THE JOURNAL & TOPICS NEWSPAPERS | FRIDAY, APRIL 25, 2008
What's Best Way To Market MP?
By RICHARD MAYER
JOURNAL REPORTER
Numerous findings and recommendations were presented to Mt. Prospect officials Tuesday night by a retail consultant firm on how to improve the village's business image.
Representatives from Business Districts Inc. (BDI), hired last December to study the village's 28 shopping centers, have spent the last few months closely examining the village's three business sectors; north, south and downtown. Tuesday night, they recommended the following:
* Golf/Busse - Enhance ethnic connectivity at Golf Plaza I and support the food and entertainment focus at Mt. Prospect Commons.
* Algonquin/Busse/Dempster - Improve tenant quality and foster a mutually beneficial collaboration with center ownership.
* Elmhurst Corridor - Enhance a regional ethnic appeal; develop supportive ethnic events; and attract additional ethnic tenants for retail and office use.
* KIMCO Property - Gain KIMCO's interest in improving that center and coordinate business with the RecPlex.
* Golf Plaza II - Foster a mutually beneficial collaboration with center ownership and coordinate business with the City of Des Plaines.
* Randhurst - Keep approval process focused on the facts and work to mitigate any potential construction issues.
* Mt. Prospect Plaza - Foster a mutually beneficial collaboration with center ownership; maximize revenue potential of combined property for the village; and improve the image of the center.
* Randhurst Area - Develop a comprehensive approach to that area; seek redevelopment over remodeling; retain major revenue contributors in that area by the anchored centers; and improve the image of unanchored centers.
* Downtown - Increase downtown's employment base by adding office uses; add residential development within downtown; enable sustainable tenanting for downtown's ground floor space; and differentiate downtown's experience from Randhurst and neighboring communities.
As part of the development of a village-wide marketing plan, it was determined that a retail market analysis (RMA) would be "useful" in providing a framework and strategic direction to move forward in marketing the village to prospective retailers and businesses.
BDI was originally tasked with the following:
* Understand and evaluate Mt. Prospect's existing retail and restaurant development at Mt. Prospect's Downtown, Randhurst Shopping Center, and South Sector retail districts;
* Identify and provide a comprehensive demographic analysis of target markets for each retail district;
* Determine the investor opportunities for retail and restaurant uses in each Mt. Prospect district;
* Incorporate those identified investor opportunities and target markets into a comprehensive Retail Development Strategy.
In 2007, the village's municipal sales tax revenue totaled $8.8 million. The village's share was $3.9 million. Additionally, it was determined that the Average Daily Traffic (ADT) Counts exceed 20,000 vehicles on Central, Rand, Euclid, Golf, Algonquin and Elmhurst roads.
"All of this is very enlightening, but some of these things we already knew," said Mayor Irvana Wilks. "However, all of this information is very useful. We have an active Economic Development Commission (EDC) and they conduct business visits every two months, which will be helpful to integrate these things."
BDI reps also suggested that the downtown area promote more offices, which would increase daytime traffic and increase revenue in the downtown area.
"This is very helpful and interesting," said Trustee Arlene Juracek. "My concern though is that offices do not bring in sales tax, but that puts on a whole different spin, especially for downtown."
Trustee Paul Hoefert agreed for the most part with the recommendations regarding the three sectors.
"We need to improve the centers, because in doing so, the center's owners will reap the awards, but the village can't just throw money at every owner though to improve their center," said Hoefert.
According to BDI Director, Bridget Lane, "keys" to retail success consists of clean stores, friendly employees, fresh merchandise and strategies that follow trends.
According to the village's Public Information Officer Maura El Metannani, BDI will issue a final report to the board within a month, so the village can begin integrating those recommendations in the near future to attract additional and different businesses.
She also said BDI will present the same presentation to the Chamber of Commerce, EDC and the Mt. Prospect Downtown Merchants Association (MPDMA) during a joint meeting in the near future.