Downtown Battle Creek might be doing better than you think

Some of the buildings in downtown Battle Creek look like they are falling apart.

Visitors can see a handful of "for rent" signs while walking down Michigan Avenue.

And downtown businesses seem to be dropping like flies.

Brownstone Coffee House closed in 2016. Arcadia Brewing Co. closed in September.

Battle Creek Books and Hall of Toys have announced plans to move out of downtown in the next few months.

Even the Church of Scientology of Battle Creek left its downtown location in September for a place on North Avenue.

“The downtown gets neglected,” said Jim Donahue, owner of Battle Creek Books. “Our vision plan of four years ago, as far as downtown, basically fizzled out. Arcadia left, the coffee shops left, and 180Urban didn’t pan out. For traffic downtown, it’s declined.”

Battle Creek Books is moving to Marshall and becoming The Mitten Word. It will join a few other new additions to Marshall’s downtown, including Grand River Brewery, which is opening in the J.H. Cronin Building.

“I think it’s something that nurtures along the way,” said Scott Fleming, CEO of the Marshall Area Economic Development Alliance. “It’s a matter of leadership that encourages. It’s a matter of businesses that encourage this type of fostering liking your downtown and wanting more. That’s what it’s all about.”

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But in Battle Creek’s downtown, it isn’t all gloom and empty buildings. There are longtime businesses that have managed to stick around and survive the changes and transitions of downtown popularity, Jack Pearl’s Sports Center and Rice’s Shoe Store to name two.

“No one seems to understand how I survived downtown, but all I can say is it's because of loyal customers,” said Mildred Mallard, owner of Mildred's Boutique, which has been downtown on Michigan Avenue since 1999. “I believe in good customer service, and people continue to come.”

Mallard was the caretaker for her husband for three years before he died in June. She stopped coming regularly to the store in October of 2016, yet customers continued to call to set up appointments.

The reason the boutique has made it this long downtown is her extended customer base, Mallard said. She has customers that come to her from Kalamazoo, Coldwater, Sturgis and even Detroit.

“In bridal, I could not have made it if it were only Battle Creek,” Mallard said.

My Style … Your Style owner Alicia VanNocker also believes a loyal customer base is the key to succeeding downtown.

“It takes making a choice, changing a habit,” VanNocker said “I want my community to have value. I want it to have restaurants, retail shops, and service providers. So, I make the choice every day to support local. If I want new restaurants and retail shops to invest in my community, then I have to be willing to invest in it too, and I do it with pride. The reason a business survives is because customers support it, they value it and they make a choice with the almighty dollar to say ‘I want you here.’”

My Style… Your Style has been open for nearly 10 years, but it moved downtown at the end of 2016. VanNocker listed several reasons for the downtown move, including a central location, more visibility and the downtown community.

“I think being downtown right now is exciting,” VanNocker said. “Many projects are underway and knowing all the effort that is going into its redevelopment makes one feel apart of something bigger.”

In a sense, downtown Battle Creek is in a waiting period. McCamly Plaza, Heritage Tower, Restore (269) and Battle Rock have the potential to significantly impact the district, but they are all projects that will only bear fruit in a few months at the earliest and possibly later.

“Battle Creek’s downtown is in a period of transition,” said John Hart, Battle Creek's downtown development director.

For locals and outsiders looking at the downtown right now, what they see is a few stores, a lot of empty storefronts and a handful of construction projects.

“Even with the number of businesses we touch, there’s no one solution for all businesses,” Hart said. “They assume a risk when they open a business. That risk is theirs and theirs alone, but what we can do is try to help figure what the obstacles are, how we can best prepare them for success.”

As downtown development director, Hart runs the Economic Development Fund team, which was formed by the city in June to facilitate small business growth and development.

For VanNocker, the Economic Development Fund has helped her with storefront signage and creating a commercial to air on social media.

The Economic Development Fund also worked with Debbie White to make the Battle Creek Pickers Flea Market a regular event. The next one will happen on Sunday.

As winter leaves, the downtown also will begin to pick back up with seasonal events, such as the Battle Creek Farmers Market and summer kayaking along the Battle Creek River.

One riverside business making good use of downtown Battle Creek’s outdoor resources to draw in customers is RiversEdge, which mainly sells ice cream and popcorn.

Hart helped owner Marcia Magiera obtain a liquor license, expanding RiversEdge’s menu, but a lot of its success was Magiera’s own work.

She is a commercial real estate broker and has owned the building for 19 years, but only opened RiversEdge in 2015.

In 2016, she took advantage of the popularity of Pokémon Go, an augmented reality mobile game that got people all over the world going outside and walking around.

Magiera is hoping to create similar excitement by partnering with the North County Trail Association’s Hike 50 and Hike 100 challenges.

“I’ve owned this building 19 years, and 19 years is certainly a long time to see the direction downtown is going,” Magiera said. “We’re going in the right direction, and sometimes it takes a while to make that shift from a bad economy.”

Contact reporter Natasha Blakely at (269) 223-0114 or nblakely@battlecreekenquirer.com. Follow her on Twitter at @blakelynat.