Lowell businesses want better connection with UMass Lowell students

What do an art gallery, a sweets shop, an army supply store and a clothing store have in common? They are all located in downtown Lowell, and they are willing to offer discounts to UMass Lowell students.

“There is a large amount of local resources downtown, and students don’t understand what they have for local resources throughout the day, whether it’s food, materials or even hobbies,” said Robert Campbell, UMass Lowell student and intern at the Merrimack Valley Small Business Center.

Examples of businesses that offer discounts to students are the Time Out Cafe and the Army Navy Store, which received the Most Unique Business in Downtown Lowell award. Mill No. 5, a refurbished mill located on Jackson St., has shops, a Black Box Theater, yoga studio and more, said Campbell.

Not only that, but many businesses would like to hire UMass Lowell students, said Paul Marion, executive director of UMass Lowell’s Office of Community Relations.

Campbell said there is a gap between small businesses in downtown Lowell and the university. He is currently collaborating with Marion to help bridge the gap and to create a better relationship between the university and the community.

Campbell wants students to better understand the opportunities downtown Lowell has to offer, as well as the impact they can have on the community. “They have an entire downtown that wants to get them down there, and they can make an economic impact, bringing local stimulation to the area,” he said.

The Office of Community Relations supports Campbell’s efforts, said Marion. “In the Community Relations Office, we’re trying to better understand the views of the students so that we can be as helpful as possible in making the connections, and encouraging partnerships between organizations or businesses and the university,” he said.

Marion said that downtown Lowell businesses are eager to have more interaction with the university community. According to “The Inn & Conference Center and Beyond: The Lowell Plan, Inc.-UMass Lowell Downtown Initiative Report Executive Summary,” written in 2010, “Of the 33 downtown business owners interviewed in 2009 and 2010, 85 percent expressed interest in UMass Lowell expanding further downtown and 27 percent host unique events of interest to students.”

Marion attributes the poor connection between students and businesses to a “deficit of information.”

Campbell said he thinks that students need to broaden their downtown Lowell experiences. “Students know about the bars, but they really don’t understand what else downtown provides them, and that they have free transportation there,” he said. “Until I ran my campaign, I didn’t even fully know what downtown Lowell offered with all these different businesses.”

Melanie Doucet, a junior psychology major, was not aware of the discounts available downtown. She, however, likes to go to downtown restaurants like Life Alive because of “the relaxed environment and the healthy food options,” she said.

Doucet, a resident of Woburn, is not as familiar with the area as local students. Both Marion and Campbell want students to be more aware of what is available downtown, but they also think that the businesses need to take responsibility for reaching out. “We used to always get feedback that there is not enough experiential things to do {in downtown Lowell}…There are certain activities that we have heard students are interested in, but this is where the private sector needs to respond,” said Marion.

Marion said that Mill No. 5 is just what the city needs. “It fits that strategy of sort of experiential retail. It’s not a cookie-cutter type of experience. It’s something different,” he said.

It is important to have something as unique as Mill No. 5 because “the experts in retail will tell you now that cities like Lowell that are trying to compete in the retail market, really have to be looking to compete in what they call experiential retail. The malls aren’t going to go away, there are strip shopping malls… so there has got to be a different strategy for the small, kind of older cities. It’s very possible, it just takes a different way of thinking about the retail experience,” said Marion.

Places like Mill No. 5 offer not only a unique retail experience, but a cultural experience that can add value to your college experience, said Campbell.

The relationship between UMass Lowell students and downtown Lowell can be symbiotic, said Campbell. “If they {students} are shopping downtown, they are stimulating the local economy,” he said. “They can make the occasional hire if they are more supported,” he said.

Marion said that small business owners have approached him about hiring UMass Lowell students. They would be interested in hiring college students over high school students, he said.

Campbell said that the university and the downtown Lowell community would benefit from a stronger connection. “Right now I look at UMass Lowell, and I think that UMass Lowell is 100 percent growing in the right direction, and I think the local community has an opportunity to grow with it, and by educating students on what downtown offers, it can grow.”