Survey: Sugar Grove residents want a good restaurant
Do the residents of Sugar Grove want a Starbucks?
Definitely, says Perry Clark, the outgoing director of the Sugar Grove Economic Development Corp.
Clark bases his analysis on a retail survey he recently conducted while still with the EDC.
Clark received 98 responses from Sugar Grove village and township residents to his 16-part survey, which queried residents on what kind of stores they would like to see in the village.
Some survey sections asked specifically about brands. For example, 61 respondents said they preferred a SuperTarget if a discount store came to Sugar Grove. Costco was second with 16 votes.
When asked for three top choices for a type of commercial store in Sugar Grove, 87 respondents voted for a sitdown restaurant, 60 chose a bakery/coffee/ice cream establishment while 57 voted for a clothing store.
Regarding a sit-down restaurant, 31 voted for a bistro/cafe, 27 wanted an ethnic alternative, 25 voted for seafood and 23 chose a burger joint.
The survey also revealed Sugar Grove residents favored moderately priced clothing stores for their town. Kohl's was a popular choice over pricier department stores, and respondents chose the Gap over Abercrombie & Fitch.
For now, Sugar Grove residents can only dream of stopping for a latte without leaving town, or shopping for clothes five minutes from home, or even grabbing a fast-food meal.
But Clark sees the survey as a means to craft recommendations and he believes that communities like Sugar Grove can work toward more favorable conditions for retailers, despite the widespread economic downturn.
"Retailers like Starbucks are looking at three factors," Clark said. "Rooftops (population), daytime population and traffic counts. With this information, any community can enhance its efforts to try and bring in retailers."
Clark says Sugar Grove has a population of 8,800 and a daytime population of 10,000, but retailers are looking for a daytime population of from 15,000 to 20,000.
"We can offer more diversity in our housing stock, and it shouldn't take developers two years to go through the process to build," Clark said.
Clark resigned June 30 but is providing consultation to the public/private corporation until Aug. 31. He resigned to pursue other interests, including elected office. Clark said he will announce his intentions after Labor Day.
Village President Sean Michels, who is a member of the EDC board, said the survey will not have any impact on the search for a new executive director.
"We're still waiting for him (Clark) to present the survey results in a usable format," Michels said. "We'd love to have these retailers, but right now it's pretty bleak out there."
The survey results are online at www.sugargroveedc.org.