Group to prepare retail strategy for downtown

Economics Research Associates' (ERA) Downtown Works program is working with the Town of Sparta to prepare a retail strategy for downtown Sparta. The program specializes in retail revitalization and implementation strategies.

ERA earlier conducted a feasibility study for the Sparta Teapot Museum. The retail strategy plan will build upon the work done in the earlier study, said information from the company.

The Small Town Economic Prosperity (STEP) Program is providing about half of the funding for the study. That program, organized by the Rural Center, helps lower tier small towns create a strategy for economic revitalization and long-term success. The Teapot Museum project also is providing funding, along with AdvantageWest.

Interviews are under way now with area businesses, which are designed to assess the current retail mix along Main Street and the surrounding areas with regard to type and condition, square footage, property ownership and rents, overall retail environment and the physical characteristics of the buildings. That information will be compiled in such a way so that the individual buildings and businesses will not be identified separately. The numbers will be used in aggregate, said Town Manager Bryan Edwards, "It will provide more of a statistical model than specific information on particular businesses, buildings or services."

Kenneth Scott of the Blue Ridge Business Development Center, who is coordinating the events that are taking place during the study, said the interviews will lead to a basic retail strategy for the town.

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