Proposed signage to draw traffic downtown

By Sara Quam
The Luverne Economic Development Authority will work with the Luverne Convention and Visitors Bureau on downtown and Highway 75 improvements in lighting and signage.
Current plans call for large cement and stone signs to greet drivers on the north and south ends of Highway 75 as well as the intersection of Main Street and 75.
The signs will promote businesses and tie in the districts of Highway 75 and downtown with a unified look.
CVB Director Dave Smith said committees are forming separately for Highway 75 and downtown businesses. "We’re looking for ideas right now in the retail committee, and we’ll blend the two together."
Smith said the earliest the signs will be placed is this spring. "We’re playing with sizes, and cost is one of the determining factors," Smith said.
The project will be paid for by the CVB, financed by the local lodging tax.
Bob Latham, LEDA member, brought up an issue that could arise out of drawing business downtown. "Here we’re trying to pull business downtown and we aren’t providing adequate parking."
The LEDA agreed that parking is an issue for downtown patrons. Much of the parking is taken up by downtown employees and business owners who, if they parked off Main Street or further down the side streets, would free up other spaces.
Latham told the board that when he lived in Sioux Falls, he stopped shopping downtown because of the convenience of mall parking.
Diagonal parking could be an option to increase spaces but with Main Street being a state trucking route, the city can’t change the parking to one that would decrease the width and visibility for trucks.
Incubator buildings Next up for the LEDA:Economic Development Pros will have its annual meeting at the Luverne Pizza Ranch at 10 a.m., Friday, Oct. 27. This will include presentations on tourism from state and local sources. Harlan Jacobs will present on "incubator buildings" at 1 p.m. today in the City Council chambers. (Incubator buildings are office spaces that can accommodate numerous businesses that can share resources.)
The LEDA also received an update from Keith Erickson, who attended a Wisconsin Business Incubator Regional Training Conference.
Erickson said, "Wisconsin as a state is very active with the incubator buildings."
An incubator building is typically a large, newly built or remodeled office and storage space for new businesses. The average size of incubator buildings is 38,000 to 50,000 square feet. Businesses lease the office space.
Erickson said he learned at the conference that one building housed 15 businesses. "One advantage is that you have a central office where everyone could share secretarial services, fax machine, computers or phone lines."
A new incubator building is estimated to cost about $1 million, but Erickson said he is in favor of the idea.
"It’s been the big thing in the ‘90s to work at home, and sometimes people can get stir-crazy. Here, they would have a place to meet or spend a part of their day," Erickson said.
Wisconsin representatives said 40 percent of its incubators are in rural areas, and that could translate into a good role model if Luverne wanted to start one.
"They do say it takes about three years to break even," Erickson said. But to him, the cost would be worthwhile as businesses are looking at Luverne to locate and don’t see adequate buildings from which to start their operations.