By Dave Yochum

Radio Shack, Wolf Camera, Scardaci Construction Design Center, Crave, Norman's Grill. Those are a few of the businesses that have closed in Cornelius in the past few months.

On the other hand, a new fresh ingredients restaurant called Alton's has opened in the old Mia Famiglia space in Jetton Village. And Jennifer Cox and Melissa Prevost have opened the Brow Lounge and Hip Chixx Closet in Jetton Village. A combination full-service waxing studio and upscale ladies boutique, the 1,400 square foot shop caters to an upscale demographic.

They’re excited about business prospects in spite of the economy and difficulties other retail operations have had. “It made our decision easier. It was easier to negotiate the lease,” Prevost said. Retailing is all about appealing to the public and managing overhead — rent being a huge factor for most shopkeepers.

Cornelius seems to have more than its share of empty storefronts. A recent survey by Joe Vagnone, owner of the Murphy Business, indicates some four dozen retail spaces are vacant or closed in town. More have closed since the survey in December.

“There were over 47 vacant retail store fronts and, more obvious, West Catawba Avenue alone has over 150,000 square feet of vacant space,” Vagnone said.

The controversy over signs and banners late last year was emblematic of deeper problems, observers say. There are a lot of reasons why businesses are failing, not all of them having to do with the economy.

• The recession is historically significant, the worst downturn since the Great Depression over 75 years ago. It is affecting businesses of all kinds, new and old.

• Some businesses started during the go-go years between 2002 and 2008 were started without adequate capital, meaning some young businesses around Cornelius were vulnerable to economic downturns.
• The two-year widening and disruption of West Catawba may have been the knock-out punch for weaker businesses that closed between 2006 and mid-2009.

• Cornelius' aging strip shopping centers are just that — aging. It's hard for stores in Magnolia Plaza or Torrence Commons to compete against those in Birkdale Village, although rents are cheaper.

• Most shopping areas have 360 degrees of geography and residents around them. With more than 70 miles of shoreline on Lake Norman, Cornelius doesn't.

• An apparently misguided attempt to reconfigure Cornelius retail more than a decade ago resulted in a variety of new buildings that have the backsides of stores facing traffic on West Catawba Avenue.

• Although Stein Mart comes close, there isn't single retailer — or a multi-plex cinema — to draw large numbers of shoppers to smaller, adjacent shops.

• An abundance of small spaces of 1,000 square feet or less means an abundance of tiny shops, few of them significant enough to generate much traffic.

“How many candle shops do you need,” one member of the Cornelius Town Commission said with a note of sarcasm.

The town is somewhat reluctantly starting to get involved as the number of stores closing seems to exceed the number of stores opening. “On the one hand you like to believe that businesses that are run well will survive regardless of the economy. But there are a lot of for rent signs on West Catawba, a lot of retail has gone out. The bigger question is what if anything can be done about it that is not related to what the individual owners are doing as far as managing their own businesses,” said Jim Bensman, the town's liaison to the Lake Norman Chamber and the business community.

Fixing the problem

As the town's representative on the chamber's board, Bensman says he has “repeatedly asked over the past months and years what can the town do to help” businesses succeed.

Relaxing rules around curbing and gutters, sidewalks, trees and setbacks has made it easier and cheaper for existing, stand-alone businesses to expand. In a highly competitive environment or in an economic downturn, controlling costs are paramount. But without sales, no amount of cost-cutting can save a business. Then, too, shops that have leased space in a 1990s-era project that faces a parking lot can't benefit from more lenient expansion rules and regulations.

“What's been frustrating me for a long time is getting someone to come to the town and say this is what would make it much easier to do business here,” Bensman said. “And I have offered to hold a town hall meeting with businesses to do that. It has not happened, so you get tied up in the role of government and what should government be doing as related to helping small business. Unless we hear from the business owners what would help, it's not easy for the town to just do something.”

