Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 4, 1990 TAG: 9004040608
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: Cathryn McCue New River Valley Bureau
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
But since moving from Lowes Village on South Main Street in Blacksburg to the Market Place along Christiansburg's bustling commercial strip, a lot of people have stopped by.
"It's amazing to me how many people say they'd never seen us before," said store manager Tabitha Helm. "We moved mainly for the traffic."
Another Blacksburg merchant, Judy Murray of Fringe Benefits, finds business vibrant and healthy in downtown, despite some talk to the contrary.
"Previous media made it sound like we're sitting here on life support systems," she said.
Fringe Benefits, a clothing store on College Avenue that caters to an upscale crowd, has a special niche in the market that most other shops can't fill, she said. Sales were up last year, but not as much as the previous year, Murray said.
Merchants in different parts of Blacksburg have different stories and concerns. The downtown appears relatively stable, while the town's outlying malls are struggling. But the bottom line shows retail growth is slipping townwide.
Statistics from the town's finance department reveal the facts:
Total receipts for town businesses grew less than a tenth of a percent last year compared to a 13 percent increase in 1987.
Growth in business license fees went from $37,383 in 1988 to only $29 last year.
Finance Director Mary Wright said that even though the town's total receipts increased $84,000 up to $149 million in 1989, when inflation is factored in, that .06 percent increase translates into a decrease.
Merchants point to numerous circumstances beyond their control that they say have left them in the lurch. They've seen the two mega-shopping centers at the corner of Virginia 114 and U.S. 460 in Christiansburg open up and flourish. Then bus service was extended to the malls and to downtown Christiansburg just last month.
They've seen a slowdown in the overall economy, a leveling off of student enrollment and a freeze on faculty hiring at Virginia Tech, and most recently 1,300 job cuts announced in the New River Valley.
Downtown merchants have seen parking problems worsen since officials began studying the situation more than 25 years ago - and still there's no parking deck.
Wright said the outlying areas have been hit the hardest.
The Gables/Lowes shopping area on South Main Street suffered at least a 10 percent drop in total receipts last year, she said. And the University City Boulevard retail center, including University Mall and Bonomos Plaza, stayed even, at best.
Ten stores left University Mall over the last couple of years. Only one has opened. Even with a newly hired, enthusiastic manager, foot traffic in the mall is sparse.
"It just takes awhile," said mall manager Sharon Morgan, who took over late last year. "This is about what we expected. Realistically, you have to give it about a year to get it up and going again."
Gables Shopping Center - what one merchant described as Death Valley - has remained nearly half empty since Leggett and Sears moved to the New River Valley Mall two years ago and smaller stores closed.
Across the street, Lowes grocery store closed earlier this year after 10 years in business. Now, K mart executives are looking for other sites, said manager Ward Brunner.
"It's like driving a 1979 car, running this store. There's nothing wrong with a 1979 model," but a newer store would be able to compete with year-old Wal-Mart in the Market Place, Brunner said.
"If you look at what's going on in the southern end of Blacksburg, you can see why it would be difficult for me to compete."
He said K mart needs at least another 33,000 square feet for a total of 88,000 square feet to compete, but the store is physically limited on both sides from expanding in Lowes Village.
"They want to maintain a presence in Blacksburg, but we cannot compete in the present location," Brunner said. He didn't know if the company was looking inside town limits for another site.
Wright said that downtown, where students provide a ready-made market, seems to be holding its own. For the most part.
Bill Pearson opened a low-price jewelry store last November, called Lasting Impressions. He closed five months later.
Parking problems and restrictive sign laws were partly to blame for the untimely demise of his store, Pearson said.
"I don't see how people make it in Blacksburg - the businesses," he said. He'd like to open shop in the Market Place in Christiansburg where he thinks he'd be more successful, but he can't afford the rent.
Walter Bundy, president of the Downtown Merchants Association and owner of Buddy's and Ton 80, said Pearson is not alone in his criticism of the parking problem and the town's apparent indifference to the concerns of local business.
"Most all of the downtown merchants are concerned about a drop in sales, and they're talking about it all the time."
But the causes are more complex, he said, pointing out that downtown had been heading toward a slump - even before the New River Mall opened in early 1988. "The mall just shook people up. The mall was a catalyst."
The association, perhaps feeling the chill from the shadow that has darkened Blacksburg's retail trade, hosted two brainstorming sessions for merchants from all areas of town earlier this year.
They came up with dozens of possible reasons for dwindling sales: no parking, dependence on student trade, temporary closure of Squires Student Center, more on-campus retailing, fear of recession, ineffective marketing, lack of cooperation and organization among retailers, and bureaucratic hassles from the town.
Then they came up with some solutions. Topping the list was the formation of a townwide merchants group to coordinate marketing and promote Blacksburg as a whole.
Other ideas included a survey of consumer opinions, more special events like the annual Stepping Out, efforts to pump up the tourism and travel industry and to have Town Council reconsider a ban on bed & breakfast inns.
Doug Eckel, economic coordinator, said the town rejected a move several years ago to allow bed and breakfasts because of concern about the impact on neighborhoods.
Beyond downtown, the shadow shows some sign of lifting before too long. The owner of Gables Shopping Center promised several months ago a $2 million facelift for the aging plaza once a new anchor moved in. That, however, is now in limbo.
Wade's Supermarket, also in Gables, has filed suit challenging the lease signed in November between Harris Teeter and Gables Associates, a limited partnership that owns the center. No court date has been set for the case.
The good news is that Fred Myers, general partner, said he signed a lease with Sears last week for a 6,900-square-foot service center. And a pet shop has recently moved into a free-standing building at Gables.
University Mall manager Morgan said she is requesting money from the property owner, National Property Analysts Inc. of Philadelphia, to spruce up the mall a bit.
"It'll come around. Most smaller malls go through this cycle. The New River Valley Mall will go through the same cycle in 10 or 15 years," Morgan said.
Because these shopping centers are privately owned, Eckel can do only do so much to help liven them up. He hopes to program special events at the centers to draw shoppers, such as the antique car show last year at the University Mall.
As for downtown, Eckel has been the driving force behind making improvements to Progress Street, which should be completed by mid-August.
And Tech and town officials, faced with the reopening of Squires Student Center next year, recently agreed to move ahead with studies on a parking deck across Otey Street from the Continuing Education Center.
Also, an $85,000 outdoor stage at the Armory parking lot should be ready to open the first week of August in conjuntion with this year's Stepping Out street fair. Eckel said he plans to schedule musical performances regularly at the new stage.
But Eckel has been absorbed for several months in boosting travel and tourism in Blacksburg. He has helped coordinate the Blacksburg Chamber of Commerce and other valley chambers in developing a joint travel brochure called Travel New River, which should be ready for distribution in May.
"It's pretty flakey stuff, tourism, when you're a community economic developer," he said, but that is what officials are hoping will help assure the future of Blacksburg and other towns.
Not like the days when Bob Dickerson opened Dickerson's Jewelry on College Avenue in 1948. He remembers when Kroger and Piggly Wiggly were downtown, and Draper Street was just an alley.
"When Gables opened, everybody thought downtown would dry up," he said, adding that most merchants saw a slight drop in sales. But they recovered.
"I'm an old man, I've been here a long time," Dickerson said. "Downtown Blacksburg's a survivor."
by CNB