TRAVERSE CITY — The Downtown Development Authority is calling for a formal study on the future of small business retail in the city’s commercial core, citing a recent wave of property ownership changes that officials say could reshape the downtown landscape.
DDA Executive Director Harry Burkholder raised the issue during Friday’s board meeting, telling members that buildings held by the same owners for more than 50 years are now going up for sale — and the authority wants to understand what that means for the local retailers and restaurants that occupy them.
“There’s been a lot of change and potential change within downtown in the last month, two months,” Burkholder said. “Given the changing landscape of downtown, it would be good for us to kind of figure out what the future of retail looks like.”
The central concern, according to Burkholder, is what happens to locally owned small businesses when commercial buildings change hands and operating costs increase under new ownership. The DDA is proposing a retail sustainability study that would examine the future market for small businesses downtown and update economic data from its previous market analysis.
A prior market study conducted as part of the DDA’s Moving Downtown Forward plan found that Traverse City’s downtown carries more retail than comparable communities — a distinction the authority says it wants to protect.
“We’re actually punching above our weight compared to other communities,” Burkholder said. “I think that’s something we all want to keep.”
The DDA is exploring a partnership with Traverse Connect to help fund the effort. One board member suggested combining the Traverse Connect contribution with a small business retainer line item in the upcoming budget, calling the potential study a critical investment.
“It’s worth the call,” the board member said. “We make a small contribution, but that could be a huge contribution to the survival and resilience of downtown.”
The proposal comes as the DDA navigates a broader budget discussion heading into the next fiscal year, with multiple major capital projects competing for limited funding before the expiration of the authority’s TIF 97 district. Those projects include the Farmers Market Pavilion, Rotary Square, and the Boardman River Walk — collectively referred to internally as the “big three.”
During the same meeting, a board member expressed concern about the DDA’s broader direction, cautioning that the authority could become too focused on infrastructure.
“I am a little nervous going forward that the DDA is looked at as a utility district instead of placemaking, which is to build Traverse City downtown into a destination that is sticky and people want to stay, and spend money, and socialize,” the member said.
No timeline has been set for the retail study. The DDA is expected to revisit the proposal as part of its upcoming budget discussions, with a finance committee meeting and subsequent board action anticipated in the coming weeks.
The DDA’s next subcommittee meeting is scheduled for the first week of March.