Missed opportunities

Unlike downtown Cornelius, the west side of town was never laid out for walking, with individual shopping centers set far back from West Catawba. The centers are considered static in the world of contemporary retail, without proper destinations, few entertainment components, no apartments or condos. Birkdale Village is entirely different with a significant residential component built into the design, a multi-plex and anchor stores like Williams - Sonoma and Barnes & Noble. Kenton Place was dealt a serious blow when Regal Cinemas bought the Palace Theater (and the old Movies at the Lake), stipulating in the deed that they could not open again as multi-screen theaters.

Many land planning and use decisions were made in the 1980s when few people understood that a town of roughly 2,500 people would be pushing 25,000 now. The decisions resulted in piecemeal development, Bensman said, with “sort of a mixture of old and new that does not hang together cohesively.”

Town Commissioners have high hopes for an update later this year of the Cornelius Comprehensive Plan, a framework for the town's declared intentions for various stretches of property. Like a vision statement, a new Comprehensive Plan would provide guidance for private property owners, developers and speculators who might contemplate a lakefront hotel and resort complex somewhere between Wherena and Admiral's Quarters.

Something like that is a possibility, but probably not in our lifetimes, according to members of the Town Commission. Regardless, if the town signals it will look kindly on redevelopment efforts in certain areas, it will likely encourage developers to cobble together the appropriate land.

If opportunities for forward-thinking land use were missed in the 1980s and 1990s, they were squandered back in the 1960s when virtually no land was set aside for public use of the lakefront.  Tourists heading south who stop at the first exit after seeing Lake Norman find a town where there is neither public swimming nor lakefront amenities like a boardwalk or an aquarium.

Growth has seemingly been managed one project at a time.

Said Bensman: “We need to re-look at land use, see if there are things we should do to encourage economic growth and manage residential growth. Some want as many rooftops as possible, for shopping, to frequent local businesses. A lot of people say there is too much growth already, don't build any more houses. We will proactively look at what to do about that.”

Economic development efforts

There are reasons to be concerned about business in Cornelius, Bensman said, but “if there is anything the town can do about it, I don't know.”

BENSMAN

Bensman, a couple of town commissioners and Mayor Jeff Tarte have laid some of the blame at the door of the Lake Norman Economic Development Corp., a cooperative non-profit business recruitment effort funded by the three towns of North Mecklenburg. All the benefits from the EDC have appeared to flow to Huntersville where the EDC is based and where the North Mecklenburg Industrial Park is located. Up until recently, EDC officials have said there was no appropriate industrial property in Cornelius, but, in the wake of relentless criticism from town officials, the EDC has started to focus its attentions on Davidson and Cornelius.

EDC's are traditionally all about big business, manufacturing and high-dollar ratables and jobs, not stores. But the nature of economic development has changed with the recession. More attention is being paid to business retention rather than recruiting manufacturers. What the EDC can do about the state of retail in Cornelius is problematic. The EDC was criticized for not getting involved in Augustalee, nee The Village at Lake Norman, despite the gigantic economic impact the failed mixed-use project would have had.

“There are groups out there that can do something about it, that aren't, like the EDC,” Bensman said. “The EDC has not fulfilled their promise at all; we get nothing out of the EDC in Cornelius. I would hope that the Chamber, in my role on the chamber board, will be more proactive,” Bensman said.

Meanwhile, commercial real estate brokers say at least one Cornelius shop will be closing in a few weeks, this one in a shopping center that faces backwards.

THAXTON

“I don't think Cornelius is alone in its retail vacancy jump. I think it is nationwide. Everyone is cutting back on things they don't need. Unfortunately that means retail goods and dinners out,” said commercial real estate broker Kimberly Thaxton.

Things may be looking up in Cornelius though.  She has recently sold property on Highway 21 next to Modern Nissan for a “mini-golf” developer. She also just signed a restaurant operator for the old Charleston Chops/Mia Famiglia space in Jetton Village.

“I'm hearing good things; there is activity,” she said.

Whether enough new businesses succeed in Cornelius is another question.