5 Things to Know from the Healthy Business Community Forum

Residents, business owners and village officials discussed the state of Woodridge's business community at a village forum Tuesday night.

It was the second in a series of three forums hosted by the village to discuss topics residents voted as most important to them.

There were 18 people in the audience for the forum, compared with 30 people in the audience for the forum on public safety and gang suppression in July. Both were held at

Many of those in the audience were community leaders, including the director of the , the president of the and three trustees.

Here are five things to know from the forum:

1. Business owners want the village to think like a business.

Business owners emphasized making it as easy as possible for people to conduct business in Woodridge, including reviewing regulations with a business owner's point of view.

One business owner told a village senior planner to think of businesses like customers. Money goes where it can make more money, he said.

The village touted its efforts with the Shop Local, Shop Woodridge campaign in educating residents how dollars spent at Woodridge businesses means lower taxes.

Village officials also emphasized changes to village building code that allow businesses instead of the previous eight. More businesses also have outdoor displays and sales.

2. Woodridge's vacancy rates are lower for retail than for office space.

The following chart shows the vacancy rates for various types of sites in Woodridge compared with the numbers for Chicago in those same categories.

Woodridge

Chicago

Retail vacancy rate

5.6

9.7

Industrial vacancy rate

7

9.2

Office vacancy rates

11

23

3. Lower vacancy rates for retail means big retailers can't move in.

"Retailers are now looking for space, but we don't have it," Mays said. "The largest available space we have is under 10,000 square feet. They're looking for 20,000 to 30,000 square feet."

Mays said there was a lot of interest in the Interstate 55 corridor for business to consolidate operations.

4. Businesses want more signage

Additional signage and more ways to make businesses prominent to customers was a common topic amongst business owners.

5. Everyone agreed that Woodgrove Festival (think , ) was an example of a healthy business community.

Woodridge Patch wrote in continually attracting new business last week. The shopping center has a vacancy rate of 2.26 percent.

With its mix of entertainment, retail and restaurants, residents pointed to Woodgrove Festival (the shopping center that houses , the newly opened and ) as the best example of a successful shopping center in Woodridge.

Business owners expressed concern over the lack of traffic in the shopping center at 75th Street and Woodward Avenue and the mix of businesses in Seven Bridges.

Residents said more destination stores in shopping centers would support a healthy business community. An example of a destination store would be Hollywood Blvd., which draws customers in Darien, Woodridge, Downers Grove and beyond to Woodgrove.