Why Antioch Should Do More to Encourage Small Business Migration?
‘Bedtown’, ‘overdeveloped’, ‘long commuters’, ‘nothin’ but residential’, etc… These are some of the catch phrases that some people have placed on the City of Antioch. Some in the City seem to be taking the perspective that Antioch is not meant for small businesses. Even at some of the latest City Council meetings residents bring up the fact that Antioch business lease prices are around the same price as Oakland prices. Why is this? How come mortgage prices can be a fraction of what San Francisco homes cost, but small business fees are just as high?
It’s all about supply and demand. High lease prices in Antioch would suggest that there is a need for inventory. If there’s a discrepancy against residential housing prices and commercial prices than there needs to be an adjustment somewhere. One way for Antioch to combat the high business lease prices is to institute more practices that will attract corporations and small businesses to the city. Even though Antioch has a shortfall in projected budget revenues they should still seriously consider offering more monetary compensation for businesses to relocate to our town.
By re-orientating residents to work and live in the same place the City will relieve traffic and make residents more productive. All this extra productivity that residents could experience by working closer to home translates into huge tax revenues for the city. It’s kind of sad when you go to your local Macy’s (NYSE: M) and realize they don’t have a suit department. What has transpired in Antioch that has made Macy’s decide not to stock suits? Might Macy’s be contemplating moving away from Antioch? isn’t the first step in migration from a place to liquidate inventory and stop stocking certain items? Perhaps, Macy’s is experience a similar phenomenon all across the US. What other reason would they have for not stocking suits, than a decrease in consumer demand? Hopefully this isn’t the tip of the iceberg for another Chapter 11.
Antioch has already lost several large commercial vendors because City incentives weren’t enough and the economy was too great. Where are all the white collar workers in our community? Gottschalks was rumored to be purchased by NKT Commercial LLC. NKT Commercial is still going to face the task of filling the commercial unit in order to make a profit. What better way for the City of Antioch to get involved in promoting business health than by offering incentives for business owners to fill the old Gottschalks retail space?
The simple truth is if lease prices are the same as more populous locations of the Bay Area then businesses may decide against relocating to Antioch. We need to be attracting more doctors, lawyers, financial advisors and professors. The Grove has contacted several businesses in the Bay Area who expressed that they would relocate to Antioch if the government would offer better migration incentives.
The closest thing to small business assistance that Antioch offers seems to be a link to SBA.gov on the City’s homepage. What about all the City jobs? A quick search on the City’s website shows zero government position jobs available for Antioch. The city need only take a look at the Concord commercial sprawl development to see that attracting businesses to the community is good for everyone.