By Janeen Burkholder

Clinton Daily Journal

If the City hires Buxton

Co. to conduct a retail

study of Clinton, there will be no magic bullet, nor will there be a smoking gun.

The survey results would come relatively quickly, after about four months, but it would take two to three years for the city to react to the information and to begin to see results in the form of new retailers. Further, it would not be to blame for what it wouldn’t do for downtown.

Peggy Friday is commercial and retail development coordinator for Greater Rochelle Economic Development Company (GREDCO). Rochelle is located about 75 miles west of Chicago and about 25 miles south of Rockford. She came to Rochelle after working for U.S. Sen. Peter Fitzgerald.

Friday has been delighted with Rochelle’s association with the Texas-based Buxton, but she cautions that the information Buxton provides is only as good as the team effort that goes into implementing its use.

By its own definition, “Buxton is the industry leader in customer analytics, providing strategic decision-making information for retail site selection and targeted marketing to major retailers, cities, economic development groups and healthcare organizations throughout the United States. Buxton pioneered the use of demographics, psychographics, drive-time analysis and lifestyle characteristics to provide strategic decision-making information to any enterprise serving customers.”

A Buxton representative explained what the company could do for the city at a public meeting in November. The City placed a motion to hire Buxton on file at the most recent City Council meeting, and is expected to approve that motion at its next meeting on Monday, Dec. 17.

Rochelle’s Buxton study was completed in April 2006, providing a list of some 50 restaurants and retailers that Buxton said would be a good fit for Rochelle. Now creeping up on the second anniversary of the study, Rochelle still has no new retail business that can be credited to the Buxton study—yet. That is about to change as Rochelle is poised to announce a new WalMart Super Center.

Nevertheless, Friday says she refers to their Buxton study everyday, and she heartily recommends their services. “They are what they say they are.”

Clinton has much in common with Rochelle, and some significant differences.

Each have populations under 10,000: The 2000 U.S. Census put Clinton’s at 7,500 and Rochelle’s at 9,500. Rochelle’s population swells more than Clinton’s does during the day by people who drive from some 20 surrounding communities to work.

Each are marketed as hubs: Clinton sits at the crossroads of Illinois Highways 10 and 54 and U.S. Highway 51. Rochelle is at the nexus of Interstates 39 and 88 and state highways 251 (formerly U.S. 51) and 38.

Each are served by rail lines: Clinton is served by the Illinois Central Railroad. Rochelle also has two rail lines, the Burlington Northern Santa Fe and the Union Pacific, which provides competition and keeps the cost of transporting goods down. Rochelle also has its own rail line that facilitates getting the goods to and from the main lines. It also has an airport.

Another difference that serves as a powerful recruiting tool for Rochelle is that it is supplied by the city-owned Rochelle Municipal Utilities, which also offers dial-up, wireless and fiber Internet service providing high-speed broadband connections. Water and telephone service also is provided by the city-owned utility.

Rochelle also has a significant detriment that Clinton does not: it sits on a flood plain so a new business not using an existing building has to a lot a certain amount of land—very expensive land—for retention. Friday said another prong in GREDCO’s efforts is to get the floodplain maps, which are dated, revised to be more accurate.

Another shared characteristic is that both communities are served by newspapers owned by News Media Corporation. Terese Almquist, the Clinton Daily Journal’s acting publisher, lives in Rochelle and is active in that city’s work with Buxton.

Almquist emphasizes the need for a “really strong director who really understands retail,” and the need for money for support materials, as much as $45,000 to produce promotional materials.

Someone like Friday, she said. “Give her a boat load of credit,” said Almquist.

Friday has been in her job for three years, but she said it wasn’t until she got the Buxton study that she had any real direction.

Another part of the Buxton study is the need for local officials involved with economic development to attend the annual International Council of Shopping Centers conference in Las Vegas that will cost several thousand dollars more each year in order to maximize the use of the Buxton material and to network with the retailers that are good fits. Buxton even coaches its clients before the conference so attendees can get the most from it, and they provide space at the conference for clients to woo the retailers.

Almquist also noted that in order to lure the retailers that Buxton said would succeed in Rochelle, GREDCO and interested parties have worked to identify every conflicting city ordinance that can hamper new business in order to make changes to streamline them. A GREDCO website also has been created to provide retailers detailed information about Rochelle such as taxes and available sites and buildings.

Even as the Clinton discusses hiring Buxton, what likely will be the engine that drives the Buxton project in Clinton is the DeWitt County Development Corp., which still is getting wheels underneath of it.

The DCDC is just now about ready to advertise for a director, said Ken Bjelland, DCDC president.

He or she will have a big job cut out for them, but Friday notes that Buxton “will be there long after you pay the bill for them.”

And, about downtown, both Buxton and Friday note that big retailers simply aren’t going to locate downtown. The trick, they say, is developing downtowns as a place shoppers may want to go for a meal, entertainment, and for boutique and specialty shopping.

“We’re not going to go back to the downtown being your hub, your center,” she said. “The reality is that people across the country just don’t shop downtown.”



Clinton

The median income for a household in the city was $36,279, and the median income for a family was $48,024. Males had a median income of $34,777 versus $22,296 for females. The per capita income for the city was $18,729. About 7.8 percent of families and 10.8 percent of the population were below the poverty line, including 15.9 percent of those under age 18 and 8.4 percent of those age 65 or over.

Rochelle

The median income for a household in the city was $37,984, and the median income for a family was $46,563. Males had a median income of $35,890 versus $25,058 for females. The per capita income for the city was $18,139. About 7.6 percent of families and 10.4 percent of the population were below the poverty line, including 11.1 percent of those under age 18 and 4.3 percent of those age 65 or over.

Rochelle has a significantly higher Hispanic population