By Paul Leighton
Staff writer
February 20, 2008 07:14 am BEVERLY — With its string of high-end restaurants along Cabot Street, downtown Beverly turns "vibrant and vital" at night, according to Beverly Main Streets director Gin Wallace. It's what's happening before the sun goes down — or not happening, to be more precise — that has people worried. Wallace and business owners say the downtown is not nearly as busy during the day, as reflected by an increasing number of empty storefronts. In an effort to find out why, the nonprofit Beverly Main Streets has launched a project to identify what kind of businesses people would like to see in the downtown and then attempt to recruit them. Students from Endicott College's Master in Business Administration program are walking door to door on Cabot Street asking business owners survey questions. By the end of the week, a similar survey will be posted on Beverly Main Streets' Web site for the public to fill out. The students and Main Streets will also conduct focus groups with residents, business owners and students from the city's three colleges. "The challenge is getting some of the empty storefronts filled and getting more foot traffic during the day," Wallace said. "Why are people not coming downtown? Is it parking? Is it signage? Is it not as clean as it could be? The more input we have, the smarter we'll be about making our decisions." Wallace said the project is based on a model provided by the national Main Streets program, which helps cities and towns promote and revitalize their downtowns. In addition to the surveys and focus groups, the Endicott students are studying what people are spending money on in neighboring communities and how those communities have recruited businesses. Wallace said some people have lamented the loss of such longtime family businesses as Klink's Bakery, while others think the city should go after national chain stores. The survey and focus groups are designed to go beyond the anecdotal evidence and determine a wider sentiment for the future of the downtown. Once the research is done, Wallace said Main Streets and the Endicott students will come up with recommendations for recruiting new types of businesses and services and for keeping the ones Beverly already has. "We're trying to attack all these things at the same time and figure out how we can make the daylight hours more vibrant," she said.
What do downtown business owners think the downtown needs? Janet Parisella, Beverly Used Furniture "A bookstore. A shoe store. A nice clothing store would be nice. I tend to shop at the smaller stores. I'm not cookie-cutter."
Todd Lyon, The Flying Lyon, aerial photography and sports collectibles "A casino. If they're going to put them elsewhere, they might as well put one here. Even with a down economy, people will gamble."
Shawn Barratt, Never Say Never Ink, art and supply store "The only thing I can think of is a pottery studio, but I don't know how that would do. So many of us would love for the arts community to take off, but the general population of Beverly isn't as arts-oriented as we'd love them to be, so you still need to attract them."
Richard Darrah, Brown's Bicycle Shop "A CVS where the Dollar Store is now. Nothing against the Dollar Store, but a CVS would give you a 24-hour market."
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