Mary Dowdy, a longtime officer with the Historic Norcross Business Association, spoke about some of the challenges facing local entrepreneurs at the July 22 Norcross Progressive Development Committee meeting in the heart of downtown.
More than 50 people, including residents, business owners, and city staff, attended the community meet-up. Attendees shared reasons why the community feels its historic downtown has lost some of its vitality and regional competitiveness over the last decade.
“We’re not making tons of money; it seems like we’re making less and less every year,” Dowdy said. “In 2008, we had more people trying to sell us stuff than buy stuff. And this past weekend, I had three people in line all trying to sell me things and somebody on the phone.”
Community wants more
Dowdy said foot traffic is sparse on weekdays and customers are less willing to spend cash at several downtown shops. Her business is inside Hazel and Lorraine White’s shop, Antique Traditions, along South Peachtree Street.
“We [the Historic Norcross Business Association] established ourselves in 2018 when the Holcomb Bridge Road intersection was going to be shut down for several months to make road improvements,” Dowdy said. “We were concerned about getting people in and out of town.”
Dowdy attends most city council and downtown development authority meetings. While she said the city’s business occupational taxes are increasing an average of 150% based on employee totals, Dowdy said it’s a small, calculable cost.
The nonprofit’s mission is to work with the city to promote members’ businesses, whether it be through community and city-sponsored events or increased public parking.
“The city is moving fast and furious and trying to improve downtown, improve parking conditions, and promote the merchants,” Dowdy said.
Staying open downtown
While downtown business owners appear optimistic about next year’s occupational tax increase, there is concern that shops will close if the city leans too much on its commercial tax base.
Dowdy said a lot of Heart of Norcross businesses won’t move to another nearby town; they’ll just shut down.
“The city is moving toward assessing us based on gross revenues,” she said. “This is where it gets kinda difficult. Most of us don’t understand why it’s gross revenues and not net. At the same time, there has also been discussion about having us pay into a parking fund. This is not a novel method; all the surrounding towns use this.”
City officials have discussed the need to increase revenues after the passage of last year’s city-specific homestead exemptions throughout this year. With less residential property tax revenue and plenty of city projects and initiatives to fund, Norcross’ annual budget has unanswered questions.
The Instagram page for the “Heart of Norcross” is active. The business association’s annual events include the popular “Witches Night Out” and Christmas Village.
Backing local business
Crowd members expressed frustration at city officials, including elected council members and staff, for “allowing Norcross to fall way behind its peers in Gwinnett County,” as one person put it.
Some attendees said they think the city is wasting taxpayer dollars and needs to focus on giving local businesses a break. Others wanted to see city staff do more to attract companies and local entrepreneurs.
David Versel, the city’s economic development director and interim community development head, said despite a couple of empty storefronts downtown, the city doesn’t have much retail space available.
“You look up and down Buford Highway and Jimmy Carter … we only have one retail space in the city of more than 2,000 square feet,” Versel said. “We have to bring in new commercial development with modern spaces to bring those businesses into, which is a much harder process.”
Anna Balkan, jewelry designer and downtown entrepreneur, said she thinks Historic Downtown Business Association members do more to promote the city and its downtown than the local government.
“The cost to run a brick-and-mortar retail location is not just people coming through the door and employees,” Balkan said. “Our costs … quadrupled. Now we have to have social media managers. Anybody who has a small business knows.”
