After years of downtown vacancies sprouting up monthly,
buildings are slowly filling and bringing with them the promise of
jobs and a revitalized downtown, business officials say. Business
leaders hope the new-business growth will buck the trend of jobs
lost last year, said Brenda Weatherly, executive director of the
Hollister Downtown Association.
After years of downtown vacancies sprouting up monthly, buildings are slowly filling and bringing with them the promise of jobs and a revitalized downtown, business officials say.
Business leaders hope the new-business growth will buck the trend of jobs lost last year, said Brenda Weatherly, executive director of the Hollister Downtown Association.
And those signs are already showing. Despite the decrease in downtown jobs last year, overall business activity in downtown is starting to see signs of life, she contended.
“We are starting to see some more activity downtown,” Weatherly said.
In the early parts of 2011, the downtown has lost just four businesses – Maddox Jewelry, Dolce Baby, Sally Street Studios, and Jan Ivancovich Drafting – but has gained around eight businesses such as the Heavenly Bakery, Tres Jolie vintage clothing, the yet-to-open Pendergrass Restaurant and a butcher shop that is set to open soon as well.
The new businesses are creating numerous jobs that weren’t there before.
“We are already seeing an increase in jobs and activity,” Weatherly said.
The Market & The Butcher shop will be a family-run business that will serve lunch and will butcher meat that people bring in, owner Zeph Thorning III said. And the business plan calls for five full-time jobs and additional seasonal workers.
But official job totals are still up in the air, he said.
“It’s something you have to play by ear,” Thorning said.
The business wants to bring greater diversity to the downtown, Weatherly said. Along with a new clothing store, Tres Jolie, and other eateries, the options for downtown shoppers are growing.
“This is what the economy does,” Weatherly said. “It creates a climate of constant change. Right now, I definitely see it recovering.”
That’s a good sign for downtown, which lost 52 jobs last year to businesses closing or moving to a new location outside the area, according to a report for the HDA. New businesses last year brought just 26 jobs to downtown – half of what was lost.
Overall, downtown lost 11 businesses last year and gained 13.
“It was an unusual year, last year,” Weatherly said, pointing to the loss of the YMCA, which moved to a new location, as a major reason for the high job losses.
Weatherly contended that the area didn’t lose that many jobs, but the downtown did because so many businesses moved to new locations in the city.
But the hope is that with new businesses and increased foot traffic, those merchants will stay and others will come, Weatherly said.
With eleven vacancies remain in the downtown area, it is a dramatically less number than previous years, she said.
“I think we already hit the bottom and now we are going in the opposite direction,’ she said.
See the full story in this week’s Free Lance, which also includes ballots for the 2011 Best of San Benito County awards.
