<b>Meeting will present market analysis results  </b>

On Wednesday, July 9 at 6 p.m. in the Dolphin Room at The Best Western Sea Island Inn on Bay Street, a consultant team will present initial findings on the retail market in downtown Beaufort.  The presentation is part of a larger initiative to understand the current state of retail in downtown and to devise strategies to encourage future economic growth in the district.

The presentation follows an initial round of community input involving dozens of stakeholder interviews, an online survey that gathered nearly 900 local responses, and around 5,000 customer visits recorded by 51 downtown merchants in a weeklong zip code survey of customers conducted in May.

Arnett Muldrow &amp; Associates, Ltd. of Greenville, SC, is the consultant team leading the project along with Main Street Beaufort, USA. Tee Coker is serving as project manager.  He can be reached at: tee@arnettmuldrow.com. LaNelle Fabian is managing the project for Main Street Beaufort, USA and can be contacted at director@downtownbeaufort.com.

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<b>Mayor Keyserling to be LIBPA July speaker</b>

Mayor Billy Keyserling, who was elected mayor of the city of Beaufort in 2008 and re-elected for a second term in 2012, will be the guest speaker at the Tuesday, July 8 meeting of the Lady’s Island Business and Professional Association. The meeting will be at 8 a.m. in the Beaufort Realtor’s Association headquarters in the Palmetto Business Park (behind BB&amp;T Bank) on Lady’s Island Drive. The meeting is open to the public.

Mayor Keyserling has been requested to include, in his discussion with the LIBPA members, the following subjects:

• Has the Redevelopment Commission met the objectives for which it was established?

• Are traffic problems anticipated following the narrowing of the street as part of the Boundary Street Redevelopment?

• Status of future plans for the marina parking lot.

• What will it take to make the city of Beaufort more economically self-sufficient?

• What is needed to improve the general appearance of the commercial portion of Lady’s Island which is governed by a blend of the city of Beaufort and Beaufort County?
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