AURORA | Retail is on the rise in Aurora.
Nearly 1,100 retail businesses opened or applied for licenses in 2012, which was a 6.8 percent increase over 2011, according the 2012 retail findings presented at an Aurora City Council study session meeting March 18.
“People can’t find jobs so they’re creating jobs … and we have space where people can try entrepreneurial ventures,” said Tim Gonerka, the city’s retail specialist in the Planning and Development Services department. “This is a really encouraging demographic.”
Retail vacancies also dropped from 2011 to 7.2 percent in 2012.
The top five retail businesses that opened in 2012 were convenience stores, auto supply shops, barber and hair salons, fast and casual food and ethnic and specialty markets, he said. About 3.2 percent of all business licenses filed in the past two years were for markets.
“Aurora has become a city of markets,” Gonerka said.
As of last year, there were 160 ethnic and specialty food markets in Aurora, he said. “We think it’s an opportunity for us to serve a growing foodie market,” he said.
More than 70 new food and restaurant businesses opened in Aurora in 2012.
The top shopping district in Aurora in 2012 was Gardens on Havana, which Gonerka said was becoming a “retail hub” similar to the Southlands Mall and the Town Center at Aurora.
Gonerka said he’s working on long-term plans for the city with council input. He said council members expressed their desire for the city to attract more microbreweries and chef-driven, sit-down restaurants in the city.
“Hopefully we’re going to start attracting some of our new, young chefs,” Gonerka said.
Gonerka said another goal in 2013 is to ask residents what retailers they’d want to see in the city, and to potentially attract new chain retailers such as Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s.
Council members encouraged Gonerka to keep working on retaining retailers and attracting new ones.
Council members at their study session meeting also voted to eliminate the requirement that hotel and restaurant liquor licenses have to be 500 feet away from a school. The issue is scheduled to come before council for a formal vote at a council meeting later this month.
Councilwoman Sally Mounier said she brought up the issue because the Blue Lagoon Asian Bistro in north Aurora was denied a liquor license permit by the city because it’s 480 feet away from Paris Elementary. She said the new restaurant is struggling to attract customers for dinner.
“People want to have a glass of saki or a glass of wine with their sushi, it’s really that simple,” she said.
She originally asked council members if they’d be willing to reduce the distance requirement to 400 feet, but they said they’d rather eliminate the requirement instead. The requirement would only be eliminated for hotels and restaurants who apply for liquor licenses.