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HomeMy WebLinkAbout020626 ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT WEEKDAY OPPORTUNITIES SUMMARY This paper presents an economic development strategy to intentionally position Danville’s downtown civic facilities as coordinated venues for small to mid-sized weekday professional gatherings, such as trainings, leadership retreats, and association meetings. While different in form than traditional community events, these gatherings function as a lower-impact way to bring visitors into Town facilities and downtown businesses during regular business hours, increasing weekday patronage and facility utilization without adding strain to weekend public safety and maintenance staffing, when visitation is already strongest. BACKGROUND Danville’s economic development strategy is guided by a four-legged approach that recognizes shared responsibility among: 1. The Town, which provides a safe, attractive, and functional environment through infrastructure investment, public safety, marketing, and public space activation; 2. The Community, whose patronage supports local businesses; 3. Property Owners, whose leasing practices as well as investment in their properties influence business viability; and 4. Business Owners, who convert visitation into sales through their offerings, service, and understanding of the marketplace. This framework is expressed through the Town’s Comprehensive Economic Development Plan (CEDP), which established a values-based approach to strengthening Danville’s local economy while preserving its small-town character. DISCUSSION Promoting economic development in Danville has long been a collaborative effort with the business community. As local businesses continue to face competitive pressures, increasing the number of downtown-focused community events is frequently raised as a way to attract additional customers. While community events remain an important economic development tool, they have historically been concentrated on weekends, when downtown activity is already strongest. In contrast, downtown visitation is lighter during weekday daytime hours. 2 Reliance on weekend events as the primary driver of additional consumer activity presents inherent limitations. Weekend events require significant staffing support for public safety, traffic control, maintenance, and coordination. Staffing capacity is finite, weekend overtime is costly, and public safety resources may not be available to support meaningful expansion, even if funding were provided. In addition, community events do not benefit all businesses equally. Some business owners have expressed concern that large weekend events, particularly those involving street closures, can disrupt typical shopping patterns or deter regular customers. Expanding weekend events would increase overtime costs, risk staff burnout, or require reductions in service levels elsewhere, making this approach fiscally and operationally unsustainable over time. At the same time, staff has observed that downtown visitation is lighter during weekday daytime hours, even though many retailers and dining establishments are open. Together, these conditions suggest that complementary strategies focused on weekday, daytime visitation may be a more effective way to support downtown businesses without increasing pressure on weekend staffing resources. Downtown Conference Venues Concept This concept proposes to position Danville’s existing downtown civic facilities to function collectively as venues for small to mid-sized weekday professional gatherings. Rather than treating each facility as a stand-alone rental opportunity, the downtown is viewed as a coordinated, walkable setting capable of hosting professional gatherings during weekday, daytime hours. This represents a shift from the Town’s current role as a passive receiver of facility rental requests to a more intentional, place-based strategy. The concept does not involve constructing new facilities or expanding tourism programming. Instead, it focuses on selectively using existing civic assets to increase weekday visitation and improve facility utilization, while remaining consistent with Danville’s scale and character. While Danville does not currently have a hotel in or immediately adjacent to the downtown area, the near-term opportunity is well suited to one-day professional gatherings that do not require overnight accommodations or where lodging can be located elsewhere in the region. Although this narrows the potential market, it remains aligned with the objective of increasing weekday, daytime visitation and reflects the operational capacity of existing facilities. Should a hotel be developed in or near downtown in the future, this concept would have the potential to scale to support multi- day conferences and expanded programming. Peer communities such as San Luis Obispo, Healdsburg, Carmel-by-the-Sea, and Petaluma demonstrate that small, walkable downtowns can successfully host 3 professional gatherings across multiple civic and cultural buildings without large-scale conference infrastructure. In these settings, downtown streets and public spaces function as connective tissue between venues, encouraging