A successful State Street retailer and a big-brained branding expert have teamed up to form the Santa Barbara Economic Development Partnership . Their simple-sounding yet incredibly critical goal is to recruit and retain downtown businesses, a piece of strategy largely missing from the city’s efforts to revitalize its commercial core.
Amy Cooper, who for 10 years operated the popular Plum Goods store until it was laid low by the coronavirus, and Keith Higbee, a managing partner of a major marketing firm, say the new initiative will address with pinpoint precision State Street’s vacancy crisis ― which was at red-alert levels even before the pandemic ― as the city leaders continue down the much longer path of rebuilding infrastructure and developing housing.
“If we wait, our vacancy rate is going to go up from 17 percent to 20 percent, 30 percent, and that’s a whole different conversation,” warned Higbee. “We’ll start heading toward Detroit.”