IEDA Studies Manchester’s Downtown Retail Environment

Several folks from the Iowa Economic Development Authority were in Manchester earlier this week to study Manchester’s retail environment and provide feedback to community leaders and retailers.

Jim Thompson works on downtown economic development with the IEDA.

They toured Manchester on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Vacant buildings was a big part of their findings in Manchester, including at least ten second-story spaces downtown.

Senior Program Manager Stacy Mullinex also noted positives and concerns.

The IEDA provided several statistics about Manchester during a presentation to the public on Wednesday. Around 850 Manchester residents stay in town to work – but they noted nearly 3,000 residents come into Manchester to work (but don’t live there) and nearly 1,500 residents live in Manchester, but leave town to work elsewhere. Manchester sees the most visitors during the year in July and September (with January, May and October the lowest) – and when you break that down to days of the week, Manchester sees the most visitors on Fridays and Mondays (with Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Sundays the lowest). Brooke Have is a business specialist with Iowa Economic Development Authority.

Overall, Thompson says Manchester is doing pretty well compared to other communities its size.

Iowa Economic Development Authority will be developing a report for Manchester that provides many resources and will be available as the community needs them moving forward.

audio and photo courtesy of Janelle Tucker/KMCH