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 The meeting was called to order at 6 p.m. by Mayor Marty Neitzel,
and then immediately the floor was given over to Kara Demirjian
Huss, President of DCC Marketing.
Huss opened the meeting reviewing some of the credentials of her
company. She said that DCC has worked with several businesses and a
few municipalities in creating a marketing plan that works for them.
The plans are created individually, based on the needs of the
different entities.
She also noted that her family is involved in the development of
properties, and owns an advertising firm. Huss has also served on
the economic development council in Macon County.
She then began her discussion of Lincoln. She noted that DCC
Marketing has already done SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses,
Opportunities, and Threats) analysis of several components of the
city including a review of the Logan County Tourism Bureau
information, and SWOT analysis of the city’s strategic plan and
downtown revitalization plan.
She said she wanted to talk to the aldermen about the economic
opportunities in the city. The goal would be to position the city as
something. The council's job was to decide what that “something”
would be, by answering the primary question, “What do you want to be
known for?” She said that pinpointing this, would be the foundation
for creating a brand for the city.
 Huss offered a review of the city’s strengths and weaknesses.
She noted that in the city's strengths one of the best points is
location. Located in the heart of the state and with ample access to
highways is an asset to the city. In addition, other strong points
include the community offers good schools, affordable living, and
has a strong tourism and cultural presence.
The weaknesses included a lack of high-end housing and a reduction
in jobs and labor force.
She said that there are a lot of communities with the same
weaknesses and strengths, so the goal is also to figure out what
sets Lincoln apart. She said that her theory is “go big or go home,”
and she is going to be presenting some ideas that will be 'outside
the box' thinking.
Moving on, she said that the first area she wanted to address is
entertainment. She said that one thing smaller communities are
taking advantage of are activity parks. She said that Lincoln has
the potential to develop something. She said she was talking about
Six Flags style parks, or water parks, or a combination thereof.
Another idea was an all-sports complex. She said that these types of
indoor-outdoor complexes are popping up where sports in the
communities are big. She said she thought that Lincoln had huge
potential for something like this.
The sports complexes, she said, not only attract their own audience,
but they also attract ancillary businesses, such as conference
centers, and greater retail opportunities.
Todd Mourning said he didn’t know if Lincoln would ever get to a
point of having an amusement park, but he was interested in the
sports complex idea. He asked how something like that would be
financed. Would it be a public or private investments? Huss said it
was often a collaboration of both. She noted that getting the
funding would be a challenge.
For the city of Lincoln, the best case scenario would be to market
the city as a good place for a complex, and have someone else bring
it to town.
Rick Hoefle commented that reports showed that amusement parks are
declining. He noted that Mall of America, for example, has gone
through a lot of changes and is still struggling. He said he didn’t
see that as being a good investment locally.
Steve Parrott asked about the conference center mentioned. Huss said
she saw that as something that would be ancillary to the sports
complex, again saying that the complex would draw other business
opportunities.
 Huss moved on to another idea, premium outlets. She said that these
were growing in popularity. She noted that Lincoln has easy highway
access and that people will pull off the interstate for an outlet.
Michelle Bauer noted that there were premium outlets in the major
cities nearby. She wondered if anyone would drive to Lincoln from
Bloomington or Springfield. She went on to say that she does like
the idea of a conference center and thought that it would be put to
use by local businesses and organizations.
Asked who would use it, Bauer said she could envision the local
clubs such as Rotary and Kiwanis. She felt that Lincoln College
could also benefit. She also noted that the Logan County Clerk
belongs to a regional clerk’s organization, and has no location in
Lincoln or Logan County to host their conferences.
Going back to the outlet mall idea, Steve Parrott asked who shops at
outlet malls. Huss said outlet malls have a large draw and that
people will drive 150 miles to an outlet mall. Going back to Bauer's
comment about proximity to other large towns, Huss noted that
Tuscola’s Tanger Factory Outlets is very popular, located in a
community half the size of Lincoln, and is within 30 miles of
Champaign. She also commented that in Lincoln there are not a lot of
shopping opportunities.
