By Joshua Cole
CENTENNIAL — Retail sales tax for the city of Centennial increased 6 percent in the first quarter of the year compared with 2009, but not all businesses are feeling better.
Mayor Cathy Noon
“It’s been a real valley for me,” said Donna Senn, who sells flooring out of her home, near I-25 and Arapahoe Road. “I need people to know I’m here.”
Senn was one of a dozen Centennial-based business representatives to hear news and recent information about the city at Mayor Cathy Noon’s “Breakfasts with the Mayor” for retail stores, May 19. Noon, who has co-owned a box recycling company for a quarter-century, was host for six business breakfasts this spring, with other breakfasts planned to be restarted in September.
At the retail business breakfast, representatives were piqued hearing about the free “Shop Local” program in which businesses could promote themselves, the passport service at the city center, proposed city park next to the municipal building on Arapahoe Road, progress on the current lane reconfiguration on Arapahoe Road at I-25, and optimism that the Census will allow Centennial to be recognized when addresses are put in computer systems as opposed to Englewood, Littleton or Aurora.
Other information that Noon planted was getting a business advisory group started in 2011 and communicating with the business community similar to how the city communicates with its citizens, such as through its website and via a mailed quarterly newsletter.
“This was dipping my toe back in the water,” said Alex Muggenthaller, a citizen and regional director for a lighting and electrical company in the city. “I hope I can be more involved.”
Centennial’s kept its budget lean and didn’t need to cut safety services as streets took up most of the cuts. The city doesn’t plan on having furlough days, either. And things are improving economically. Centennial’s December sales tax receipts were the best the fledgling city has had.
“We got used to living without” high sales tax revenues, Noon said.
As a citizen, Senn is mostly satisfied.
“When the city first started, it was barbaric: we would take anyone we could,” Senn said. “When a gentleman’s club tried to come, they put a stop to that. That would have brought a lot of sales tax, but they had to give consideration to the people living here.”
The Streets at SouthGlenn, the mayor informed businesses, was the only major multi-use development to open in 2009, and new restaurants keep coming in. Plus, unlike many other shopping centers, the restaurants aren’t the same chains, like Chili’s or Macaroni Grill, so SouthGlenn has the potential to attract diners from a larger area. Snooze, a breakfast/lunch restaurant in Denver, plans to add a location in SouthGlenn, and the University of Phoenix plans to open in space there, Noon said.
Muggenthaller was still concerned that there aren’t places to shop. Centennial officials said clothing stores and boutiques will take slower to recover. She is impressed, though, that the city is deliberate with the businesses being encouraged to open.
Centennial – compared with neighboring cities Aurora, Greenwood Village, Littleton and Lone Tree – doesn’t have too many retail locations in prime spots, and the retail representatives were eager to learn what the city was doing to help them. Three Targets border the city, but they’re not in Centennial. Although Arapahoe Road defines Centennial’s span, most shops around I-25 are in Greenwood Village, while the three developed corners at Parker Road are in Foxfield and Aurora.
“But we will have IKEA,” Noon said.
Until IKEA comes, planned for the fall of 2011, Walmart near Arapahoe Road and Havana Street is Centennial’s biggest sales tax generator.
“I didn’t know if (the Targets were out of the city limits) for sure because I know how funky our city limits are. To get it confirmed was kind of a letdown,” Muggenthaller said. “I’m not happy about it, but it was good to find it out. I’ll probably shop more at the Walmart to be honest. I’m a pretty big proponent of our city, and I want to maintain it.”
Yet, despite its size and despite being the bane of all retailers in many people’s opinion, Walmart store manager Jonathan Fast was mingling with other businesses at the May 19 breakfast.
“I talked with a couple of businesses that we can work together with, that we can possibly partner with in the future,” Fast said. “I think it’s good to meet with local businesses and find out their issues and concerns and to have that support network with one another.”
Fast said he’s eagerly awaiting the likely change to “Centennial” in most address databases. Because the store’s address comes up as Englewood, shipments get mixed up with the store that’s really in the city of Englewood.
“My view is that it’s not a competition with local businesses; it’s how we can work together to meet each individual niche in the business community,” Fast said.
