Can Park Ridge ever become a “retail” or commercial mecca…or even a mini-mecca?
Yet another attempt at answering that question may be taking shape, as the Park Ridge City Council contemplates the creation of an Economic Development Advisory Task Force – made up of volunteers from the community – to develop ideas for enhancing the City’s economic base. According to Deputy City Manager Julianna Maller, the City’s recent economic development efforts in cooperation with the Chamber of Commerce just haven’t gotten enough traction.
The history of economic development in Park Ridge over the past decade or so has been generally uninspiring.
For several years prior to 2010, the City paid an in-house economic development director over $100,000 annually for the most modest of results. And for several more years before that, the City provided most of the financing for something called the Economic Development Corporation (“EDC”) – a public/private partnership of local business people with a paid part-time executive director (realtor Sharon Curcio) that cost the City almost $80,000/yr until the EDC disbanded rather abruptly in 2004, shortly (and merely coincidentally?) after the City decided that the EDC’s members would be required to sign economic disclosure statements like every other public official and City committee/commission member.
While Alds. Joe Sweeney (1st) and Jim Smith (3rd) have voiced their preference for a paid economic development “professional,” Alds. Sal Raspanti (4th) and Dan Knight (5th) favor the volunteer task force concept. The creation of such a task force, however, does not need Council approval, as it is legally within the discretion of Mayor Dave Schmidt.
Having followed the activities of both the EDC and of the in-house development director, we didn’t see a whole lot of “production” by either. As best as we can tell, neither of them were given (or established for themselves) any benchmarks for measuring their success or failure. Without any performance standards, they mistook activity for achievement (to paraphrase a quote by the late, legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden) – a mistake that also seems to have been shared by the Chamber of Commerce.
That’s why an all-volunteer economic development task force is worth a try. At the very least, the price is right: given recent history, we certainly can’t get any less than we previously paid for.
But we think the first “task” for any such task force – before it runs off hither and yon with every half-baked idea somebody thinks could/might improve economic development or retail (see, e.g., façade improvement program) – should be to think long and hard about whether Park Ridge realistically can become any sort of a retail or commercial destination for anybody besides its residents, at least without making significant changes to the character of the community.
Ten years ago we were told by a group of well-meaning but somewhat naïve volunteers on the Uptown Advisory Task Force (“UATF”), aided by some hired-gun consultants happy to tell the UATF and the City Administration anything they wanted to hear, that if we built new retail space with parking, the retailers and their customers would come. So we did, with visions of Crate and Barrel, Barnes & Noble, the Gap, and Ann Taylor dancing in our heads.
Unfortunately, all we have to show for that effort so far is tens of millions of dollars of bonded debt…and $6 million or so of red ink, representing the tax dollars that have been pulled out of the City’s General Fund to pay the debt service on the City-owned parking garage and other Uptown Redevelopment improvements that the City has not otherwise been able to pay because that project hasn’t generated the revenues all its proponents fearlessly predicted.
But, hey, we’re still guardedly optimistic that if/when the country climbs out of this recession, that Uptown project might finally become a cash cow – assuming that what we were told by all those UATF folks, our public officials, and the hired-gun consultants back then wasn’t just a bunch of bull.
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14 comments so far
I was on the Task Force for that program….to save my house from being bombed I am omitting my last name.
We were told by our marketing consultants the following four important things:
1. You will never make Park Ridge shopping into the place where citizens do all there shopping because there are too many other alternatives
2. You will never talk national clothing sellers into moving into Park Ridge… Gap, Ann Taylor…. because Park Ridge has a reputation for not supporting that kind of store
3. You should not depend on making Park Ridge an important destination shopping area for visitors because every other town in the area has the same strategy. But there is no reason visitors shouldn’t be part of the mix….especially with the Intallo(sic)museum project moving ahead
4. Every national retailer already knows the actual sites they want to put a store into. Find out whether you are on the list and try hard to free up those spaces
All of this advice may have been misinterpreted by various interestsby the time the final report was completed….three years. But it still might be good advice today for a volunteer committee.
PS It is amazing that Banks and Chico have hung in there and that block seems to be reforming around them….and maybe Trader Joe’s.
Maybe somehow Amy DeGrazio could move Prospects over there too
If the Aldermen had not blocked CVS on the Cadillac site we might have had a destination. That should be revisited…as should a restaurant across from the museum or as part of.
As far as Borders is concerned ….book stores are a victim of the technology wars….not bum retailing advice from anyone
You have written another good piece!! The only defensive thing I would say is that timing was unfortunate for the project and the financial failure has a lot to do with the residential side
EDITOR’S NOTE: Thank you…we try.
You’re exactly right about any new task force taking that advice seriously – to the best of our recollection it sure was not communicated accurately to the general public at the time.
We agree with you re Banks and Chico’s, although we suspect that free/reduced rent may still have something to do with it. Of course, the City was supposed to be privy to that kind of information based on the “partnership” with PRC the then-mayor and City Council were claiming would be the case. Maybe Mayor Schmidt and the new City Council can look into whether the City has those “partnership” rights, or whether it got another bait-and-switch deal – like its “investment” in the third airport.
The real problem is that most of the people in Park Ridge want it to be Mayberry. Others want Park Ridge to be Highland Park. Neither group will ever win because there will never be a critical mass behind either.. Factor in the city’s business unfriendly climate… Want to open up a restaurant where another restaurant recently was? Oh well gee, where’s your parking study? Where’s you air pollution study? Where’s your study on what other studies you may need?
Maybe the city should spend money on a study to figure out what it really wants to be when it grows up!
