>La Grande Observer | Union and Wallowa Counties' News Leader

Bill Rautenstrauch

The Observer

People concerned about the future of La Grande's downtown business district are busy these days.

To find out what kind of businesses people want to see in the city center, they've done a survey.

Now, with some help from the Rural Oregon Institute, they're looking to bring in some new attractions.

"We're already looking. We're searching the region," said Union County Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Judy Loudermilk.

The survey, sponsored jointly by the Chamber and the La Grande Downtown Development Association, is complete at a time when Wal-Mart is expanding its Island City store and rumors are running wild about other commercial development around the big box.

It's the right time for local merchants to take action, Loudermilk said.

"We need to move in some direction, and this (the survey) gives us some focus," she said.

The survey was fashioned by a retail committee consisting of both Chamber and Downtown Development Association members. It drew 355 responses, a surprisingly robust number.

"We were very pleased with how many people took part," Loudermilk said.

The survey listed 14 types of businesses, including clothing and shoe stores, restaurants, arts and crafts shops, gift shops, groceries, bakeries, sporting goods stores, kitchen specialty stores and more.

Hands-down winners were clothing stores, restaurants and shoe stores. A whopping 290 residents voted for clothing; 279 for restaurants, and 252 for shoes.

Now, with the results firmly in hand, the next step is search and recruitment.

In this phase, the local merchants are getting a hand from the Rural Oregon Institute, through Eastern Oregon University.

"We're helping them do the hunting," said Shirley Roberts, interim director at Eastern's Pierce Library.

Roberts said the Rural Oregon Institute's mission is to provide communities assistance with economic growth.

Working from a philosophy called "Economic Gardening," the institute helps with infrastructure, networking opportunities and information.

It has access to a national database of businesses, and can provide economic development entities information on businesses in towns similar to La Grande that might be looking to expand or relocate.

"If someone is interested in bringing a certain kind of business to a community, I can provide them with contact information," said Roberts.

At present, research being done for the La Grande organizations is focused on restaurants, Roberts said.

"We've excluded fast food and pizzerias from the search," she said. "It seems there are enough of those now."

The local survey included a "Comments" section where people could get more specific about their preferences.

Judging from that, shoppers seem to want more of the corporate giants to locate here, especially in the restaurant category.

Applebee's, Olive Garden, Outback, Arby's, Red Lobster and Shari's, among others, earned frequent mention.

Whether any of those will ever establish outlets in downtown La Grande is a matter of strong conjecture. But good, family-style restaurants are always a possibility, Loudermilk noted.

"I think what people are looking for is a nice, mid-priced family restaurant. A good Italian restaurant wouldn't have to be Olive Garden," she said.

Also judging by the "Comments" section, the local desire for chain stores seems to go beyond the ones that already do business here.

Many respondents named Costco, Fred Meyer, Target and Home Depot as businesses they'd like to see locate in La Grande — even though it might not be practical to locate them in the central business district.

While stressing that the effort to revitalize downtown is focused on independent, locally-owned small businesses, Loudermilk said the presence of bigger stores in the area can sometimes be counted as a plus.

"They have corporate offices elsewhere, yet they employ local workers and they bring shoppers to town," she said.

"I'd emphasize our locally-owned retail businesses are the main assets, the essentials. Without them, we wouldn't have a downtown," she said.

Another issue brought up frequently in the survey's "Comments'' section was downtown parking. People consistently said they wanted more of it.

"More parking, or we go to Wal-Mart," one respondent commented.

Loudermilk said she thinks the downtown parking situation will always be a work in progress.

"Will it ever be perfect? Probably not. It's something we'll continue to work on with the city," she said.