Task Force expanding its reach

“How can we be going up seven percent and motels are going out of business?” alderman Terry McClung asked the Mayor’s Task Force on Economic Development at the Feb. 8 meeting. He was referring to a chart indicating tax collections for the City Advertising and Promotion Commission topped the previous year by 7.7 percent, yet there are properties along US 62 for sale.

McClung suggested they keep track of room rates for lodging properties to see if the increase in collections is from more visitors or an increase in room rates. “Just to add it to the overall picture,” he said. “Start this year and keep an eye on it.”

Mayor Butch Berry commented some retail has been doing well but others not so much. He did point out, however, that Branson reported 8.6 percent growth last year and included in those collections would be the big box stores and malls, so in comparison Eureka Springs held its own.

Chair Sandy Martin added, though, the goal of the Task Force is diversification. She noted that Chamber of Commerce data indicates 82 percent of the city’s million visitors come from the egg within which CAPC advertises. She asserted somewhere in that egg is an entrepreneur who might like the idea of a million tourists passing by the front door.

She suggested they cast a wide net as far as Texas and “put feet on the street” to find businesspeople who would consider starting a business in Eureka Springs. To allow time for these meetings, Martin said she and Berry were proposing quarterly instead of monthly meetings for the task force. In addition, they proposed setting up these Action and Initiative Teams along with suggested team captains:

• Business/Governmental Relations and Presentations: Berry and Martin
• Research and Surveys: Chamber of Commerce and President Tammy Thurow
• Real Estate/Available Sites/Planning: McClung and Planning commissioner Woodie Acord
• Marketing and Promotion: CAPC Executive Director Mike Maloney, Martin
• Downtown Development: Main Street Eureka Springs, Director Jacqueline Wolven, Damon Henke
• Business Financing: Allen Huffman

Martin commented, “We’ll grow this organically.” She called for developing “friend-to-friend contacts” among those with investment ideas. Thurow noted she has attended conferences where developers were actively looking for an opportunity.

Alex Bevil, new-to-town entrepreneur developing a high-tech greenhouse facility, told the group, “Lots of developers know Eureka Springs as a town of craftsmen, and feel it will cost too much to move here.” He suggested the city needs a portfolio with up-to-date information about moving here and ambassadors to engage a prospective developer. He insisted there are good deals in town, but the town needs a network of contacts so when the time is right, the right person can connect with Eureka Springs.

Martin pointed out the task force website eurekaspringsliveworkplay.us has all the information someone needs to know to resettle here, but it is a matter of getting the site in front of the right person.

Sparks on the highway

Discussion of development in town led to the observation businesses on the eastern end of US 62 are disappearing. McClung said he had high hopes when management changed at Pine Mountain Village, but since things have not worked out as envisioned, “there’s not much out there,” he said.

Kent Butler, marketing director for the Great Passion Play, said it hurts to see businesses fail, but the problem compounds because prospective investors see failed businesses in town and balk.

The group agreed the city should invite representatives of the Arkansas Economic Development Commission to spend a day or two in Eureka Springs and take a look around. Martin said it would help if state resources knew more about Eureka Springs.

Maloney said he has been looking at the 14 cities that have direct flights to XNA, including Charlotte, Los Angeles and San Francisco, as possible targets for expanding his marketing egg. He said he can pinpoint his advertising very specifically, but is still studying what it would take to intrigue a businessperson in those cities to consider starting a business here.

The group agreed logistics work against a town in the mountains an hour from a freeway, but Jason Tenant observed, “You gotta take what’s here and sell it.” Members briefly touched on financing options in town, lack of incentives, affordable housing challenges and who might be possible funding partners for projects, but Martin eventually returned to, “It’s time to go pitch, tell the story.”

She mentioned if they get one business, it could spawn others, and McClung noticed that the town’s depressed prices for commercial properties might be an incentive to buy here. Bevil reiterated that there are folks who would relocate here, the town just needs to re-entice them.

Next meetings will be April 12, July 12 and October 11.