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By JOHN NORTH
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An online petition launched on July 20 calls for the city of Asheville to regulate — and place a cap on — the number of national chain and formula stores in downtown.
The keep-downtown-local petition was triggered by the recent announcement that an Anthropologie store soon will be locating at 37 N. Lexington Ave., between a local clothing boutique and Lexington Avenue Brewery.
Anthropologie is a national chain retailer offering women’s high-end apparel. Anthropologie will be downtown’s second chain store. National retailer Urban Outfitters has operated at 15 Haywood St. since 2009.
Within two days of posting the petition on Change.org, it had garnered 500 signatures. Four days in, it reached 1,000. By July 24, the volume of signatures neared 2,000.
As of 3 p.m. July 28, as the Daily Planet was going to press, the petition totaled 2,478 signatures, Rebecca Hecht, who drafted it, told the newspaper. At the current growth rate, she added, “I’d guess we’d have 2,500 by tomorrow (July 29). We plan to turn it in to the city after one full month... around Aug. 20.
“I started the petition by myself. I was encouraged by my landlord (Bob and Ellen Carr and son Alex), who owns Tops for Shoes.
Hecht, who owns Adorn Salon on 58 College St. said she drafted the petition in order to send a message to Anthropologie, property-owners and the city, letting them know what people think of chains and formula stores locating in downtown Asheville — and the possibility of banning or regulating them.
Hecht noted that she also launched the Lexington Avenue Merchants Association a number of years ago and “since then, it’s become inactive. We plan to meet up in late August” with a reactivated LAM, “and address this issue — and mainly to hear their concerns,” since its members are “the closest neighbors” to Anthropologie.
“We’d heard rumors about Anthropologie,” she told the Daily Planet in a July 28 telephone interview. “We decided to try to get the word out -— to educate the public that chains are allowed downtown currently. Because we don’t have many (chain stores), a lot of people think we don’t allow them, but we do.
“We also wanted to kind of get the pulse of Asheville citizens, to see how they feel.
“We’re going to pass along the comments and the signatures to the property owners, Anthropologie and the city leaders (City Council).”
Hecht added, “I also sit on the Downtown Commission. We now have a subcommittee to meet with the commission to research what other cities have done and what sort of ordinances could be put in place (to regulate or limit chain stores in downtown).
“Obviously, we already have chain stores downtown, They’d be grandfathered in. We’d see how any new ones would contribute to the community....
“I know a lot of people say you can’t tell property-owners what they can or can’t do with their property. But actually we can. You can’t have a strip club... So there are ways you can control it,” referring to national chain stores locating downtown.
As for Anthropologie, Hecht said, “It’s bigger than just the one store And it’s more than just that our stores can’t compete. It’s more that it’ll drive up the price of rent. It may not affect our businesses directly.
“The problem is, they (the big chains) can afford to operate at a loss... We (small independent businesses) can’t afford that. If a chain were to come in and rent at four times” the going rate, it would drive up others’ rents.
“I know they (Anthropologie) have sought to buy out other people’s leases. It’s not like they’re innocently looking for a space downtown.
“Since Urban Outfitters came in, they’ve been pretty aggressively looking for a space downtown.
“The great thing about Asheville is that there are appropriate places for these (national chain) businesses to locate in — Biltmore Park, Biltmore Village, the outlet mall and Tunnel Road, where there already are similar types of businesses.”
For the national chains, “it’s all about franchising, homogenizing downtown,” she lamented.
“The character of downtown (Asheville) is unique, vibrant, independent, diverse, one-of-a-kind. I think it’s OK that we have a small mix (of chains),” Hecht said. “Some cities say 10 is the number — and if one moves out, other chains can apply for that space.”
So is she against all types of chain stores locating downtown?
“It could be written where you have an opportunity to apply for a variance with a regional franchise, where there are owners in Asheville,” such as Kilwin’s and Jimmy John’s. Hecht said those two retail chains, through their owners living locally, are putting money and volunteer effort directly back into the community.
She also distinguished between national franchises, regional franchises and independent businesses, coming down in favor of the regional chains and independents.
Hecht reiterated that she does not favor a ban, but rather a limit on the number of national chains allowed to operate downtown.
“We’re not going to out and out discimrinate against a certain business, but more, ask, does it contribute to the community, to the character of downtown?
While “I think in a lot of ways, this (Anthroplogie and other chains) could benefit me personally in my business, but I don’t see it as the best for the whole of downtown,” Hecht said.
Further, Hecht said, “Data mining (by national chains) causes a surge into a market.... Others feel they need to locate here to be competitive. Same as happened with hotels. We had Indigo and Aloft, which are national hotels. Others, like Hilton, started to see this and they felt like in order to be competitive, (that) they also need to have a location in Asheville.
“To stay competitive, the competitors of Anthropologie and Urban Outfitters will see what’s going on — and feel they need to have stores here, too.”
She also asserted, “I think this will just destroy our community... I have a friend from Vale, Colo., who said there are no local stores left in Vale.
“It’s the same story on King Street in downtown Charleston, S.C, where there are no salons, barbershops, independently owned clothing boutiques and no independent shoe store.... They (the invasion of chain stores) drove up property prices. Even if you own the building, the property taxes become so expensive” that an independent must sell out and leave. “Also, you just can’t compete with someone who has cheaper products.”
As for whether she wants to keep Asheville just as it is now, Hecht said, “There are things in Asheville that weren’t here 20 years ago. It’s not that I don’t want anything to change. It’s just that I’d like to hang onto our authenticity and identify — the spirit of independence.”
She added, “Business-owners in downtown Asheville are rebels. We work really hard. We are passionate about what we do. And we’re really proud of what we’ve created here.”
Regarding how Hecht sees the battle she is leading against national chains downtown, “I think we have a really good chance of coming up with creative ways to preserve what we have. At least we will have fought the good fight. We’re not going down without a fight.
“We saved it once — the Asheville Mall was going to be (built) downtown,” but that plan was defeated, decades ago.
.“My fear is we’ll become homogenized and the appeal will fade,” Hech said. If national chains take over, then “it won’t be as appealing to visit downtown Asheville (any more) — and businesses will close down and we’ll just have a boarded-up downtown, again.” |
