82 Business View Magazine - September 2016
area. “We have a railroad track that runs through the
center of our community and it services the General
Motors Assembly Center,” Lang explains. “It’s a fairly
active line and we have negotiated with the railroad
to do some landscaping improvements and beautifica-
tion within the railroad right-of-way. We’ve also nego-
tiated leases with other private companies to create
public parking areas. We have a façade improvement
grant program, where we work with businesses in old-
er buildings to try and bring those buildings back to
life. And so, our vacancy rate in the downtown core is
relatively low – probably around 10 or 15 percent. So,
we have very few vacant buildings and a pretty good
mix of downtown businesses providing everything from
legal and other professional type services to restau-
rants and other businesses that draw people to the
