 |
|
Hideaway Times | Map Magic | The Trackers | Treasure Trove | Newspaper Activities | Quest Tips |
Wednesday, December 15, 2004
Main Street = MONEY
By John Bozzo | News-Journal Staff Writer
DAYTONA BEACH — Business stood still at the Drunken Pirate T-shirt shop on Main Street.
Welcome to Bike Week |
“We do not make any dollars from Monday until now,” Halim Arraj said from behind the counter on a recent, sunny Friday afternoon.
The fate is the same for many Main Street businesses: no Bike Week, no Biketoberfest, no customers.
That doesn’t mean there’s no money. Main Street is awash in it, and the threat of losing the cash flow from event vendors lies at the center of debate about the street’s future.
Some want to reinvent the district with year-round, upscale shopping and clubs that would serve convention visitors and tourists while attracting a wealthier breed of biker twice a year.
But biker events and vendor revenues as they are today have helped make Main Street property values the most valuable in the county.
Cash cows are not easily toppled, and the owners who reap those rewards want assurances that vendor income won’t be shut down overnight by a grand redevelopment plan.
What remains behind the debate is an empty street most of the year.
Barely more than half the Main Street shops are open for business between events. Blinds cover some store windows.
Other storekeepers don’t even bother, leaving naked mannequins and a mess visible inside.
Some store windows sport signs saying their space is available for rent during Bike Week.
There are some exceptions. A T-shirt shop draws customers. A cafe, barbershop and jewelry shop do well. Nightclubs such as the Boot Hill Saloon try to keep the street rocking between events.
But by 9 p.m. on a recent Friday night, only eight nightclubs and a convenience store remain open on the dimly-lit street between Atlantic Avenue and the Halifax River.
Vendors: success or burden?
City and business leaders hope to establish a vibrant year-round business corridor in place of the boom-bust event cycle. But opinions differ sharply on how to get there.
Some city leaders want to stop businesses from renting outside space to vendors. Businesspeople fear that halting the outside festival with its amplified music and temporary vendors will not only kill Bike Week and Biketoberfest, but also the cash flow needed to reinvent the street for the future.
Businesses anywhere in the city can use their own employees to sell their regular merchandise outside on their own property a few times a year. But it's illegal to rent outside space to vendors. Yet before every Bike Week and Biketoberfest, the City Commission suspends that rule for businesses on a few selected city streets.
Those streets could see outdoor sales of a different type in the future. A snapshot of Main Street's future should show three-story, New Orleans-style buildings with open-air ground floors for event crowds and upper-level balconies for visitors to see activity on the street below, according to a report by the Urban Land Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based group of planning advisers.
Outside vending will eventually move from the core urban tourist district of Daytona Beach to outlying areas, such as the Harley-Davidson complex under construction at U.S. 1 and Interstate 95 in Ormond Beach, according to the report being finalized by the institute.
But a draft of the report urges the city to give businesses confidence that vending will continue, at least for awhile. In a recent presentation to city leaders, Urban Land Institute advisers said uncertainty about the future of outside vending makes it difficult for Main Street businesses to get loans and invest in improvements.
Advisers from the institute urged the city to take an aggressive leadership role in managing special events, rather than being just another voice of criticism or praise.
Some city leaders see outside vending as the enemy, promoting seasonal businesses on Main Street that open only for event crowds.
"It's been primarily successful for a few property owners who have been able to take advantage of loopholes being allowed to them and nobody else," said Gary Libby, a member of the Main Street Redevelopment Area Board.
Renting outside space to vendors makes vacant property more profitable than a building and removes incentives to build on open lots or replace demolished buildings, said Mike Shallow, chairman of the Main Street Redevelopment Area Board.
"If you want to vend, vend indoors," he said. "If you don't have a building, build one."
But business leaders such as Theresa Doan, owner of Main Street destinations including Dirty Harry's, Full Moon Saloon and The Bank and Blues Club, see outside vending as the success story the city doesn't know how to handle.
"If you do away with the festival atmosphere, you undermine the events," she said.
Doan said the biker festivals have sparked investment on Main Street. Recent projects on the street include renovation of Dirty Harry's, restoration of The Alibi steakhouse and construction of The Wreck Bar and Wise Guys. Owners of Tombstone Silverworks and Main Street Station have also announced plans for new buildings.
But Doan said some investors might be holding back because of uncertainty over what actions the city might take, especially on vending. Some city commissioners proposed ending outside vending in November.
Year-round business?
Biker festivals have fueled a growth in property values on Main Street, said Morgan Gilreath, Volusia County property appraiser. Sales of property on Main Street are the highest in the county per square foot.
Doan said those high property values make the biker festivals more crucial on a street that struggles to attract customers between events.
"No business, except an event business, can afford to buy property on Main Street right now," Doan said. "I'm all for events evolving on their own. I'm not interested in it being legislated out of business."
Smaller businesses line up on both sides of the vending debate.
"The more people you have, the more you have a chance," said Tony Farhat, owner of Step from the Beach. "If there's no vending, there's no people. People want to eat. There aren't enough restaurants."
But Arraj at the Drunken Pirate said, "We're busy during events, but I wouldn't mind dropping vending. Vending very bad for us."
One compromise that appears to have support would be to continue allowing vending for a window of seven to 10 years. That would give businesses time to recoup investments to build or restructure for the future.
With expansion of the Ocean Center and the planned Boardwalk hotel-pier project, some Main Street businesspeople expect the market will change to a more high-powered entertainment district from a strict biker orientation.
More immediate needs remain for parking, buffers to protect neighborhoods from event traffic, streetlights, signs and enhanced city services such as community policing and code enforcement.
The Urban Land Institute recommends buying property behind Main Street stores to provide parking and landscaped buffers to insulate homes from event activities.
Members of the Main Street Redevelopment Area Board also are developing a plan that encourages neighborhood improvements and incentives to encourage construction of a parking garage and hotel between Main Street and Auditorium Boulevard to serve the expanded Ocean Center.
Main Street needs the critical mass of visitors who would be attracted by the expanded Ocean Center and the new Boardwalk hotels, said Peter Aluotto, the city's Development Services director.
But Main Street businesses also need to step up to the plate, he said.
"The merchants and landlords need to get together and run their street like a mall runs their property," Aluotto said.
That would typically mean rules such as stores would all be open the same hours; their lights would all be on; they would all have window displays and maintain the area in front of their storefront.
"Main Street has the potential to be a tourist destination year-round," Aluotto said. "Even if they decided to make it a motorcycle capital year-round."
Copyright © 2009 NIE WORLD (www.nieworld.com). All content copyrighted and may not be republished without permission. The News-Journal has no control over and is not responsible for content on other Web sites. Privacy Policy. |  |