TRAVERSE CITY -- When the summer spending season comes to an end in Traverse City, many business struggle as tourist dollars pack up and leave town.
“We’ve had a few shut down, and actually that's something unfortunately typical of September. There are two months where that happens the most…September, after summer season, and then January, which follows the holiday season,” Downtown Development Authority Deputy Director Rob Bacigalupi said.
The question now becomes what will fill the vacant locations.
It was recently announced that ‘The Catch Island Grill’ is going out of business.
Bacigalupi said it will likely become another locally owned restaurant.
As for the other vacant stores, they may bring in national chain businesses; something city officials said could be beneficial to the area.
“It’s always about protecting the right mix...keeping it mostly local and a few other things…one thing that may help…a slightly larger presence of larger chain type operations,” Traverse City Mayor Chris Bzdok said.
Referring to a study completed back in 2007, city leads said that Traverse City has the right business mix. It has a focus on local, but room to grow by bringing in just a couple more national chains.
“One or two would be great, but we are not falling all over ourselves to get a whole lot more national chains because, really, it’s the local independents that we have had the most success with,” Bacigalupi said.
