State’s great downtown don’t do it alone

“Within a 30-minute drive of most Michigan residences, you will find an outstanding neighborhood district, village center or city downtown,” says Sheila Stamiris, chair of the Michigan Downtown Association’s board and director of the Frankenmuth Downtown Development Authority (DDA).

But, she adds, excellent downtowns don’t happen without a little help and direction.

The Michigan Downtown Association, as its name suggests, helps downtowns around the state with economic and community development projects.

The association arose out of a very specific crisis for local governments—the 1994 passage of Proposal A, which significantly altered the way local property taxes were assessed and distributed to various entities, from schools to libraries to municipalities of all sizes.

“It was a birth by fire, a matter of crisis management,” explained Stamiris. “Local DDAs were suddenly expected to radically change the way they funded community improvements, and they needed help.

“Michigan Downtown Association was created to provide a resource network for downtown advocates and to educate practitioners and legislators about the impact of the proposed law.”

It remains a strong association some 12 years after its founding. Its primary function has become connecting its members and enabling them to help each other.

“Our membership is our greatest asset,” said Stamiris. “The collaboration is tremendous. In a sense, we all compete, but it’s friendly, indirect competition. It’s to our advantage to share information.”

Phil Hansen is the association’s executive director. Like Stamiris, he wears two hats—he also heads the DDA for the city of St. Louis.

With input from the board and general membership, Hansen serves as the association’s point-person in planning and organizing the association’s four conferences per year.

They are held in four geographically diverse cities each year, giving members a chance to attend at least one a year without incurring high travel expenses. The cities selected to host this year’s conferences are Farmington (February), Portland (early June), Manistee (late July) and Ann Arbor (September).

Conference fees are kept low to prevent cost from being a barrier. Still, the association brings in both local and national speakers from various disciplines to address the issues facing today’s downtowns.

The conferences address a surprising variety of topics—creating walkable communities, traffic calming (measures designed to reduce speed along designated routes such as main streets), liquor law legislation, streetscape design and creative event promotion.

Along with the quarterly conferences, the association provides an e-mail distribution system that allows members to ask a question of the whole membership and get timely responses.

“You might get five replies or 50, but someone on the e-mail list is likely to have a useful suggestion or an opinion,” said Stamiris. “It’s a great way to canvass your colleagues, just to see if what you’re assuming has some basis in truth.”

“A lot of what we do you’ll never find in a textbook. It crosses all kinds of disciplines—what’s the best concrete for a crosswalk, what should be the payback period on a loan?” she added.

A recent upgrade to the association’s website (www.michigandowntowns.com) allows members to discuss issues via the “Downtown Discussion” forum open to registered users at the site. Forum topics include “Parking Management,” “Legislation and Ordinances” and “Historic Preservation.”

The association also gets involved in legislative issues that affect downtowns. Although it performs no official lobbying on legislation, the association keeps membership informed of pertinent legislation and encourages legislative participation.

It has also been “at the table” at all the important state-level discussions regarding downtowns, according to Hansen.

“When MEDC was the home base for downtown issues, we met with them regularly to help put together the Michigan Main Street program and the Community Development Block Grant program,” explained Hansen.

What do these experts on Michigan’s downtowns have to say about the present and future of the state’s downtowns? Both Stamiris and Hansen are optimistic.

“Downtowns are still the best bet for new investors or returning investors,” said Stamiris. “The best downtowns are beloved by their community; the worst are simply uninvested, so that business owners or entrepreneurs can benefit from low rents and investment opportunities.”

“There’s been a definite upswing in downtowns since the 1980s” said Hansen. “There’s much more historic preservation and more businesses considering downtown locations than in the past.

“Places like Milford, Northville, Niles, Gaylord and Dowagiac all have wonderful downtowns that make their communities proud. Some of these towns have come amazingly far since their low points, when their downtowns were floundering.”

The state’s role, Hansen explained, was recently shifted from MEDC to the Michigan State Housing Development Authority. But even before that shift, Hansen believes, the state’s role in supporting downtown development has been gradually improving.

“In the past five or six years, there’s been excellent cooperation between the state and our organization,” said Hansen.

“The impact is really evident with all the programs available now, from Michigan Main Street or Blueprint Community grants to the more recent Cool City grants.”

“There was a time, not all that long ago, when the economic development effort in Michigan had nothing to do with downtowns,” added Hansen.

“You couldn’t find the term ‘downtown’ in any of the MEDC’s development literature. It was all focused on attracting industry, big plants with lots of jobs.”

Hansen is glad those days are past and state government recognizes the economic value of thriving downtowns.

“Now the state is targeting more high-tech firms, and if you want to attract good employers, you’d better have nice enough places to live, with vibrant downtowns and fun things to do,” he said.

“When people are looking at where they might want to live, of course they look at the downtown. Whether or not they will ever even shop or eat there, the downtown is a barometer of the health of a community—does it care enough to have an attractive downtown? Does it draw the kind of residents that help a downtown thrive?”

Downtowns that fit that description will help business, of all types inside and outside the immediate downtown, successfully compete.

This article was written by Amy Buttery, Michigan Retailer staff writer.