Getting a pulse on Front Street

By Karen Owens, Publisher

In recent weeks, there has been a flurry of Georgetown business closures announced on Facebook. As perplexing as it might seem, what might be more interesting is the range of comments that have followed those announcements. There are plenty of well-wishers and fond memory-type posts, but there are also a lot of negative reactions that pretty much pervade much of social media these days.

Al Joseph, director of Georgetown’s Main Street program, has shared in meetings and in recent media interviews that all is not bad on Front Street, and I agree. He says there are several new business prospects that are seriously looking at some of the recently closed businesses, including The Cottage and the Bluebird Vintage/Urban Brew storefronts.  There are even a few folks looking at the Between the Antlers restaurant space. And as nice a facility as Root is, Joseph feels it won’t take long for someone looking to open a new restaurant in downtown Georgetown to see what a good fit that “turnkey property” would provide for the right business owner. I agree with him on that, too.

Let’s consider some general metrics about small businesses, which make up nearly 99.9 percent of all businesses operating in the United States. They generate 43.5% of U.S. GDP and employ 45.9% of the workforce. But nearly a quarter of small businesses fail within the first year, and roughly half close within five years of opening.

There can be many reasons why a business might close or not thrive, and certainly the strength of the economy contributes to that success/failure rate as well. With The Cottage, the long-time owner decided that 40 years in retail was long enough and decided to retire. You can’t blame her for that! I’m not trying to provide a lecture on the Dos and Don’ts of Starting a Business. But I did want to get a better pulse on how local businesses are feeling.

So I decided to put my money where my mouth is and eat downtown for lunch today. I wasn’t particularly sure where I was going, but as I scrolled through Facebook, I saw what I took as an invitation and went to the Corner Tavern. Now their post wasn’t meant just for me. It was more of a “Hey there – we’re not closed. We’re serving lunch today. Come check us out.” 

Turns out, the assistant general manager is a young woman by the name of Brittany Ward. She’s been working in Georgetown’s hospitality sector for 12 years. She started out with the now-closed Big Tuna and joined Corner Tavern in 2022. Brittany has also shared some honest reflections on her personal Facebook account about the recent closures and some of the challenges the Front Street business district has experienced in recent months. I asked her if she would mind talking with me about some of this, because I too care about the health and well-being of our Georgetown business community.

Of course, one of the biggest changes in the past 12 months has been the closures of International Paper and Liberty Steel. Granted, Liberty Steel hasn’t had a bountiful workforce in several years, the loss of 900 jobs with the IP mill closing was a major blow to the local economy. According to Ward, last January was very slow for Front Street businesses, as families who lost their livelihood had to scramble to find other jobs in the area or make the difficult decision to move elsewhere to work. But one thing was certain – they weren’t out shopping and dining while their future was in limbo.

Ward says comparing this January’s business revenue to last January’s seems a bit misleading, because that was such a low bar.

“Yes, we’ve had a better month. We have good days and we have bad days, and that happens every month. But when we have a lot of rain, people don’t come out. When it’s really cold, like it’s been for the past week or so, you don’t see a lot of people walking up and down Front Street,” she added.

Lack of parking compounds this issue for many businesses. “I wasn’t a fan of the two-hour parking limit, but after this no time limit experiment, it might be worthwhile to go back to a three-hour limit.”

There are several available lots in the area that could be transformed into more parking, and not just for visitors to Front Street, but also for the employees working at these businesses. “We hear complaints about letting employees use the spots in front of the businesses, but when I have employees that get off work late in the evening, I don’t want them to walk a half mile to get to their cars,” Ward said. She suggested a trolley service might be a good business opportunity for someone to help with this issue.

I reached out to Georgetown Mayor Jay Doyle about the parking situation along the Front Street corridor, and he acknowledged that parking was a concern and said the city was exploring the possibility of a parking structure downtown. It was premature to say much beyond that.

Ward said unexpected power outages, inconsistent internet service (which went out during my lunch at Corner Tavern) and the flooding alleviation construction have all impacted business and traffic flow on Front Street. They have also contributed to the growing frustration level for businesses.

Despite having a strong turnout for this year’s Wooden Boat Show, Corner Tavern was one of several businesses who lost power around 5:00 pm and it didn’t return until 8:30 that evening. “We can’t cook when there’s no electricity. Our chiller was out so we couldn’t sell draft beer, and I had to have a contractor come out to replace lights that were damaged by the outage,” Ward explained. “We had done all the preparation and planning to ensure we had enough staff, food, beverages, etc. to be successful, and we were (successful) until the power went out.”

The Wooden Boat Show is the equivalent of Black Friday for many Front Street establishments. It’s their Super Bowl. To hear how that three-and-a-half hour window basically ruined her ability to provide her son with the Christmas she had planned was heart-wrenching. Just like when someone doesn’t get the Christmas bonus they expected or worse, they lose their job altogether.

What I do know is that we have a new mayor and three new council members who have championed bringing more jobs to our community. We have a new county economic development director who has a track record of success, and we have a couple of interesting development sites that can play a major role in ensuring Georgetown’s future vitality.

My hope is that the city and county elected officials and key staff will work hard and collaboratively to make the “soil conditions” (pardon my Mark Sanford reference) ripe for business owners and companies to plant some seeds in our community so that our families and future generations can enjoy calling Georgetown home for many years to come.