Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years
Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years
THERMOPOLIS – During the Main Street Thermopolis meeting Thursday evening members and attendees discussed what is needed to bring more solid businesses into the community and the issues that may be causing people to shy away from investing in the town.
Thermopolis Hot Springs Economic Development Company CEO and Main Street Thermopolis Board member Amanda Moeller said, “I’m the EDC director for economic development and we as a group, we had a couple of building owners that were at the meeting last [Thursday] night. One of them is going to be opening up for rent, the renter of that business is going out of business. The other one, they have an empty building over on Arapaho and they have been trying to sell. One of the things that we discussed is how do we attract more business to the downtown to utilize the space that we have.”
Moeller stated that the empty buildings and the large amount of commercial and residential for sale signs throw up a red flag to perspective businesses. “The for sale signs all around town are frightening to businesses moving into town. It’s different if you are expanding a business or you’re an entrepreneur and you are finally at a place where you can afford and have a storefront. But I’ve probably had four to five businesses in 3.5 years that have wanted to come to Thermopolis, have had a solid business plan, we worked on it for several months and they backed out, they are too nervous about all the for sale signs,” she explained.
People just starting a business usually don’t want and or don’t have the capital to invest in a building at the starting gate, they want to know that the business is going to thrive before taking that step. “People don’t want to buy a building right off. I’ve got a lot more clients that are looking for somewhere to lease to see how well it’s going to work. Especially if you are a new business or you are in a new community you don’t want to make that kind of commitment and if you are looking around at all of the for sale signs and your thinking to yourself, well is this economy going to be able to support me and if it’s not, how long is it going to take to sell this building again,” Moeller stated.
While leasing a storefront might be the best bet for new businesses, finding the right storefront can be difficult. “That’s the other problem that we really run into is the spaces that are available are not desirable for the leases or maybe the building owner is not willing to make some interior changes for their renter,” Moeller said. “I just spoke with a client yesterday [Thursday] that is looking for a different space and her exact words were, ‘I’m not paying that much for something that hasn’t been updated in decades.’ Some building owners are asking a lot of money for stuff that hasn’t been updated very recently and by very recently I mean probably 30 – 40 years,” she added.
Moeller stated that she thinks that Main Street Thermopolis should make making the downtown area more attractive for new business a top priority. That she has people asking for downtown storefronts but are not happy with the options that are available. Building owners need to change their thinking to get the best use from their buildings. “I think that there needs to be a shift in what the perception is, if I am a building owner I want to do everything that I can to get a good solid business to come and rent my building, that’s going to be here, that’s going to do well so that they can continue to pay their rent on time and address any challenges to that. What can I do to make that happen? What can I do, if I’m just a building owner and I don’t run a business in that building, how can I make my building really attractive for a good business to come in and rent it,” she said.
Moeller explained that four board members were at a national conference and one board member was at another conference Thursday evening so they were short a couple members for a quorum. “I’m hopeful that when everybody gets back we will be able to address the challenge of filling these spaces,” she said. “First, we need to make sure that the building owners are making their buildings attractive to new business,” she added.