The city of Spartanburg is kicking off the New Year with an expanded Main Street Challenge in an effort to continue to attract new businesses to downtown.
Looking for a creative way to fill empty storefronts, the city announced the first challenge in December 2012 and attracted 58 proposals for retail businesses. The three 2013 winners – Haute Mama, Local Hiker, and Motte & Son – each received $12,000 in subsidized rent and another $8,000 in in-kind support and services such as legal advice, printing and accounting services.
Patty Bock, Spartanburg’s economic development director, said the turnout for the first challenge last year exceeded all expectations, and hopes for the same with this new challenge.
“It created new stores. It created new jobs and it created growth,” she said.
Potential businesses will again receive $12,000 in subsidized rent and another $8,000 in in-kind support. The new challenge will be expanded to a broader area of the city, providing more options in size and locations for those businesses that are applying, Bock said.
This year, 12 downtown retail locations have been identified and the parameters expanded to more sites off Main Street, including Broad, Church and Dunbar streets. Lease spaces range from 865 square feet to almost 10,000 square feet.
The three winners will be required to open their businesses in one of those locations no later than Nov. 1, 2014, and must sign a three-year lease.
Proposed businesses can be independent or franchises, and the challenge is also open to existing business owners as long as they plan to “introduce, open and operate a concept which will offer a new element not promoted in the existing location, or expand upon and highlight an element that would be removed from the existing location,” according to the application rules.
“We need more retail and services to continue to grow and shape our downtown, and last year’s challenge brought new businesses to the downtown mix,” Bock said. “With this new challenge, we want to keep the momentum going.”
The deadline to submit applications is Feb. 7. A selection committee will review all applications and choose up to 12 applicants as semifinalists. The semifinalists must then submit their business plans by April 18. The selection committee will review and narrow the pool down to six finalists who will then present their plans and ideas at a live final event in late May.
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