A quick thing you can do to make downtown Saint Paul even better

Letter I sent today to downtown Saint Paul-ites. If you live in downtown Saint Paul or know someone who does, pass on this information and try your hand at encouraging a business or two to set up shop here. I'll post the results of the experiment in a couple weeks.
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You've probably heard recently that the Saint Paul Chamber of Commerce and partnering downtown organizations are working to temporarily fill downtown retail spaces during the RNC with merchants from other parts of the Twin Cities (MPR article). In a meeting last week, one fellow CapitolRiver Council board member mentioned that several of her favorite shops were seriously considering moving downtown temporarily after she contacted them to suggest it. Other board members shared this experience. Another board member and representative from the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) brought up the fact that several temporary lessees have now signed on to have a permanent presence in downtown Saint Paul.

As downtown residents and home owners, this temporary-to-permanent retail trend is great for us. If small retail considers temporarily setting up in downtown for the RNC, and if even a fraction sign on to establish a permanent presence in downtown, then we residents have a more livable community and possibly higher property values. Even better, this process seems to be shaped by a grassroots/word of mouth approach and shored up by a safe trial of market demand.

Here is what I'm going to do, and I hope you'll consider doing something similar.

1. I'm thinking of three retail places I visit fairly frequently that I think might do well in downtown.

The stores I’ll contact this week are United Noodle, Surdyk's, and Bibelot.

2. I'm contacting each of them by the end of next week to say something like the following (feel free to use some of my wording - I know you're busy):

Hi,

I enjoy shopping at your store and would love to see you open up a shop in downtown Saint Paul. You've probably heard that short-term leases for retail space are available in the downtown area, and this might be a great way for your shop to get a feel for the market for groceries/fancy wine and cheese/gifts in downtown. I'm sure RNC-goers would flock to your temporary shop during the convention, so a short-term opportunity like this may make sense for you. I'm sure I speak for my neighbors when I say that we'd love to have your business as a permanent fixture in downtown Saint Paul. Here is a link to the Saint Paul Chamber of Commerce's 'Red Carpet Initiative' promote new business in downtown Saint Paul during the RNC: http://www.saintpaulchamber.com/Retail%20Initiative.pdf.

Thanks for considering.

Sincerely…

3. I'll follow up with the three shops I contact in a week or two, either by phone or by stopping by.

4. I'll tell my neighbors what I'm up to.

Feel free to forward this letter to your neighbors and people you know who work downtown. After you get a response from shop owners, neighbors and friends, please let me know how it went and what feedback you received!

Thanks!