Economic Restructuring Committee Goals

The job of the Economic Restructuring Committee is to identify new market opportunities for the traditional commercial district, find new uses for historic commercial buildings, and stimulate investment in property.

The main tasks of the Economic Restructuring Committee include:
* Learning about the district's current economic condition and identifying opportunities for market growth;
* Strengthening existing businesses and recruiting new ones;
* Finding new economic uses for traditional Main Street businesses;
* Developing financial incentives and capital for building rehabilitations and business development; and
* Monitoring the economic performance of the district.

Several current Economic Restructuring Committee projects are described below. For more information on future goals, view the 2007-08 Economic Restructuring Committee Work Plan (PDF, 63KB).

What's New?

Business Recruitment
The Economic Restructuring Committee is focusing its efforts on recruiting new businesses that we have identified as appropriate for our downtown business mix. We are specifically targeting the following: grocery store, clothing stores (men's and women's), bakery/deli, book store, and kitchen/cookware store.

Locating a Business in Downtown Waterville
Are you interested in locating your business in Downtown Waterville? Contact WMSt at 207-680-2055 for market survey data, information about available space, and other helpful info. You can also download a detailed fact sheet.

Fish! Customer Service Training for Downtown Employees

The Economic Restructuring Committee of Waterville Main Street invite all Downtown businesses and their employees to help us make Downtown Waterville the #1 location in the WORLD for customer service. Thanks to funding from the Maine Department of Economic and Community Development's Maine MicroEnterprise grant program, WMSt has put together an ongoing, affordable customer service program to benefit EVERY downtown business. FISH! is a training program that provides the process, tools and language to generate the skills necessary to design a workplace full of inspiration, creativity and innovation.

• Upcoming Workshop Dates:
  Wednesday, March 5, 1-5pm
  Tuesday, April 8, 8am-12pm 
• Location: The Forum, 93 Main Street, 1 st Floor
• Cost: $25 for the first employee, and $20 for each additional employee; Includes workshop materials & light refreshments

For more information, download the PDF brochure and registration form.

Past Accomplishments

Building Business All Around Downtown
Thanks to a grant from the Maine MicroEnterprise Initiative of DECD, Waterville Main Street and Maine Small Business Development Centers presented an outstanding winter workshop series designed for businesses in the greater Waterville Main Street area. The workshops were held on January 29, February 26, and March 19, and speakers included national retail and marketing experts, Jon Schallert and Rick Segel, and six other experts on customer service, increasing profitability, cash flow, and more. Download a PDF version of the workshop series brochure.

Business Retention Team
The ER Committee offers a Business Retention Team to meet with downtown business owners upon request to provide assistance and/or advice in the following areas:
* FINANCIAL (Including business planning, pricing structure, inventory management/control, “in house” control of money, and other financial matters);
* MARKETING (Including developing a plan and evaluating and improving customer service);
* MENTORING (Including advice on developing “good business sense”, training and standardizing procedures);
* REFERRALS (Including to KVCOG for business plan development and cash flow analysis and SCORE for counseling on financial options, business planning, marketing strategies, product development and more);
* and DECIDING WHETHER OR NOT TO KEEP GOING (Exit strategy). 
A business person requesting assistance may choose to meet with the whole team, or any individual member. Please contact WMSt at 207-680-2055 for more information. All requests for assistance will be treated as confidential.

“Star” Parking
Bright white stars have been painted in 209 Concourse parking spaces, about one-third of the total available. A product of the WMSt Parking Subcommittee, these stars are designed to encourage downtown employees to use these spaces for all day parking. The goal of this project is to ensure plenty of customer parking in the Concourse nearer the businesses and also to free up the two-hour parking along Main St. for people doing business downtown.

NEWS & UPDATES

Download the 2006 Guide to Doing Business in Waterville (PDF, 602KB)

ECONOMIC RESTRUCTURING COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
John Butera, Co-Chair
Bob Stevenson, Co-Chair
Bruce Harrington
Jeanne Joseph
Pat Karush
Kim Lindlof
Pat Michaud
Bill Mitchell
Tracy O'Clair
Deborah Schmid
Tanya Verzoni
Shannon Haines, Staff