Continuing Mojo for Montezuma’s Downtown

The Iowa Economic Development Authority visited Montezuma on October 17^th & 18^th, meeting with local leaders and residents to begin a vision for the future of Montezuma’s historic downtown district.  The community engagement was funded by a contribution from the City of Montezuma. 

 

Thom Guzman, Director of the Iowa Downtown Resource Center, and Tim Reinders, a design specialist with Iowa Main Street, met with nearly 100 people in a group interview setting over the course of the two-day visit.  The 30-minute interviews were held at the Montezuma Public Library and coordinated by Montezuma Community Development.

 

During a public forum at the end of the second day, the pair presented their recommendations based on community input and their combined 50 years of experience in working with Iowa’s downtowns.  The forum, held at the Montezuma Memorial Hall, was attended by business and building owners, local residents, and city officials. The Montezuma Community Boosters provided refreshments for the crowd.  
 

 

The healthy and vitality of a community’s downtown reflects the positive or negative impression given to visitors and those who may be considering Montezuma as a place to do business or to relocate.  Guzman described downtown as a community’s living room, and both representatives from the IEDA praised Montezuma for an impressive list of community assets, including downtown’s unique architecture, interest in monuments, history, and availability of nearby outdoor recreation opportunities. 

Like many small communities, Montezuma’s downtown has suffered due to a variety of factors:   

·        External forces include competition (big box, internet sales, catalog sales, transportation and commuter trends.  More women have entered the workforce, making purchases after work and on the weekends. Spending habits and expectations are different for consumers groups.  Finding a unique niche for the future of downtown and marketing to the needs of today’s consumer are top priorities for Montezuma to have a thriving downtown district.  Much of a new identity will require a change in thinking and the way we currently do business.

 

·        Lack of reinvestment, deferred maintenance, gradual alterations and under-utilization of entire buildings has a dramatic effect upon the character of the downtown and its viability.  Many of our downtown buildings are in poor condition, and there are at least 11 retail spaces and 12 upper story living spaces that are not currently being utilized.  According to statistics, every 25 feet of under-utilized storefront space is equivalent to $250,000 in annual revenue.  In addition, buildings were built 100 or more years ago with the expectation that they would be financially solvent based on full first floor commercial and second floor residential uses. 

 

·        Boarded up, eliminated and scaled down windows create barriers--reducing the visible opportunity to advertise products and entice the customer into the store.  Inappropriate techniques and materials have been applied to several buildings in Montezuma’s downtown, including covering or installing smaller windows and slipcovering historic facades with metal.

·        Inappropriate, obsolete, unattractive and/or lack of signage affect customer traffic.  Guzman and Reinders said that Montezuma was one of the worse examples they had seen of poor and missing signage.  No businesses downtown had store hours posted and it was difficult to drive the square and know what businesses existed. 

 

 

Input shared by the community cited Montezuma’s downtown challenges as:

 

Empty storefronts, old and blighted buildings, the need for a destination restaurant, lack of retail shopping options, attracting people to spend time downtown, economics of rehab and operation, and absentee ownership. 

 

The community’s hopes for the future of Montezuma’s downtown include: 

 

More businesses, more restaurants, repaired/renovated buildings, better partnership with lake residents, an exciting, thriving, vibrant, quaint downtown that’s a destination/attraction, fully occupied downtown filled with unique niche businesses with evening and weekend store hours. 

A set of immediate recommendations were suggested by Guzman and Reinders, which includes a downtown clean-up, participation in downtown revitalization grant opportunities through the state, planning a downtown Christmas event, a unified store hours signage project, and continuing to spread the message about downtown revitalization.  A small group of community leaders met on Sunday evening to talk about a strategy for these recommendations.  

 

 

If downtown revitalization is what the community desires, the process will require a long-term commitment.  A project of this magnitude will need community wide support and involvement, creation of partnerships, public-private investment and an active local organizing effort. 

A final written report will be presented by the IEDA in the next 4-6 weeks and will be used as a tool for planning a future course of action.  For more details on the IEDA visit, or to request a copy of the written report, please contact Montezuma Community Development.