(9/20) At its August 22nd meeting, the Economic Development Commission (EDC) welcomed a real estate expert to provide recommendations on how to attract diverse businesses to the Walkersville area.
Guest speaker Tony Checchia presented information on what entices businesses and what the EDC can do to move businesses along.
Checchia has been in real estate for 34 years and owns a small, commercial real estate company and has worked on multiple properties in the Walkersville area. He currently serves as the Vice Chairman of the County Executive’s Business Industry Cabinet, as a board member of the Frederick Tourism Council, and as a foundation board member of the Frederick Community College.
Checchia stated that user friendliness is key regarding getting businesses to fill open vacancies.
"More usages in town zoning will attract more businesses," he said, noting many of the town zoning ordinances were written years ago and do not address needs applicable today.
Having flexible zoning ordinances is important, as challenges faced by many businesses are outdated ordinances. Many usages that are prominent now did not exist when ordinances were written years ago, according to Checchia.
Checchia also suggested that rather than apply fees, Walkersville should economically incentivize businesses.
The top items that are important to businesses when shopping for real estate are location, budget (either square foot, or gross rent basis), condition, or cost to set up, as well as low interest loans, demographics, and parking, according to Checchia.
Trying to encourage a different type of business to occupy space that has been occupied several times by the same type of unsuccessful business is a tough situation. If economics do not align, then it will come down to the product and overhead.
Businesses are beneficial to communities as they increase tax space without draining other municipal services such as other residential occupancies would. Small businesses help to reduce the burden to locate to town and decrease permit-processing times, according to Commissioner Liaison Michael Bailey.
The committee expressed gratitude to Chechia and looks to research additional effective tools and the best practices of other municipalities to benefit the business district of Walkersville.
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