Small Business, Strong Community: A Conversation with Forward Motion Sports Owner Marty Breen

In this episode of Town Talks with the Mayor, Mayor Newell Arnerich sits down with Marty Breen, owner of Forward Motion Sports, to discuss the important role small businesses play in shaping Danville’s community character and creating a strong sense of place. 

The conversation explores what makes Downtown Danville special, how the downtown has changed over time while maintaining its unique charm, and how local businesses help create connection and engagement throughout the community. Marty also shares insights on navigating broader economic challenges, building lasting roots in Danville, and the value of community support for local businesses. 

Listeners will also hear how community events, gathering places, and downtown infrastructure help bring people together and contribute to making Downtown Danville a destination for residents and visitors alike. 

Town Talks with the Mayor is a monthly video podcast produced by the Town of Danville featuring the Mayor in conversation about community priorities, Town initiatives, major projects, and timely local topics. Find more information at danvilletowntalks.org/mayor 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Well, good morning. I'm Newell Arneridge, Mayor of Danville. And uh this morning here we are uh meeting with Marty Breen, owner proprietor of the Forward Motion Sports here in Danville, California. And this podcast is about neighbors, student business owners, nonprofits, public servants who make our community a special place to live. Marty, a special welcome to you because that last part about special place to live, you have brought so much joy and engagement in our community. And we're going to talk a little bit about how did you end up in Danville? What was it that you said? Um, and I believe this was probably your first business. So maybe you can share with us a little bit about your story, how you ended up in Danville.

SPEAKER_01 0:44

Well, thank you, Newell. It's nice to be here. Um, 35 years ago, my brother and I decided we wanted to start a retail business. We were doing triathlons, and we needed a place to find all the goods we needed. I never worked a day in my life in retail. And uh lo and behold, we did an Ironman triathlon. We said we want to start a store, we'll research our research the whole business, we'll save our money, we'll do our due diligence. Um, a year from now we'll open a store. Well, we owned a store a month later. That's pretty good. And so from that we went, you know, I jumped right in, um, one employee for first nine months, but we said, where are we gonna be? We actually took over a store that had started. Uh it wasn't open for very long as of for as forward motion sports, and we said, we need to be in a downtown location. So we searched, we grew up in Moraga. Um we weren't gonna be in Moraga, we want to be somewhere else where we have some more retail and and traffic. Um we looked in Arinda, we looked in Lafayette, we looked at Walnut Creek, Pleasant Hill, we came south. Danville hit Alamo. My brother was living in Alamo at the time. Um so we said, hey, Danville, wow. We came downtown, went to Valley Medlands for breakfast. We went south, we went to San Ramon, we went down to Dublin, to Pleasanton, and we kept coming back to Danville. And the reason why was it was a downtown. It was an old downtown. Um you had a community there, and we liked the one two-lane street going through downtown, not four lanes with a center median, uh, not a huge conglomerate, but a nice old downtown and a sense of community. Wow.

SPEAKER_00 2:38

Now that was about 1991, I think. Correct. You know, that was an interesting time in Danville. I remember the vacancy rates were starting to climb. Um, you know, we were a year away from the first recession that we had, and that recession was 90, kind of in 92 to 94, only in California. Um so that was a bold move, but nobody knew that was coming. And yet you opened a store that quickly, um, but you've been successful for 35 years. So maybe coming with you know a pure business sense of this is what we need to do and accomplish might have been the best guide. But what kind of changes have you seen in in that period of time? Because I remember East Prospect was all uh uh antiques. That was the little antique area. Um the internet really wasn't around yet. Um and there were a lot of things that had that wonderful look, but a lot of changes. Things need to be fixed up. What did you see over that first few years? What were the changes you saw? And did you make any pivot points or how did you kind of get through all of that?

