateway Business Association
Activating the design principle will be key to that visibility: creating attractive signage, landscaping and a unified, welcoming appearance. It’s a principle shared by such long-time Auburn businesses as Ikeda, which, over the last 50 years, has grown from a fruit stand to a country-style market well known for its gourmet foods, fine meats, bakery products and fresh fish.
“Our business district doesn’t have visual continuity,” says its second-generation owner, Glen Ikeda. “The association will have to work within the Placer County Planning Association guidelines. While we don’t have our look really nailed down, the sense is that we want to look more rural.”
Ikeda proudly acknowledges that, as one of the early businesses that fronted what was once known as Highway 40, his company has no problems with visibility. Such high-profile clientele as the Getty and Sutro families routinely frequent his store when visiting the area. In fact, a serendipitous Ikeda store visit by the late designer Bill Blass initiated their partnering for the annual Save the Shores event at Lake Tahoe.
Ikeda thinks that bringing continuity to the three exits that funnel traffic into the Bowman District will go a long way to attract customers to businesses on both sides of I-80. “The Auburn Ravine-Forest Hill exit is constricted and convoluted. Smart planning,” says Ikeda, “will make all the difference.”
Bowman redevelopment has an additional challenge, says Howard Levine, executive director of the Grass Valley Downtown Association. Levine oversees the city’s 20-year-old Main Street-inspired evolution.
“Events are critical to promoting an awareness of the businesses in the area. Grass Valley’s business district configuration has a natural focal point, an area centrally located where city events can take place. In Auburn’s case, you have two business strips divided by the freeway, making it more difficult to create such an area.”
Strong leadership from Sierra Gateway’s board of directors may make all the difference. Board Member Bob Holmes, who is also vice president of the Northern California Harley-Davidson Dealers Association, has placed his commitment on the front line with his intention to relocate his Harley-Davidson store to the west side of I-80, a currently blighted area.
“Auburn is so centrally located,” Holmes says. “We are the gateway to the Sierras, Reno and the Gold Country. We must be perceived as offering much more than a stop-off for fuel and fast food.”
The Main Street Approach:
Getting Started
• Recruit board members and take them to other downtowns to see how your downtown compares.
• Sign up for membership in the National Main Street Center’s
Membership Network.
• Contact your city about regulations, business licenses and fees.
• Contact the IRS for a taxpayer identification number. Also obtain
applications to receive tax-exempt status.
• Write bylaws and articles of incorporation. File the articles with the
appropriate state agency.
• Recruit committees.
• Schedule walk-arounds with board and committee members.
• Develop a vision, a mission statement and prioritized activities.
• Draw up a budget.
• Develop a fundraising plan, including a list of potential supporters.
• Recruit volunteers for key projects.
• Select public relations tools to get the word out.
More a Marathon Than a Sprint
The Sierra Gateway Association is in the nascent stage of organizing support and fleshing out a vision that can be widely adopted. How long will it take to truly ramp up?
At least a generation, says Howard Levine, executive director of the Grass Valley Downtown Association. He may be right on the mark, as it’s taken Grass Valley a full 20 years to develop and mature to the solid merchant’s program it is today. “We are the oldest project in California using the Main Street Approach,” he says.
Back in 1986, Grass Valley was facing a business-vacancy rate of 35 percent. The city’s businesses rallied around a unified concept, creating subcommittees tasked with promotion, design and economic restructuring. The Grass Valley Downtown Association’s operating budget is now $170,000, $55,000 of which the city receives from assessments.
“Business owners need to understand who their competition is,” Levine explains. Large shopping complexes are only part of the picture, he says. Now competition is coming from click-and-mortar companies, traditional businesses that also have a Web presence.
To counteract such competition, Levine says business communities need to “create a collective place,” a clean and attractive destination that pulls in customers. It’s the power of we versus me.
