Business improved last year, with downtown businesses attracting 13 percent of retail sales within the town's Primary Trade Area, according to the Downtown Development Association's (DDA) 2008 annual report.
Downtown got $47 million of the $352 million in retail sales within a five-mile radius of the Central Business District. Though the percentage of sales was small in a relative sense, figures show it is growing.
About $100 million of the amount that downtown didn’t get in sales is considered "retail leakage."
“The main leakage categories were in restaurants, clothing and general merchandise or department stores,” said Downtown Development Coordinator Bruce Naegelen.
Leakage occurs when members of a community spend money outside that community, or makes purchases that could have been made inside the community.
A total of 27 new businesses opened in downtown last year, easily offsetting the 16 that closed up shop. That brings the number of retail businesses to 41 and the number of service businesses to 107. The net gain in downtown employees was 75. Investment in downtown last year, including building improvements, totaled more than $2 million.
The report listed several goals of the DDA to improve the quality and appearance of downtown's businesses and lure more people to the area. They included:
• Facade Grant Program, which helped seven businesses improve their appearance
• Streetscape Plan, which succeeded in getting approval for a signalized crossing at Lombard and Main
• Gateway Entrances, which succeeded in getting a new "Gateway to Downtown" design implemented at the US 70 and Main Street intersection and a "Welcome to Downtown Clayton" sign to be installed this year
• Farmers Market, which opened this month on Town Square is expected to bring more people downtown on Saturdays
• Town Square Concert series, which attracted an average of 740 people downtown for each of last year's five free Thursday early evening concerts
• Live Christmas Village and Tree lighting, which drew more than 3,000 people downtown to visit businesses, see a live nativity and enjoy live dance and musical performances
*A "Branding & Wayfinding Plan," put together to help develop an image for the town, will attempt to persuade the state's residents to THINK CLAYTON in coming years.
“Since successful revitalization is an incremental process, we often forget, or even get used to the improvements, activities and projects that have occurred over a period of time," said DDA Chair Ed Knight. "The annual report reminds the community of those things and provides a measure of those accomplishments from year to year."
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