Main Street is almost all right
Story and photos by John Temple Ligon

Mac Nichols

Principals from the Washington- based office of Economic Research Associates instructed and briefed their audience of retailers, residents, shopkeepers, developers, building owners, elected officials, city agency heads, and stakeholders in general in the auditorium of the Columbia Museum of Art Tuesday afternoon, March 18. The occasion was the disclosure of ERA's $215,000 retail development study of downtown Columbia, including Main Street and the Vista, and also North Main Street, Five Points, Devine Street, Farrow Road, Monticello Road, North Two Notch Road, and South Two Notch Road.

Mayor Bob Coble led the meeting with a warm welcome and an outline of the gathering's program. Presenters were ERA's Mac Nichols and Midge McCauley. In the audience were Irmo Town Council Member Barry Walker, Columbia City Council candidate Belinda Gergel, developers Tom and Jeff Prioreschi, retail leasing broker David Lockwood, retail recruiting specialist Amy Stone, City Center Partnership Executive Director Matt Kennell, and Columbia Development Corporation Executive Director Fred Delk, among many others of intense interest and involvement.

Midge McCauley

ERA's Mac Nichols commented on the high praise heard from Austin, Tex., soon after his associate Midge McCauley finished her job helping Austin with its retail recruiting challenges. Similar sounds were heard from downtown Philadelphia after similar efforts by McCauley there.

Nichols began his review with two sections of Two Notch Road inside the city: North Two Notch Road and South Two Notch Road. His market analysis depended much on two factors: population and that population's available income to spend. He also explained the capture rate; that is, what percentage of every dollar of the population's income will be spent on the street in the study area.

Proximity was gauged as the most distance people are willing to walk, which is generally about a half- mile. So the North and South Two Notch corridors were about one mile wide with a half- mile walk away in each direction expected as the market area.

Inside the corridor area the ERA researchers distinguished among residents, employees, and inflow, such as students.

Amy Stone

Students spend differently, mostly on food and small- ticket convenience items where they live and visit, while their parents help with the big- ticket items back home.

The spending potential for South Two Notch by its residents is $25 million, while what's actually spent there is only $5.5 million. So there is a leakage (money spent elsewhere by South Two Notch residents) of $19.5 million.

The other areas of the study were similarly dissected, and there were conclusions and recommendations for each.

The most attentive audience was during Midge McCauley's discussion of downtown Columbia, which included Main Street, the Vista, Five Points, and Devine Street. Main Street is the greatest challenge in that retailers are doing poorly relative to the advantages of location and the overall potential.

Along Main Street from Gervais to Laurel, 57 percent of street- level spaces are retail, but 21 percent of the stores are vacant.

Barry Walker

Lady Street has it better than Main, and particularly lower Lady through the Vista, where the Vista claims 45 restaurants/bars.

The most successful downtown shopping areas in the country have about half- daytime use and half- nighttime use, a 50- 50 split which keeps the streets active.

The good news is Columbia's downtown has the state's most impressive collection and concentration of institutions and culture, which includes museums, sports venues, its flagship university, the zoo, and cheap rents to fill up the place.

Within a five- minute drive time of downtown, there are 50,000 people. Within 10 minutes, there are 112,000 people. In another five minutes to the circumference of a 15- minute radius, there are 233,000, from which more than 88,000 use downtown regularly.

There are plenty of people, and there are plenty of empty stores and open lots. Long term and in time with professional guidance and local commitment, Columbia downtown retail will explode.

Fred Delk Mayor Bob Coble