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Mourning commented that it was interesting that Retail Strategies is saying that
they are having difficulties bringing retailers to Lincoln because of the low
population, but Huss is saying that an outlet mall will work. Huss said that
outlet malls are a different kind of market than a regular retailer. She said
that premium outlets were a rapidly growing sector right now and were
successful. She also noted that they are pairing well with sports complexes.
Moving on to the next idea, Huss spoke about “Thrift Centers” with chic, or
antique oriented offerings. She said there was a trend for new “for-profit”
thrift stores such as Plato’s Closet and others. She said this could be a great
asset for the downtown area, and would be innovative and very trendy. She said
she thought the city would see a 100-mile draw of people coming to Lincoln’s
downtown to shop thrifty-chic.
Bauer said she knows already that someone is looking at Lincoln for a
higher-end, antique/reuse/reclaim type business that would fall into this
category. She said she understood that the business would not be a pawn shop,
but could be a buy, sell, trade type business. Bauer also noted that there is a
large thrift presence in this community now. She said it was worth looking at,
but thought it might be a difficult sell to constituents and the community
because there could be a perception that Lincoln already has enough thrift
shopping.
Jeff Hoinacki said at the same time, developing more could create an additional
draw, so that people would come to town and shop all the thrifts. He noted that
there would need to be a map or guide of some type to help lead visitors to all
the offerings.
Hoefle noted that there were already a couple of interesting and similar
businesses in town. He mentioned as an example Lloyd and Luna’s downtown.
Clay Johnson said he felt that the sports complex idea was a good one for
Lincoln. He said that some of the tournaments going on now in the community are
a huge draw. Examples of these were the Route 66 Shootout Soccer Tournament that
brings in teams from throughout Central Illinois, and the Johns Welsh Memorial
Basketball Tournament that this year has more than 160 teams and thousands of
visitors, many that stay overnight in Lincoln.
Mourning said that having locations for state level tournaments would be an
asset. He said the goal had to be to have something large enough to draw
regional guests who would have to stay over in Lincoln. This would generate
revenues for the local motels, stores, eateries, gas stations, and more.
Huss asked if the city were to pursue a sports complex, who would “own it”? Who
would be responsible for getting it done?
Mourning said that was hard to determine right now. He noted that the city had a
sports commission at one time, but that it had not worked out well, and was
eventually dissolved. He said, in looking at bringing large tournaments to town
to utilize a sports complex, the problem was in finding local people who were
able to do the work to bring large events to town. He said without a working
sports commission, it looked like a huge obstacle.
Moving on, Huss asked the group to think about the barriers to the ideas that
had been discussed.
One large barrier for any of these projects would be land and money. She asked
what would be the additional barriers to bringing in a retail outlet mall.
Hoinacki and Tracy Welch said retail outlets had not succeeded in nearby
communities. Mourning countered that the outlet mall in Tuscola had succeeded.
Parrott said that the Springfield and Bloomington malls were not in easy access
locations, and Welch added that Lincoln could have a great location off the
interstate.
However, Welch also noted as had been said earlier, Retail Strategies is
struggling to get businesses to come to town. He wondered how the city could be
successful in doing this if Retail Strategies is struggling. Huss said her best
advice was to talk to the people who are doing outlets. She suggested contacting
Tanger’s about their Tuscola location, and talk to them about how to do this.
Huss brought the topic of outlets and a sports complex to a close, saying she
was ready to take the council “to another place.”
While the discussion waned, throughout the evening, there were still snippets of
discussion regarding a sports complex and conference center, in particular,
leaving Huss with the impression that the council would really like to push to
see that goal accomplished.
Moving on to part two of this series, Huss is going to ask the group to “think
outside the box”…..way outside the box.
[Nila Smith] |
