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Show up on a Friday night at Full Circle Stage*Studio and you probably will see musicians and a small crowd making the most of open mike night.
You might catch a game of speed Scrabble in the corner or take part in an impromptu jam session with a banjo player. A jar sitting on a counter holds a few dollar bills.
For owner Carol Ayoob, that’s a problem, and it’s making her reconsider the feasibility of running a small business in Presque Isle. Two years ago, Ayoob opened the studio and coffeehouse as an experiment. She said recently that she wanted to see whether she could break even in a rented space on Main Street, instead of offering art classes out of her home.
Ayoob has about 10 regular customers who are willing to pay $120 for six weeks of art classes – a reasonable price, she said, compared to bigger city offerings – and has had crowds that have donated $60 on a good Friday night.
But, she said, it just isn’t enough.
With knee surgery scheduled for mid-April, Ayoob has decided to close down this month, re-evaluate and, after her knee heals, decide whether to reopen.
“Presque Isle is right on the edge,” she said. “If there were just a few more people supporting it, I could make it float.”
Ayoob is one of many who feel that the city is teetering on the cusp of something important, but is not sure which way it will go. With a Lowe’s Home Improvement Center on the way in, credit card company MBNA on the way out, and local small businesses making and sometimes breaking, local officials are keeping a close watch on Presque Isle’s business pulse.
New investment, old worries
Jim Brown has just about seen it all in his 20 years as the city’s director of economic and community development. Lots of good and bad news has hit the city, he said recently, but some of the best news is that the last two years have been very good ones.
“There seems to be a fair amount of confidence out there in the business community about where things are and where they may be going in Presque Isle simply because 2004 and 2005 combined were the two largest growth years in the city’s history,” Brown said.
Presque Isle has seen about $23 million in new investment since 2004. An official at the Presque Isle Area Chamber of Commerce said that about 25 new businesses have opened in that time, and four construction projects including Lowe’s are under way.
Brown said that when the announcement for Lowe’s was made, he received calls from developers in Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania and Illinois. “It’s because that flag goes up when a company the size and stature of a Lowe’s says, ‘Hey, we’re going to locate in Presque Isle, Maine,’ and others say, ‘Gee, there must be something there.'”
On the other hand, the addition of a big-box store is causing anxiety for some local businesses. Gregg Collins, whose family has run S.W. Collins Co. for 162 years, said recently that while the building supply company believes it is well-positioned to be competitive with Lowe’s, it is bracing itself for the impact.
The vice president said that the Collins company, which owns stores in Caribou and Presque Isle, belongs to national co-ops that give it substantial buying power. Officials also are remodeling the Presque Isle store, adding products and creating storage space to increase inventory levels.
“I think Lowe’s is going to take a chunk from everyone … but we’re optimistic about our future,” Collins said. “I mean, we’re being realistic. Our customers are going to check out Lowe’s when it opens, but we feel confident that we’re still going to be able to serve our customer base.”
According to Allen Deeves, director of the local Chamber of Commerce, the idea of national retailers coming to the city has been one of the area’s biggest hopes and oldest worries.
“It is good for the community, but it is a realistic hardship for some of our members,” Deeves said recently. “This is a time for them to find out what their strong suits are. It’s time for them to be innovative and to further educate the public on why it is important to buy local.”
Another of the city’s old worries is business sustainability. Over the years, officials have watched everything from locally owned clothing and jewelry stores to a shoe factory leave town. This year, it’s the former MBNA facility. Bank of America is closing down the call center – but not because it wasn’t productive or efficient.
“A lot of decisions get made outside of Presque Isle, Aroostook County and Maine,” Brown said. “We have stores at the mall that have done exceptionally well here, but because of weakness or a need at the national level, we lost them locally because that was what the business had to do.”
Surviving in the downtown
When it comes to drawing customers, there’s a striking difference between businesses at the north and south ends of town. Check out the parking lots at the mall and especially Wal-Mart – both at the north end of town – any weekend, and you’ll see a lot of cars, many with Canadian plates. On any given day, Canadians account for $800-$1,000 worth of business at the store, or less than 5 percent annually, a store official said.
But drive south to the downtown, and, as one Main Street business owner put it, it’s like a ghost town.
Michael “Miles” Garcia, who owns one of the newest downtown businesses, 2 Guys Body Piercing, said his shop is just barely making it. He and his temporary consultant, Micheal Desplaines, see about 10 to 12 customers a week, and while they understand that not everyone in the area wants a body piercing, it’s a far cry from their shop in Boston, where they were regularly inundated.
They chose to set up shop in Presque Isle because of the slower pace of life and the proximity of colleges, but Garcia said they’re seeing a lack of faith, support and foot traffic.
“We’ve had a couple people say they wouldn’t get pierced by a ‘fly by night’ business,” he said. “Well, we’re not a fly by night business. We’ve got 17 years’ combined experience, but we’re just not going to succeed here if people aren’t willing to give it a chance.”
Next door, artist Elizabeth Punches is hopeful. She has seen the best and the worst while running an art gallery and studio, The Space Between, on Main Street. She can go for long spells without seeing any walk-ins, but she also received her biggest commission from a walk-in.
Punches admitted that getting full price for her art in northern Maine is tough, so she went into business in late 2003 planning not to make a profit for five years. She gets by mostly on out-of-state commissions. Only 20 percent of her business revenues comes from local commissions and gallery sales.
But, she said, it’s getting better.
“I agree Presque Isle is on the cusp of something,” she said, “but I think it’s going to depend on other types of business coming to Presque Isle, businesses that can support the economy and industry that can employ more people … We’ve got to have more security, but we’re close.”
Getting there from here
While everyone seems to note the city’s business community is poised for change, the big question is how to make the leap with larger retailers and small businesses intact.
Brown said his office has three focuses: to improve the public infrastructure, to help the businesses here grow, and to bring new business activity to the area. To help address those issues, the City Council voted recently to create a city planner position to develop large, long-term projects that will improve the city’s business climate and effect positive changes in the downtown.
While there is much work to be done, Brown said that considering that the area is dealing with “essentially a wartime economy” and other negative national trends, it is doing well as a pocket of growth in northern Maine.
“If you look at the visible expressions of how we’re doing – which is new buildings, new businesses coming in, homes being continually improved, the fact that we’re still as a region experiencing housing growth and we still have affordable housing – we’re doing pretty well,” Brown said.
“The attitude I’m seeing is that we’re going to keep plugging away, and we’re going to keep growing.”
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