How do you know if your community is thriving? Just look downtown.

The city center is the gateway to your city, its economic barometer and the best recruitment tool for any new business.

It seems to me that new businesses are popping up in Natchez every day. At least a dozen businesses have opened or expanded in downtown Natchez this year.

On Franklin Street, you’ll see the new Edwards Chiropractic Clinic. On Main Street, you’ll find the new restaurant The Rendezvous and new venue Louie’s. The Gate, in a beautifully renovated 19th century home, is a new venue on MLK Street. Across the street, Jarita Frazier has rebranded and expanded King SoulFusion, which includes Miss-Lou Heritage Cooking and Rod’s Grill-n-Chill.

Interestingly, some of these new or expanded stores are in line with recommendations from DNA’s recent retail market analysis, which found that downtown could accommodate far more stores than it currently has, including grocery stores, pet stores, art dealers, liquor stores, restaurants, snack and soft drink bars, men’s, children’s and family clothing stores, and more furniture stores.

In fact, Anna Ferguson of Brakenridge Furniture on Franklin Street is expanding her line to include appliances this fall, so if you need a new refrigerator, freezer, stove, washer or dryer, you can shop downtown now.

According to DNA studies, it is these types of essential goods that the inner city needs to encourage local people to stay nearby and not move to another city.

To explore the magic behind the downtown business, I contacted one of our newest entrepreneurs, Caylen Caldwell, the 24-year-old owner of Wishes Bakery. Inspired by her passion for Disney, Caldwell named her bakery “Wishes” and says her goal is to provide a magical experience for her customers. She described Franklin Street as a tight-knit community where everyone supports each other and often collaborates on events and promotions to attract more people to downtown.

Perhaps the best evidence that Downtown is a place of economic opportunity is the fact that so many experienced Downtown retailers are currently expanding their businesses. Why else would Darby’s have purchased yet another building last year to open an additional 15,000-square-foot furniture showroom on Main Street?

For example, Sharevolution, Alicia Norris’ downtown health and wellness clinic, has steadily expanded its services since moving to MLK. A new massage therapy clinic, Fortitude (Nathan Hinkle), and a new pediatric clinic (Dr. David Timms) have just opened downtown.

To further explore this growing trend, I spoke with Meghan Wood, owner of the new Reverie Salon at 403 Main Street. For ten years, Meghan operated C’est Jolie out of a 700 square foot rented space on Franklin Street. Over time, she outgrew the space. Last year, just before the holiday season, she not only found a much larger space (2500 square feet), but purchased an entire building on Main Street to accommodate her growing clientele and vision for expanded services. When I spoke with her, she emphasized how much she appreciates the community spirit downtown and the relationships between local businesses.

I also reached out to Kaelin Daye, who, along with Taylor Cooley, co-owns Kaelor and Co, a successful athletic and casual clothing store in Franklin that opened last September. Both already owned a store downtown but were confident they could do more. Their joint venture began as a loose idea the two tossed around, but gradually became a reality. Their expansion plan calls for moving the athletic clothing store to 414 Main Street (the old Burns Shoe Store building) in September and then opening a new children’s clothing store, Kaelor & Kids, in their original Franklin space.

This move clearly shows how much confidence they have in the downtown market. Kaelin says she believes downtown Natchez is stronger than it has been in years.

Through the Downtown Master Plan and with data from ongoing retail market studies, downtown retailers and investors, the City and DNA are working together every day to create a thriving downtown business environment. As new businesses continue to open and expand, there will be no shortage of organizations, individuals and even neighboring businesses willing to help where they can because, as is evident every day in our downtown community, we are stronger together.

Michael Wilson is the Community Engagement Coordinator for the Downtown Natchez Alliance (DNA). He can be reached at [email protected]