Results from the October 2003 Mainstreet Uptown Butte Retail Survey

Purpose: This survey of Butte retailers was developed in conjunction with the Imagine Butte planner as a cross check to the U.S. Census Bureau's most recent retail data, as well as to provide an anonymous way for retail businesses to express their ideas and needs for the future assistance and support from organizations such as Mainstreet Uptown Butte.

The information also provides a baseline for future comparison. Imagine Butte is seeking to support partnerships that build a sustainable, cooperative business base for existing retail and manufacturing businesses. (Note: At present, there is no retail committee of the local chamber of commerce.)

Opinions from Butte businesses are diverse on what would be useful to them. Yet, Butte retailers show strong evidence of the fact that "retail follows residential," with 65 percent noting that residential development near them would help. The importance of festivals and out-of-town visitors at special events was mentioned by 61 percent. Information booths for visitor information were selected by 52 percent of those mentioning programs, while 30 percent expressed interest in expanding web-based sales or internet sites.

Sales and Size: In sales and store size, a number of respondents were under $100,000 in annual gross sales. These businesses would not be counted by the Census due to small size or lack of more than one employee. However, restaurants, bars, home improvement -related businesses and some service businesses were over $900,000 in annual sales, surpassing the averages shown in the Census data for 2001. In other words, Butte is made up of a wide range of small businesses, with Butte-Silver Bow currently having a total of 1,220 business licenses for all types of business, from tiny ma-and-pop operations and hobby businesses to very successful restaurants and retail stores. A number of retailers who responded also include manufacturing of different types of products, as well as warehousing business. Nearly 25 percent of the respondents were in the business of products related to home building, home improvement or home furnishings. Approximately 19 percent of respondents were also manufacturers of products including clothing and jewelry products, artwork, soap, home improvement, furniture, cabinetry and custom countertops and windows.

Retail Impact of Visitors to Butte and our Neighboring Counties - nearly half of retail comes from out of Butte: While each retail store varied, overall in average the data show that shoppers came from Butte an average of 55 percent of the time, 19 percent from area counties, 15 percent from Montana and 10 percent from out-of-state tourists. Of this response group, less than 20 percent use the Internet to reach customers and make sales. Of these retailers, sales due to the Internet are as high as 65 percent of total business (lightweight products mailed out) but 10 percent of total sales is a more typical number for the contribution from internet sales for those who reported use of the internet as part of their retail strategy.

Where This Year's Retail Business Came From --Average of all respondents of 2003 survey
Butte -- 55 percent
Trade Area Counties -- 19 percent
Other Montana -- 15 percent
Out-of-state Tourists -- 10 percent
Internet (national) -- 1 percent

Participation: Approximately 140 retailers in the Mainstreet Uptown Butte database received forms, and approximately 20 percent have returned them for this compilation. The survey asked amount of square feet, classification of business, whether manufacturing took place on site, range of gross annual sales, and opinions on what would best help their retail business.

SUMMARY OF PROGRAMS AND PROJECTS MENTIONED BY RETAIL BUSINESS IN BUTTE PROGRAMS TO SUPPORT

Butte retailers PERCENT OF SAMPLE WHO LIST THIS SOLUTION Element included in current draft "ENJOY BUTTE" (HISTORIC BUTTE PARTNERSHIP) ACTION PROGRAM?
Residential Development Near Retail 65 YES
Festivals and Special Events 61 YES
Blue "Qs" (Information booths) for visitors 52 YES
Internet and web support 30 YES, PLUS INDIVIDUAL ACTION BY RETAILERS
ADDITIONAL WRITE IN COMMENTS,RECOMMENDED ACTIONS, CONCERNS Percent of those writing in comments who list this solution
More base jobs, manufacturing 29 YES
Parking improvements 19 Under Review
Clean up, Beautification 19 YES
Enhanced Promotion of Butte 19 YES
Enhanced retail mix of stores, more retail More attractions Uptown 19 YES
Increase traffic flow to Uptown and capitalize on Interstate highway junction of I-90 and I-15 14 YES
Action to deal with "panhandlers and drunks" 14 REQUESTED OF Law Enforcement

SUMMARY OF WRITE-IN COMMENT DETAIL

Approximately 75 percent of survey respondents sent detailed comments. These ranged from several pages of single-line text, down to several words. They are included in brief, below.

