BATH

Despite a sea change in downtown Bath — the exit of Sagadahock Real Estate Association, which owns the majority of downtown properties — the city’s downtown revitalization group is feeling optimistic.

Attendees celebrating the progress Bath has made since being selected as one of the first Main Street Maine communities in 2001 at an event last week expressed confidence downtown would survive. They noted that a few of the buildings sold so far have been bought by tenants, allaying some fears that rents will raise significantly.

Bath is becoming a destination location for young families in recent years, creating optimism for the future of the city’s diverse downtown, said Sally Johnstone, chairwoman of Main Street Bath’s Economic Vitality Committee. She said the city has kept independent businesses strong despite pressure from big box stores and online retailers.

Downtown retailers long ago learned they could not survive by offering the cheapest or most convenient products — the big box stores were specifically designed to beat them on that playing field every time. Instead, each retailer has to offer a full experience

— taking a look at the shop’s design, offering amenities like free wifi and creating a personal connection with shoppers — that goes beyond the products.

“It’s not so much just going and buying a commodity product or selling the cheapest thing available,” said Johnstone.

Main Street Bath, working with Craig Freshley of Good Group Decisions, have put these thoughts into a vision statement.

“The vision is not a permanent thing, it is common elements of things we heard from lots of people in the city,” said Will Neilson, president of the Main Street Bath board of directors. “It’s a basis for helping us organize our thoughts moving forward.”

The vision statement will help the nearly two-decade-old organization develop a strategic plan for the coming years and hire an executive director to execute that plan.

“This started through volunteers who cared and saw that there was a need for our downtown to be vital,” said Mari Eosco, interim director of Main Street Bath and chairwoman of the Bath City Council. “Businesses were leaving traditional downtowns and moving into stripmalls. Downtowns were dying.”

But Bath’s downtown survived, added Eosco, thanks in part to the continued, focused effort of the three groups that make up the downtown.

“You need business owners involved, you need the community involved and you need your municipality involved,” she said. “Bath has been a shining example in the state of Maine.”

Recognizing there is a different business climate than when it was launched, the nonprofit has spent the last several months drawing feedback from the community through forums, surveys and a very active Facebook group to figure out what challenges the nonprofit should be tackling over the next several years.

The city will also use the vision statement to help them formulate a comprehensive plan, development of which will likely start this fall.