Small Business Study

GREATER UNIVERSITY CIRCLE SMALL BUSINESS STUDY mass economics INTRODUCTION C leveland’s University Circle is one of the great urban and services offerings as an issue that diminishes quality of success stories of the last decade. Home to Case Western life and economic opportunity in the Greater University Circle Reserve University, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland Museum of neighborhoods. To improve retail and services amenities in Art, and dozens of other educational, medical, and cultural these neighborhoods, the City of Cleveland is offering small institutions, the area had long been one of Cleveland’s businesses storefront renovation grants for interior and major employment centers when public, private, and exterior improvements and for the purchase of equipment, philanthropic entities began to collaborate around much- furniture and fixtures. These funds come from the Community needed neighborhood revitalization efforts in the 2000s. By Development Block Grant (CDBG) program and low-interest all accounts, these efforts have been successful. University loans and grants from the Neighborhood Retail Assistance Circle’s population grew 11% between the 2000 and 2010 Program. In addition, city staff work with local partners to censuses and 5,000 jobs were added between 2005 and educate business owners about available loans, grants, and 2011. Over the last fifteen or so years, the neighborhood has technical assistance resources offered by local public, private, attracted hundreds of millions of dollars in residential, retail, and philanthropic organizations. and commercial investments and currently has multiple large projects, including a 280-unit residential tower that will To supplement these efforts, in 2013 and 2014 the City be largely privately funded, in the pipeline.1 The success of of Cleveland embarked upon an ambitious small business University Circle has not gone unnoticed; the New York Times data collection and analysis effort to better understand the recently declared that University Circle “is experiencing a consumer retail and services sectors in GUC neighborhoods. cultural renaissance,” while national organizations look to Working with local community development corporations identify lessons from the neighborhood’s success that can be (CDCs) and local microlender the Economic Community applied in other U.S. cities.2 Development Institute (ECDI), the Economic Development Department of the City of Cleveland interviewed 100 retail Despite the success of University Circle, the adjacent and services businesses in the GUC neighborhoods in a neighborhoods are among the most economically distressed twelve-month period to understand growth aspirations and in the city and recently have largely stagnated or declined. To opportunities, technology utilization, capital and technical address these challenges, University Circle’s major education, assistance needs, and obstacles to increasing revenue and health, and cultural institutions, the City of Cleveland, the employment at local businesses. The three-member interview regional transit authority, and local foundations, banks, team included a “familiar face” in the form of a local CDC and community groups have come together in the Greater representative, a staff member from the city’s economic University Circle Initiative (GUCI), which aims to improve the development department to offer business assistance, and an quality of life for low- and moderate-income (LMI) residents ECDI representative who could immediately understand and in the neighborhoods around University Circle. Efforts have discuss capital needs. As part of the interview, project staff included providing greater access to job opportunities at the thoroughly assessed the interior and exterior conditions of the major anchor institutions, creating initiatives to increase local businesses. purchasing, and providing health care and education services in the neighborhoods.3 Data gathering for the project proceeded in two phases. In the first phase, site assessments and interviews were performed The City of Cleveland and its GUCI partners have identified the with about 45 mostly retail and services firms; in the second number and quality of local small businesses’ consumer retail phase, the remaining ~55 firms were surveyed, many of which 1 were industrial or business-to-business (B2B) providers, The data and findings from the interviews and assessments were surveyed. Questions about capital use, technology, and will be used to craft programs to assist individual small other factors summarized above were identical across the businesses in the neighborhoods, as well as to begin two sets of firms. However, the site assessment methodology formulating strategies and policy initiatives to create vibrant was improved between the first sample of firms, for which the retail and services districts within the city’s neighborhoods. survey team performed a general evaluation of sites based Because the challenge of creating a vibrant retail and services on observation, and the second sample, for which the survey sector in low-income neighborhoods exists not only in team compiled specific information on an enumerated set of Cleveland but in cities across Ohio and the United States, the site characteristics. The approach for the second sample was hope is that data-driven efforts such as this one can inform based on findings from the first sample regarding factors that local, state, and federal efforts to strengthen low-income defined the look and feel of a site and differentiated sites that urban neighborhoods across the country. “showed well” versus those that didn’t. FIGURE 1: Map of Businesses Surveyed in University Circle N Surveyed Businesses City of Cleveland Surveyed Business Census Tracts MILES Miles Mass Economics, 2015 0 0 0.5 0.5 1 1 2 2 ¯ 2 Miles Mass Economics, 2015 0 0.5 1 2 ¯ FINDINGS This report presents preliminary findings from the site surveyed firms are in tracts with median household incomes assessments and interviews with 100 independent retail of $20,000 or less; 37% are in tracts with median household businesses in the neighborhoods adjacent to University Circle. incomes between $20,000 and $30,000; and 17% are in As was shown in Figure 1, the largest clusters of surveyed tracts with median household incomes of $30,000 or more. businesses are in the Buckeye- Shaker Square neighborhood to the south of University Circle and in Glenville, to the north. Of the 100 businesses surveyed, over 90% can be classified All but one of the businesses are located in census tracts as personal services (40%), retail, including food services with poverty levels of at least 20%, a common definition (30%), business-to-business, i.e., B2B (12%), or industrial of economic distress. Still, there is significant variation in (12%). In terms of individual business types, there are a neighborhood conditions, with poverty rates ranging from significant number of convenience stores (12), barbershops 17% to 71% and median household income from $10,100 (10), beauty/hair salons (8), and manufacturers (8), as well to $46,800 (see Figure 2). Forty-six percent (46%) of the as distributors, daycares, art galleries, and clothing and FIGURE 2: Median Household Income by Census Tract Source: “U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2009-2013” N < $20,000 $20,001 - $30,000 > $30,000 s e l i M ¯ 2 1 5 . 0 0 5 1 0 2 , s c i m o n o c E s s a M MILES 0 0.5 1 2 3 Miles Mass Economics, 2015 0 0.5 1 2 ¯ accessories stores. In short, the sample of firms captures a However, employment counts do not fully capture the broad range of economic activities. Of course, even within investment or aspirations of the retail and services businesses sets of activities, there can be great variation in terms of in the neighborhoods adjacent to University Circle. Almost half product segments, opportunities, and growth trajectories. For (46%) of these businesses own the land and building on which example, one older, traditional dry cleaning establishment is they operate and over 90% of business owners aspire to grow. challenged by declining neighborhood incomes as well as a Several of the businesses have recently invested in large-scale broad national shift away from dry cleaning services, while a internal and external renovations. From the outside, these recently-established green dry cleaner is finding opportunities businesses might look like modest, perhaps even struggling, serving the emerging film industry in Northeast Ohio.4 businesses; however, many represent important sources of income and potential wealth creation for both owners and The challenge of creating a vibrant retail and services sector workers. Among B2B and industrial firms, building ownership in low-income neighborhoods exists not only in Cleveland but is also common; over half of firms indicated that they own the in cities across the United States, the hope is that data-driven land and building (see Table 1). efforts such as this one can inform local, state, and federal efforts to strengthen low-income urban neighborhoods across Among the first sample, only one in six businesses assessed the country. was judged to be in “excellent” condition, with the remainder split between “good,” “fair,” and “poor.” Over 40% of the In general, the surveyed businesses are relatively small. In businesses were deemed to have physical conditions that 13% of the businesses, the owner is the only worker. All but were no better than “fair,” assessments that were made based one of these firms in is personal services

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