Survey set to improve downtown St. Cloud

Home

Around St. Cloud

Other Sun Publications

FREE DELIVERY!
Get Free Delivery! Request your Osceola News Gazette Today.

Login Form

2013 Osceola Health

2013 Sexual Predator Sexual Offender List sexualpredatorcover13

Windows on the Classroom March 2013

School Calendar
2012-2013

View our other Special Sections

Survey set to improve downtown St. Cloud

Around Osceola

Thursday, 27 December 2012 08:41

By Sam Gilkey
For the News-Gazette
A month-long survey is set for January by St. Cloud Main Street to determine the advantages and disadvantages of the district that stretches from 13th street north to the lakefront and east-west from Massachusetts to Florida Avenues. Program Manager Paula Stark said she expects the survey, “will assist us in some of the things we already know but need confirmation so that others will buy into them and also tell us some things we don’t know and we will be able to put some focus on those.”
Stark said the survey would cost $12,000. The last survey of this type was done in 2003.
“We will take a look at how to creatively drive economic development in a downtown district, “ said Chuck D’Aprix owner of Economic Development Visions, the firm that will do the work, and who has spent some time in St. Cloud talking to and interviewing people.
“The downtown is reflective of the economic climate of the community generally,” D’Aprix said. “Myself and three others will spend much of January working on the survey that will be presented to the Main Street directors in March.”
“We first get the lay of the land and look at what existing businesses are,” he said. “We look at current business sales and identify the relative strengths and weaknesses of the downtown.”
D’Aprix said his associates will do telephone surveys as well as in-person interviews to learn how people perceive downtown St. Cloud. Merchants, property owners and shoppers in the area will also be interviewed.
“We will do foot-traffic and car-traffic counts,” he said. “And we will find out where people are shopping, if not in downtown St. Cloud.”
D’Aprix said he has owned the company since 1999--the same year St. Cloud Main Street began. Prior to then he ran several economic development agencies in the eastern U.S. and was manager of a Main Street program in Massachusetts for a few years.
“My first impression of downtown is that it has a charming, historic collection of buildings and some unique shops,” he said. “I always look to see if there are at least three long-term businesses in an area and there are in St. Cloud.”
D’Aprix said he likes the fact that city hall is located downtown. He is also impressed with the traffic counts on 13th Street.
“There are a lot of people driving by,” he said. “We have to look at how to get them to turn and come downtown.
“There is a need for more historic preservation and the downtown has significant vacancies as well as a lack of foot traffic. The good news is that these things can be addressed.”
He said his job is to paint an honest assessment of current conditions downtown and what can happen with changes.
“St. Cloud’s location is the best of both worlds,” D’Aprix said. “You have the buying power of Greater Orlando and still have a distinct personality as a community.
“There is a lot to work with. The district abuts a residential area and that is a major plus. You have a built-in market for downtown as a result. We will be surveying folks in the neighborhoods as well and we will offer an on-line survey where people can give their opinions about the community and what can be added downtown.”
“Our goal is to involve as many people as possible,” he added.