The Town of Culver may soon be considering ways to attract businesses to their downtown area.
During Tuesday night’s Culver Town Council meeting, Town Manager Jonathan Leist made mention of the fact that some businesses operating out of the downtown approached the town about possible methods to provide incentives for attracting businesses.
Leist says officials with Culver may take a road trip to compare notes.
“I think we’re kicking around New Buffalo or maybe another small lake community to see what has worked there and we’re trying to come up with two or three policies that may give us the most bang for our buck,” says Leist. “Find a little bit of a budget to put towards that.”
The request comes following the closing of the Corndance Café. That business closed following the relative success of a satellite location in the South Bend metro.
A starting place was cited during Tuesday night’s meeting, which involved hiring a consultant to help determine locations, budgets, prices, and incentives.
The Culver Redevelopment Commission was part of the discussions. Town Council President Ginny Bess Munroe says the goal is to keep the conversation going.
“We’re going to keep CRC in the loop, keep working with the merchant group to try and brainstorm some new ideas,” says Munroe. “Probably pull on the Visitor’s Center at some point too. But some very productive, high energy meetings, I thought.”
No formal action was taken by the Culver Town Council regarding the issue, Tuesday night.
Program proposals are anticipated at some point in the future.
