The Cost of a Vacant Building

We all have vacant buildings in our downtowns. They are often unsightly and give the impression of a downtrodden business district. Unfortunately, the costs are actually much bigger than that.

According to a hypthetical study by Donovan Rypkema, the costs of a vacancy towards a local economy are staggering:

> $200,000 in direct retail sales
> $112,500 in secondary retail sales
> $24,000 in salaries
> $10,000 in rents
> $1,050 in property taxes
> $8,960 in business profits
> $7,600 in bank deposits
> $5,000 in utility collections
> $3,200 in advertising revenues

This analysis was conducted some time ago, so the numbers have probably increased because of inflation since then.

Welcome, Sharon!

As you may remember, Mark Hartney (BBRP Coordinator for Bangor, Bath, Catasauqua, North Catasauqua and Wilson) is moving up to help launch and manage the Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce Foundation. Mark has done a lot of work with the Foundation and I know is really looking forward to the work that they can do with both the BBRP and urban revitalization in the Lehigh Valley. He'll now be working a wide variety of projects, including supervising the BBRP from the Chamber's side of things.

Meanwhile, we are proud to welcome our latest addition to the BBRP team, Sharon Davis. Sharon will be taking Mark's place with the five communities mentioned earlier. Below is her biography.

Sharon, welcome to the team!

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Sharon J. Davis has joined Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce as Borough Business Revitalization Coordinator. Responsible for Bangor, Bath, Catasauqua, North Catasauqua and Wilson, Sharon works with volunteer committees in each of the boroughs to implement the National Main Street Trust’s 4-Point Plan approach to downtown revitalization.

Ms. Davis has a professional background in retail shopping mall marketing. She was co-founding partner of Welsh Systems, Inc., a political and public issues consulting firm. Her specific areas of expertise were community outreach and coordination of volunteers.

Ms. Davis was a member of the Easton Planning Commission including serving as vice president. She was appointed Chair of the Easton Local Historic District Task Force. Partnering with residents, business owners and government officials, the work of the task force concluded with the Local Historic District ordinance being unanimously approved by City Council. This collaborative approach has subsequently been used by the Pennsylvania Historic & Museum Commission (PHMC) as a model for other communities to follow.

Ms. Davis resides in Forks Township.

Watts for breakfast? - an energy seminar

This one may be of particular interest for our Small Business owners. As you may be aware, due to deregulation and a variety of other factors, PPL Electric expects rates to rise by as much as 30 - 40% over the next two years. In an attempt to help people brace for these impacts, our friends at the Small Business Development Center are sponsering a series of designed to help people assess their potential for energy savings. All sessions will be held at the Small Business Development Center at Lehigh Unversity, Rauch Business Center Room 91, 621 Taylor Street, Bethlehem. The seminars are as follow:

Thursday, May 1, 7:30 - 8:45am: Utility Bills 101 - Learn how to read your utility bills and effectively manage electricity demand and usage.

Thursday, May 15, 7:30 - 8:45am: Evaluating the Cost-Benefits and Simple Paybacks for Energy Efficient Projects - Learn simple calculations to determine cost savings and paybacks on your investments, and find the actual savings for investments like changing to high-efficency lightbulbs, programable thermostats and energy star equipment.

Tuesday, May 27, 7:30 - 8:45am: STOP pushing your energy $$ out the door! Find out what simple heating and cooling tips can save you money without a large investment.

Thursday, June 12, 7:30 - 8:45am: Energy Efficency for Motors, Compressors & HVAC systems. Find out what simple management tips and retrofits can save you money if you operate these types of equipment.

Thursday, June 19, 7:30 - 8:45am: Alternative/Smart energy options. Find out if new alternative energy systems are appropriate for your facility.

If you are interested in registering, contact the SBDC at 610-758-3890 or E-mail them at insbdc@lehigh.edu.