• More guided tours, information, promotion of Uptown, A lot more action and less talk of "dreams to be" for Butte.
• Parking and less sign restrictions. Main Street also runs through the flats, more business is more business, don't discrimiate due to location
• Additional industrial base, attracting industry to provide good jobs, empty shops in Uptown
• More jobs, more building, Destination Mont, more jobs, more shopping in Butte
• Better parking
• Need welcome banners for Butte, "bums and drunks leave cans in our flower beds"
• Better hours to attract shoppers at night, more standardized shopping times; Likes flowers and Barb Kornet's work on them, and lights on buildings
  Re-open M&M, put limits on social services and prison development to get more retail interest in Uptown; Promote green and renewable energy systems and manufacturing
• Attract more small businesses rather than big ones so that no major companies can dominate us
• More businesses, both large and small, Community Promotion activities
• Keep business in Butte, promote local strengths, increase traffic to uptown
• "Destination MT" type development, Expand retail in general and develop special ties with MT Tech inviting students to shop Uptown
• Completely repopulate uptown with new stores, including specialty and a new major retailer such as Old Navy
• More events, Get more people uptown, Street Closures a big problem Uptown, Chamber of Commerce support for small business
• More Jobs, More people, More shops, Quit scaring away new business
• Clear out the courthouse: Government needs new leadership.
• More People and More Jobs
• Keep more of the business center in Uptown, Local development issues, BLDC should be folded into local government: Need to promote small, stable manufacturing and small businesses, not big "homeruns"
• More retail businesses uptown, Challenging business climate, Mainstreet Butte doing great job, Make Uptown more visually attractive
• More arts and entertainment emphasis, more artist's studios and lofts Uptown; clean up entry way streets to Uptown, fix and replace bad housing
• Work toward great summer programming in Mother Lode
• More manufacturing
• Clean up and beautification of entire Uptown, pass ordinances to "get rid of panhandlers" at Interstate exits and Uptown. Stop negative reporting about business climate in Butte.
• Tram, more industry, more tourist activities
• Capturing visitors from interstate, Perpetual clean up needed for whole Uptown, Promote interstate intersection and miles of combined I-90 and I-15
• More support from URA for interior of retail businesses; more festivals and shopping events

RESULTS FROM THE VISITOR ATTRACTION SURVEY

Butte has approximately 22 visitor attractions and major festivals, (excluding sporting events), some of which are listed in the Montana travel materials sent out by the state tourism office.

Purpose: A brief attractions survey was sent for anonymous return, asking for number of annual visits, ticket or entry prices, marketing budgets and suggestions for assisting the attraction to grow or continue to meet its purpose or mission. The survey is meant to inform an action program for tourism expansion in Butte and Southwest Montana. Approximately 60 percent of these attractions and festivals returned the survey instrument in time for this compilation.

Top Fixed Assets: Top visitor attractions in Butte pull over 75,000 visits annually, while visits to smaller venues and museums drew from fewer than 3,000 to more than 50,000 paid visitors a year, depending on size and marketing of the venue. Combined visitor traffic to Butte attractions exceeds 100,000 visits from outside the community per year. The top draws for visitors from out of town are the Berkeley Pit and the World Museum of Mining. The top draw for local and area residents is the Mother Lode Theatre.

Top Festivals and Events: The Festivals drew from 5,000 to more than 40,000 per event, depending on the event, with several "major" festivals per year, including the Christmas Stroll, St. Patrick's Day, Evel Knievel Daze, Freedom Festival (July 2-4) and the new Irish Festival. The older events, produced by Butte Celebrations, have a large, steady clientele, while the newer events have made excellent starts in attracting more first-time visitors to the area and town and moving Butte toward a festival-based visitor opportunity system.

Marketing Efforts: Individual marketing budgets ranged from zero to up to $25,000 per venue per year. The combined cash marketing budget shown in this survey for all events, festivals and attractions who responded to the survey is under $70,000 per year, with the value of in-kind promotion (documentaries, news stories, other articles about Butte) not included. (Note: The value of these non-cash, in-kind promotions is much greater than what Butte attractions currently spend together on formal promotion. The airtime alone for one particular Butte documentary or major national news story is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, for example.)

OPINION SAMPLE

What would help your attraction?

• Cooperative marketing with the historic sites and museums
• Transportation to the attraction or event
• Information booths that provide visitors with information (Blue "Qs")
• Cooperation among city entities
• Mainstreet Butte's good works and additional future business recruitment
• Information and web-based marketing
• Coordinated promotion and marketing of Uptown Butte
• Festivals and additional events in the Mother Lode theatre
• Restoration and improvements of Uptown Buildings
• Aggressive promotion, Signs on Interstate Highways, taking advantage of Butte's Crossroads Interstate position
  
  KEY ISSUES:
• "Community needs to rely more on its cultural and artistic strengths."
• "Heritage tourism, cultural, historic and recreational attractions, packaged and marketed."
• "Additional public toilets and information services for visitors"
• More openness to outsiders, less depression and negatives; more welcoming people
• Care for existing attractions prior to starting more new ones.

URA FUNDS IMAGINE BUTTE FOR UPTOWN REVITALIZATION PLAN, ECONOMIC ANALYSIS and HIGH SCHOOLS PROJECT

Imagine Butte has been funded by the Urban Revitalization Agency of the Butte Silver Bow county government. A grant in the amount of $65,000 will be used to develop and conduct a collaboratively developed community housing needs assessment led by Imagine Butte. The assessment will focus on housing and potential housing investment within the URA district which is bounded on the south by Platinum Street, on the east by Arizona, and on the west by Washington Street.

For the purposes of developing neighborhood revitalization plans, Butte has been organized with three neighborhoods with boundaries defined by tax and census districts. The project will result in an economic restructuring analysis for the Uptown Neighborhood.

More than 14 organizations and agencies in Butte will join forces with Imagine Butte's master planning advisor to develop and implement a building-by-building survey to be filed in cooperation with the Butte-Silver Bow planning board's future actions. The survey will focus on owner plans and preferences in upcoming urban revitalization actions and plans for future growth.

The High Schools project is ready for immediate implementation with available volunteer power and student leadership. The survey will be sent out to URA occupants and building owners followed by on-site evaluation of the housing stock and housing potential.