On Thursday, April 9th, members of the NDDC Board of Directors conducted the board visits to downtown businesses. The visiting team consisted of Julie Bixby, Greg Kneser, Mark Quinnell, and Rob Schanilec, joined later in the tour by Joe Grundhoefer.
The team visited three businesses: Neuger Communications Group, Monkey See, Monkey Read, and the Quarterback Club. These three represent the wide variety of the businesses in downtown Northfield.
The businesses range from a relatively new start-up to a business that has been operating for thirty years. They include a growing service provider, a retailer who has a significant on-line business, and a popular local restaurant.
All three expressed great satisfaction with Northfield in general and downtown in particular. Their concerns varied from business to business: one is having trouble finding affordable space for expansion, one wishes that there were more feet-on-the-street and that residents were more committed to shopping locally, and one is concerned about the number of new competitors being brought to the market.
All of them had thoughts about issues that were bigger than their own businesses. Two of them expressed concerns about parking, one expressed concern about bicycle access, and one of them expressed concern about pedestrian safety. All of them asked about future streetscape projects.
The Board Visits are an on-going, quarterly program of the NDDC. It is a very popular program with the board members. In fact, it was ranked as one of our top priorities for 2009.
We’ll begin lining up our 2nd Quarter Visits in the very near future.