$10,000 for Alburtis

The good folks in Alburtis are at it again. The Borough secured, thanks to State Senator Pat Browne (R-16), a $10,000 Community Revitalization grant to go towards the eventual implimentation of a streetscape plan. The Alburtis Business Revitalization Program will be working on the plan during May and June and would greatly appreciate any public input!

From left to right, the people in the picture are: myself, Borough Councilwoman Karen Smoyer, Borough Councilwoman Kathy Raines, Jeff Smoyer, Borough Councilwoman Peg McCormack, Borough Council President Steve Hill, Senator Pat Browne, Mayor Bob Mader, Alburtis Business Revitalization Program Chair Dave Kutzor, Mary Ellen Bohlen.

Once again, thank you to Senator Browne for your commitment to urban revitalization.

Upcoming Training

Hi everyone,

Training opportunity coming up! It will be held this Tuesday (April 29), 7:00pm at Northampton Area Community College in Bethlehem (511 E. Third Avenue, same place we have always had it). The subject will be volunteer development. Here's a description:

Main Street requires an educated board and committees that drive the decision making process. But how do you get enough volunteers to fill those roles, educate them and then reward them for a job well done. Learn how to fill your volunteer needs and to create a new way of engaging the community. Also, learn how different generations will approach volunteerism and how you can reach them.

The training will be led by everyone's favorite PDC employee, Geoff Brace.

If you are interested in attending, just comment below or E-mail me at MikeS@lehighvalleychamber.org. And yes, this training is absolutely open to all Main Street/Elm Street programs in the Valley, regardless of if you are in the BBRP.

Hope to see you there!
Mike

Overhall in the future for historic Alburtis

Pretty nice article for us in the Morning Call. It discusses our ongoing streetscape plan in Alburits and our efforts to incorporate the Borough's extensive history into that plan. Enjoy!

What We Are & How We Are Structured

One of the questions I get all the time are questions that ask how our program works. Its a very important question and one that has a mildly complecated answer. I figured I'd take a second to try to provide some clarification.

Our program is a regional Main Street program. This means that we follow the Main Street Four-Point approach towards downtown revitalization:

• Design: Improving the physical attributes of Main Street and ensuring that Main Street is in top-shape.
• Organization: Working with other like-minded civic groups towards the same goal of reinvograting Main Street. This also means working within the committee on things like training, recruitment and fundraising.
• Promotions: Working to promote Main Street as a whole through things like advertising and festivals.
• Economic Restructuring: Helping to maintain and enhance already existing businesses and recruit new ones.

Okay, so that isn't all that complicated. Our organization, however, well...that's another story.

Our program is a partnership between the Greater Lehigh Chamber of Commerce, the Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce Foundation, the Pennsylvania Department of Community & Economic Development (DCED), the Pennsylvania Downtown Center, Lehigh County, Northampton County and the eight participating Boroughs (Alburtis, Bangor, Bath, Catasauqua, Coopersburg, Hellertown, Macungie and Wilson). Ask me how long it took to memorize that list sometime.

The program is funded primarily by DCED, who provides $90,000 per year for the funding of the salries of the two coordinators, as well as the $135,000 a year for the Facade Program. The money is initially given to the Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commece Foundation, since the Foundation has a 501c3 status (charitable, non-profit organization). The nine participating boroughs each contribute $.50 per capita - this comes to about $17,000. The Chamber of Commerce picks up the remainder of the expenses, including reimbursements for travel and equipment.

The program is administered largely by Lehigh and Northampton counties, in conjunction with the Chamber. Furthermore, the Pennsylvania Downtown Center provides technical assistance, trainings and does the annual assessments of our program.

I really hope that helped to clear up some questions for you all and hopefully made things less confusing! Any questions, feel free to E-mail me at MikeS@lehighvalleychamber.org or call me at 484-809-1796.

Urban Living Can Save You Plenty on Gasoline

Hi everyone,

I recently had an op-ed published in the Morning Call on the connection between urban living and saving gas. I think we can all agree that gas prices are skyrocketing and only going to get worse in the future. We need to start thinking outside of the box on ways to cut down on our gas/oil related expenses.

Happy reading!!!!