attendees to engage with local restaurants, cafés, and shops throughout the day. Recent meeting-industry research supports this approach. The International Association of Conference Centres (IACC) Meeting Room of the Future Barometer reports that 55 percent of meeting planners now consider the physical characteristics of a venue to be a critical factor in achieving meeting objectives, reflecting a growing preference for distinctive, experience-driven settings. The same research shows growing importance placed on food and beverage quality along with increased interest in specialty venues such as theaters, museums, and civic buildings.1 Industry publications such as Midwest Meetings and reporting from Northstar Meetings Group further note a shift toward so-called “Tier 2” destinations, where planners seek walkable, character-driven environments.2 3 Research published by Meeting Professionals International (MPI) and the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) similarly reflects sustained demand for small and mid-sized in-person meetings that emphasize place-based experience and ease of movement.4 5 This concept aligns closely with the original intent of the CEDP by leveraging existing Town facilities rather than constructing new ones, focusing on weekday, daytime use when businesses are open, increasing utilization during lower-demand periods, supporting downtown businesses through lunch, coffee, and retail activity, and reducing reliance on weekend event overtime staffing. Transferable Concepts from San Luis Obispo In assessing viability, staff focused on identifying the underlying mechanics that enable downtown conferences to function successfully in peer communities, rather than attempting to replicate a specific program. Experience in communities such as San Luis Obispo (SLO) points to five core concepts: • Distributed venues, with conferences spread across multiple civic buildings. • Walkability, where the downtown itself functions as the “hallway” between sessions. • Weekday orientation, supporting businesses during their typical operating hours. • Low-production formats, emphasizing dialogue and place rather than staging and spectacle. • Selective positioning, where downtown is presented as conference-capable for events that fit community scale and character. 1 International Association of Conference Centres (IACC), Meeting Room of the Future Barometer, 2025 2 Midwest Meetings, “Tier 2 Cities for Meetings,” July 16, 2025 3 Northstar Meetings Group, Meetings & Conventions and Successful Meetings industry reporting 4 Meeting Professionals International (MPI), Meetings Outlook 5 American Society of Association Executives (ASAE), Meeting and Event Trends 4 Staff’s assessment indicates that Danville already exhibits many of these enabling conditions, including multiple civic facilities within a compact, walkable downtown; recent public realm investments that support pedestrian movement and gathering; lower weekday facility utilization compared to evenings and weekends; and the ability to selectively promote appropriate uses without creating a new event-driven program. Illustrative Economic Activity Using current FY 2025/26 facility rental rates, a one-day, weekday professional conference with approximately 100 attendees utilizing the Village Theatre, Town Meeting Hall, and the Veterans Memorial Building could generate approximately $4,700–$5,000 in facility rental revenue. Attendees could also generate approximately $7,500 in daytime spending at downtown restaurants, cafés, and retail shops. These figures are illustrative and intended to demonstrate order-of-magnitude potential rather than serve as a forecast. Facility Hourly Rate Hours Estimated Revenue Village Theatre (plenary) $121 9 $1,089 Town Meeting Hall $109 9 $981 Veterans Memorial Building $300 9 $2,700 Total Facility Rental Revenue $4,770 Downtown Business Spending Attendees Daily Expenditures Estimated Revenue Dining (Lunch, Coffee, Snacks) 100 $50 $5,000 Retail/Gift Purchases 100 $25 $2,500 Downtown Business Spending $7,500 Total Estimated Daily Economic Activity $12,270 Facility Readiness Considerations Many audiovisual and connectivity systems within Town-owned facilities are aging and no longer meet current expectations for professional meetings or trainings. Targeted technology updates would serve as enabling investments to improve reliability, user experience, and operational efficiency across multiple uses, while supporting increased weekday utilization without altering the facilities’ primary community-serving role. 5 RECOMMENDATION Consider the information presented and authorize an appropriation of $30,000 to retain a consultant to conduct a focused evaluation of the Downtown Conference Venues concept, including: • Market analysis and conference niche identification • Facility and program utilization assessment, including readiness, scheduling flexibility, potential rate structures, and conference packaging options • Evaluation of benefits, risks, and resource implications Further direct staff to assess the technology investments necessary to support this concept and incorporate any recommended improvements into the FY 2026/27 Capital Improvement Program for consideration.