Projects

What does a healthy business environment have to do with a healthy environment? Everything, if you ask Mike Massey.

A local business owner and native New Orleanian, Mike is opening a retail location for Massey’s Professional Outfitters on North Carrollton Avenue in New Orleans in January 2008. Mike is keenly aware of the correlation between the environment and the business climate. His mantra is “Recreation means business.” His store’s Mid-City location on the Lafitte Greenway is ideal, and he anticipates reaping the economic benefits of his location.

“The Lafitte Greenway will solidify Mid-City/City Park’s position as the recreational epicenter of New Orleans,” says Mike. “It also creates a funnel for tourists wanting to explore deeper into the residential parts of the city, and a jumping off point for locals who want to head downtown. Our favorite part is that the city will enjoy the option of bicycle transport through numerous neighborhoods.”

Trails build local businesses. Bicycle tourists, a growing, affluent segment of the tourist market, contribute significantly to local businesses that are well-connected to trails. Along the Virginia Creeper Trail in southwest Virginia, for example, visitors spend $1.59 million annually providing an estimated 27 new full time jobs.

Bayou Bicycles owner Charlie Doerr is well-positioned to fuel the bicycle tourist market by adding bike rentals to his bicycle retail business. “We moved Bayou Bicycles a few doors down from our original location specifically to have the back door access to the bike path that the new location affords us,” says owner Charlie Doerr. “We’ve also constructed a large window on the back that literally looks out on the future bike path.” Now, prospective bike buyers have a place to test ride before making a purchase, while bicycle tourists will have easy on-and-off access to the trail.

Jay Nix, owner of Parkway Bakery, is ready to serve up some tasty shrimp po-boys and frosty Barq’s rootbeers to those bicycle tourists, and looks forward to the prospect of other compatible businesses locating along the trail. “We’re part of the original trade route used by French traders, and, before them, the Indians starting at Bayou Sauvage and continuing around Lake Pontchartrain, down Bayou St. John, and all the way to the Quarter,” says Jay. “In addition to returning the natural beauty to the area the trail will, in a sense, reclaim the historic trade route by generating more business along the greenway.”

Bayou Coffee House owners Therese Barrett and Milton Gautreaux were one of the first businesses to reopen in Mid-City after Katrina. In the uncertain days and months after the hurricane, the Bayou Coffee House became one of those much needed oases of normalcy and community, where the need to connect with one another and exchange information was provided for the price of a cup of coffee. Therese and Milton understand that the link between well-designed trails and improved property values is strong. They see their future and the future of the Greenway intertwined. “Bike path traffic will enhance public safety,” says Milton, “while bringing the Bayou the recognition it deserves as a destination.”