EDITOR’S NOTE: We have never seen any documentation of the City losing businesses because of any “unfriendliness” toward business. But if you have any such documentation, please send it to us and we will revisit this issue.
But we do agree that the City needs to figure out what it wants to be. We don’t agree, however, on spending money on some hired-gun consultant to tell us what we want to hear. We’ll take our chances with the Economic Development Task Force, if the mayor decides to from one.
Major retailers did not say that they wouldn’t come here because Park Ridge wouldn’t support them. They said they wouldn’t come here because, to their way of thinking, our residents are already served by these stores in “nearby” communities. Personally, I don’t think Old Orchard and the mall on Touhy near Skokie qualify as “nearby,” but that’s how retailers’ facility planners look at it. Bummer — but not our fault.
I have a few years experience dealing with retailers and their site location analyses. I can confirm that retailers do maintain lists of sites they might find appealing for future expansion. But, those lists change frequently as business opportunities actualize or vanish. An axiom in retailing is that “All the business is currently being done”. Every new store takes business away from existing stores. This can be most clearly demonstrated in the restaurant industry. Adding a new restaurant does not mean that customers will eat additional meals. The new restaurant just changes the location of where those meals will be consumed. People from Park Ridge spend money at Old Orchard. Therefore: Old Orchard IS “nearby” in any retailing sense. The question is whether a potential new retailer can attract customers who would otherwise spend their money at Old Orchard. Successful retailing depends upon having customers. Customer count depends on either population density or convenience. Increasing population density is anathema to many of the people in Park Ridge. Park Ridge is limited in its ability to increase convenient access to potential new retailers. But, business development in Park Ridge need not be limited to retailing.
10:13:
I think you missed a few, or perhaps you would include them under the convenience umbrella. Two that come to mind are selection and price. These are also driving factors in choosing to shop at, for example, Pines versus driving to Old Orchard (by the way, I map quested it from my house and it is 9.13 miles – not far at all). There are people I know who drive to the outlet mall in Aurora to shop and that has got to be over 30 miles. Lastly, as always there is the internet….just ask Borders!!
Right, Lloyd. While retail is obvious to most when it comes and goes, what would be equally helpful to business development would be filling all those empty offices in the NW Hwy / Washington area, and others, like the old Rainbow space, the office building across from Burger King, etc. It would be good for property tax collection, and more workers = more retail purchases. We have a decent number of trade organizations due to our proximity to O’Hare among other reasons. I would love to see that flushed out more. See http://winnetka.suntimes.com/news/community/5058045-418/park-ridge-hometown-feel-national-presence.html
How come OO has been mentioned twice?
Anyone ever heard of Harlem Irving or Golf Mill which are both closer?
EDITOR’S NOTE: Probably because Old Orchard is significantly bigger and upscale than the other two.
Great post, great discussion. My only suggestion or question would be whether we have ever surveyed Park Ridge residents on where they shop and why.
Also, in Richard’s comments there is fleeting reference to a CVS at the Cadillac site. That was a rumor and as far as we were told it never was proposed, so the aldermen couldn’t have blocked it.
EDITOR’S NOTE: We vaguely recall some kind of survey(s) done by the UATF that prompted the talk of Barnes & Noble, Crate & Barrel, Whole Foods, etc., that never panned out because none of those stores expressed any interest – even though the taxpayers were repeatedly told by the pro-Uptown Redevelopment crowd that “if we build it, they will come.”
I have a lifetime of professional experience in associations, and one of the first places companies cut when times are bad is their educational and association membership budgets. These areas are typically not the best at demonstrating their ROI to the embattled business owner, be he retailer or otherwise. So growing associations is not really happenin’ right now. Plus, from a resident’s point of view, retail is what’s desirable. Who cares what B-to-B op is in some office building? And from the City’s perspective, I believe these service companies don’t add to our sales tax revenues. So yeah, it would be nice for the landlords to have full occupancy of all those office buildings, but I’m not sure it would improve our quality of life or finances.
Mike:
Aside from the comments by the editor, I also think it depends on if and when closer becomes meaningful. As an example, H/I is only 3-4 miles closer. If you are going for an afternoon of shopping (dinner etc) an extra 10 minutes of drive time, if that, does not mean squat.
I don’t get your point and it still doesn’t explain why OO was mentioned 3 times.
EDITOR’S NOTE: As we understand it, Old Orchard is superior in status and sales volume to the other two malls you mention.
Word is that the more affluent of Park Ridgean adults shop Old Orchard and the more affluent yout’ (My Cousin Vinny)shop Woodfield.
Me, I prefer the old State Street!
The blogging here is hysterical. Government is bad bad bad except when the business sector wants its hand held by the bad bad bad government. It looks like the magical free market idea goes right out the window when it’s convenient. Now Mayor Schmidt can appoint another bunch of his cronies to still another one of his task forces. Whatever ideas the community doesn’t like Mayor Schmidt can blame on the task force instead of taking responsibility.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Obviously, your paradigm of government needs some work.
Unlike politicians generally and previous Park Ridge mayors in particular, Mayor Schmidt has never been reluctant to publicly admit and accept responsibility for mistakes he has made. We don’t expect that to change.
Ah, er, 558, pay attention. The Task Force was proposed by the Deputy City Manager. She will likely play a large part is suggesting its membership Perhaps you’d like to serve? Just give her a call.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Irrespective of who proposed it, we understand it to be the mayor’s responsibility to create the task force. How it gets staffed, however, hopefully will be with the advice and consent of the City Council.
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