I spent yesterday afternoon downtown shopping with the kids and I was also scouting out office/retail space for my business.  Working out the house, with two kids, dogs, a husband and other distractions, isn’t really working out so well.  Some  people have the discipline to work out of their house.  I guess I don’t.  I need to get more done.  Plus I have ideas for a retail shop.  It’s all a couple years down the road but there’s nothing wrong with getting a feel for the area and seeing what’s what.

What struck me the most about our downtown yesterday is the lack of available ground floor retail space.  When you think about it, there’s not many buildings left, in a desirable location to place a store.  It would be great if one or more of the larger vacant buildings cater to small to medium-size shops.  It’s unlikely any retailer moving downtown is going to need 60,000 square feet of space – very unlikely.  A start-up business isn’t going to have the funds to extensively remodel an existing building either, so many larger spaces remain largely vacant.  Downtown would be a great place for a small business incubator, of sorts.  Have an area with affordable rent and incentives for entrepreneurs to move in and give it a try.  That can’t be done if the space isn’t available.

The Business Center located on S. Imboden helps new businesses get off the ground with affordable rent, however it’s not an ideal location for retail.  It would be great if the same concept could be done downtown.