Miami Street Commercial Corridor Action Plan 2000

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Introduction South Bend's Miami Street business corridor is an important connector between pleasant residential neighborhoods, many attractions, and downtown South Bend. The corridor is at the heart of many of South Bend's important institutions. St. Matthew's Cathedral and its school are immediately adjacent to the corridor. Riley High School and its associated athletic fields create a western border for the Miami Village neighborhood. The successful farmers' market is just north of the corridor and Scottsdale Mall is directly to the south. Visitors to these attractions add to the market created by nearby residents creating a retail business environment that should offer both convenience shopping and niche businesses that invite visitors to make another stop. Concern that the existing businesses were not realizing their potential to attract this market led local business leaders to request the inclusion of this area in South Bend's corridor development program. This study is a necessary first step to making Miami Street part of that program. This study began in May 2000 and is the fifth in a series of studies looking at important South Bend commercial corridors. Concurrentwith the creation of this report, business leaders created a new organization, the Miami Village Association (MVA), that began participating in the Business District Action Team (BDAT) meetings along with the other corridor representatives. This participation has occurred much more quickly than in the other corridors demonstrating the improvement process and learning that comes with implementation experience in the other corridors. Likewise, this report capitalizes on the experiences gained in other areas, relative health of this area, and the talents of local leaders. Like the other corridor action plans, this, plan has several purposes. It provides a snapshot of the area's business potential and outlines specific revitalization strategies. Although its primary purpose is directing output, this report also focuses on: • weaving the elements of this strategy into a cohesive process, • stimulating thoughts about encouraging better use of resources, • informing new participants in the organization of their role, • assisting City staff in their control and monitoring functions, • providing documents that can be approved rejected or modified. The first section of this report, the Situation Audit, examines important trends in retail development, the markets served by this corridor and the strengths, challenges, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of the existing business environment. The second section provides an Action Plan that builds on the Situation Audit. An Action Plan organizes the effort into goals, objectives and action steps. The goal describes the plan's vision for the area. An objective defines strategies that will be necessary to achieve the goal and action steps outline specific tactics for meeting each objective. Miami Street Commercial Corridor Revitalization Action Plan December 2000 Page 1