Yes, attracting and providing entertainment
options for residents and visitors alike is a very important aspect to a
holistic economic development program.
The primary and most obvious reason is people who choose to live in the
City of McHenry want to have options for entertainment within the community
which they live. It is also part of the overall
quality of life equation. Entertainment
is also a useful tool to attract people to a community thereby providing a secondary
market, i.e. visitors and tourists.
Entertainment-oriented businesses are destinations. They enhance the quality of life for
residents but also invite people to the City of McHenry, who while seeking
entertainment within the City can also attend a special event or visit other
stores in the City. It’s another avenue
for non-entertainment businesses to gain exposure to new customers. Special events are an excellent opportunity
for existing businesses to capitalize on this secondary market. Often during special events businesses may
remain open for additional hours or coordinate a special promotion or sale in
conjunction with the event.
What are some of
the challenges associated with attracting entertainment-oriented businesses?
Businesses devoted exclusively to providing
some form of entertainment as their primary business model are more challenging
to attract to a community for a few key reasons. They require more population density (large
number of people residing in a specific geographic area) and often seek
locations in close proximity to highway or interstate access because they are
destination-oriented businesses. They want
to maximize their exposure and opportunity to be successful and ensure people
can easily find and access them. You may
be familiar with Whirlyball, Medieval Times, K1 Speed, Dave & Buster's however
there are a very limited number of these specific businesses in the entire
Chicagoland region.
One of the biggest challenges McHenry
County faces is lack of interstate access which significantly limits the potential for larger
destination and more specialized businesses, including entertainment-driven business
to locate within the County and be successful.
Businesses such as Brunswick Zone or Chuck E. Cheese's have similar site
location requirements and some of these businesses do have locations in McHenry
County or in close proximity but often will not seek additional sites because
their customer base or market trade area is very large due to the nature of the
business. People will drive a longer distance to patronize these types of
businesses. Additionally, entertainment
businesses are more sensitive to a turbulent economy. When disposable income is limited and consumer
spending is down it’s these types of businesses which often are more financially
impacted.
The Retail
Experience
Due to the dynamic nature of the economy
and demographic and socioeconomic trends entertainment businesses are often
combined with a retail, service, restaurant and/or hospitality component. Having multi-dimensional uses within one
building or center provides a greater opportunity for these businesses and
developments with these types of businesses to be successful and allows
customers to do many things at one location.
It can also hedge some of the risk for businesses which are more
susceptible to struggle in a tighter economy by providing diversification with
complimentary businesses. For example you may have a bowling alley paired with
a restaurant or other form of entertainment.
Retailers do this as well in order to create a "retail
experience". The end goal is to attract people to a
location and keep them there for as long as possible so they spend more money than they might originally have intended if these other "complimentary" businesses were not as convenient to patronize. They do this by creating an
experience/environment which is conducive to not just moms and dads but
grandmas and grandpas, kids/grandchildren etc.
What is the Status
of the McHenry Downtown Theater?
A question I am asked quite frequently
is: What is the status of the
McHenry Downtown Theater and will the theater open again? The theater building was foreclosed
on by the lienholder and a sheriff’s auction was held approximately one month
ago. The purpose of the sheriff’s
auction was to seek bids from parties/investors interested in purchasing the
theater building. The auction was held however
the existing lienholder was the only bidder on the building. The lienholder is in the process of obtaining
a legal deed to the property through a court proceeding which follows a
sheriff’s auction. After obtaining legal
ownership of the building, it’s the intent of the lienholder to market the property
to prospective buyers. The City has
maintained contact with the lienholder and has fielded calls from people
interested in acquiring and reopening the theater.
A large challenge associated with reopening
the McHenry Downtown Theater however is upgrading to digital equipment, which
is an expense in excess of $130,000. As
Director of Economic Development I work to facilitate relationships and
connections with the end goal, in this particular instance, being to reopen the
theater. It is paramount to the City’s downtown
revitalization efforts because the theater is a destination which brings people
to the downtown and provides both an entertainment option but also an
opportunity to bring customers to the downtown to patronize other businesses. The City will continue to work with the
lienholder in an effort reopen the theater.
As the old adage goes: “Where
there is a will there is a way.” There
is definitely a will to reopen the downtown theater and as Director of Economic
Development it is my job to find a way to do so!
Yes, the City is currently constructing an
18,200 square-foot recreation center immediately west of the Municipal Center
and has a master plan to construct an aquatic center and gymnasium in the
future when funding is obtained. The
recreation center is scheduled to open Spring of 2016. The City also just completed a major
renovation to Fort McHenry in Whispering Oaks Park as well as the tennis courts
at Knox Park.
Additionally,
there are many other community events including: Green Street Cruise Night
(Every Monday Evening), A Day at Petersen Farm, June 28 at Historic Petersen
Farm on McCullom Lake Road and Movies in the Park, which will be occurring throughout
the summer months. Many of the events
are free and provide an opportunity for family-oriented entertainment. The following link to the City’s newsletter
provides a glimpse.
Every
Thursday evening there's a band concert/farmers market held at Veterans
Memorial Park and the following link provides a schedule for all summer band
concerts.
The
McHenry Area Chamber of Commerce, also hosts numerous family-oriented events
and the countdown to Fiesta Days 2015 days has
begun.
Please visit the chamber website http://mchenrychamber.com/
to learn more. Additionally, the
McHenry Public Library District also offers numerous programs and events
throughout the year. Check these out at
http://mchenrylibrary.org/.
The McHenry Rotary Club will host
their annual Blues, Brews and BBQ festival at the end of July/early August at Petersen
Park. For more information on this event
visit their website:
http://www.mchenryrotarybluesbrewsandbbqs.com/.
Providing entertainment options, having special
events and opportunities for tourism are important components to the economic
well-being of the City. They enhance
quality of life for residents and provide opportunities for businesses to
engage in cross-promotion and utilize other local businesses to assist in these
efforts. The City is actively recruiting
all types of businesses, encouraging expansion and working on retaining
existing businesses as well as promoting tourism and hosting and partnering
with other groups for different types of special events, programs and festivals
geared towards families.
I believe it is incumbent upon all of us as
members of a community, residents, businesses owners, the City, other
stakeholder groups and organizations, to support local businesses, attend,
volunteer and promote festivals and special events and support charitable
organizations. These are all vital
pieces to fostering a vibrant community, promoting business, quality of life
and being civic-minded.
Economic development is a community-wide effort and at the end of the
day the entire community and everyone who is part of it benefits!!!
Please
continue to provide feedback, submit questions and comments!!!!
Coming
in future blog posts:
- What
factors do non-retail businesses consider when thinking about relocating?
- Best of
the Fox Award Winners…
- International
Council of Shopping Centers Conference 2015...
- How do
brick and mortar businesses remain competitive with on-line businesses?
- Chicago Metro Metal Consortium..
- What
are Class A, B and C spaces?
- Franchising? What is it? What companies offer it and what
challenges are associated with attracting a retailer which operates
exclusively using franchising?
- Future
trends in economic development:
“market segmentation;“ “pop-up” stores; “placemaking/third places”
Douglas
P. Martin
Director
of Economic Development
City of
McHenry
333 S
Green Street
McHenry,
IL 60050
815.363.2110
(d)
815.363.2173
(f)
815.790.4752
(c)
@McHenryIL
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