SPEAKER_01 3:48

I would say a lot of inexperience, so not nothing to I didn't know. So you just you fly by the seat of your pants and you say, What is the best thing to do? And so you think what, hey, how do I want to be treated? Um what kind of service do I want? And so we I just did what I thought was right at the time. Um, you know, our space was right there in downtown, right on Harts Avenue. Um we haven't moved far, we've only moved about 30 feet in 35 years on that. But it's it was then trying to create a sense of community within our store, uh, inviting friends, starting a our Wednesday night run, um, where you bring people every week back to the store, and it's a sense of spot where they can meet, where they can meet up, go, do things. So it was that community. And that little run started with eight people and has morphed into you know 35, 45, 75 people, sometimes a hundred. You know, today it's on average about 35 to 40 people. Um, but it's changed over the years quite a bit on that. But having that sense of community, bringing people to the store was the main idea. And here's a spot where you can meet, where you can go, take off, and do things afterwards. Hey, go out, hit a restaurant, do some other stuff. Saturday mornings, go to the farmer's market after some nice runs. So there's always something to do.

SPEAKER_00 5:11

Yeah, interesting over the years I've observed uh my kids grew up here and we were looking, they both got into track, um, played soccer, but when it came to track, they needed shoes. I remember the one thing I was impressed. I I was used to, to be honest, the type of person you go to a sporting goods store, you see all the shoes in the rack, you grab one, you get the right size, you try it, and you walk out. Either it works, either it fits or it doesn't. That was the end of the story. But I remember we were looking at shoes, and um one of your sales team comes up and started looking and says, Well, why don't you so my daughter, why don't you walk back and forth and we observed and talked about, and it took a few minutes and came up, says, Well, here's what I would recommend. Here's a series of things. And the level of knowledge and the commitment, I learned more, and I wasn't even there to buy a pair of shoes, and I bought a pair because I didn't realize how important our feet are, and the fact that shoes I think we all had a tendency to buy the way they looked, not how they performed. So that was a unique service. And was that just sort of the outgrowth of what you were starting to say? Was just from your own personal experiences, or how did how did you evolve? Because you became an expert in that area.

SPEAKER_01 6:22

Well, to to really service the service the community, service what we're doing, we had to specialize too. Um we kind of deviated that triathlon isn't a specialty, there's three three entities in it. Swim, bike, run. Well, we wanted to be the best running store. We wanted to be the best bike shop, the best swim shop. And to do all that, it's it's hard to do. Uh over the years, we've had to focus. Um, we're out of triathlon, and when it says we don't do bikes anymore, we don't do swim. And it comes down to the shoes and the footwear. So the running aspect or the exercise, I I call it the exercise aspect. Um, everybody wants to get out and do something. Well, we want you to have the best equipment to get out and stay, stay healthy. And so that whole thing of having the best selection of shoes going through, then having to teach you what's appropriate. Um, most people don't, they come in, they still come in today and want the look. But we try to say is hey, the look, we'll get you the look, but we really need to show you what's appropriate based on your foot structure, your body structure, what you're doing. And so that became our focus. We had some really good employees in my first days. Um, this was their career, they wanted to do that. They've moved on to other bigger and better things in the same industry, but they helped start all that of having to build a um a shoe review on online back in the early days. Hey, people would look at our shoes. How do you review all those shoes? Well, we have it right here, we have all the information, let's communicate it to you. So that was the main thing is being able to say all those things to the customer, inform you of what's appropriate, what's not, and we still do that today.

SPEAKER_00 8:03

That's great. I was gonna say the um the steadfast, you are probably the only retail business that has been here that long. Um, and you're right, within 30 feet, you know, you get the opportunity to move into the new building, which was a new building. It's been there what now 25 years or so. Um, but you've seen a lot of changes. Um, and as I started talking about before, you know, um East Prospect had an old post office, there was an electrical company, had a big service yard. Didn't look the same, and we all have a tendency to look at it now. Um the streets weren't quite the same as they are today. Um how do you how do you think the the environment has changed for retail? And how important is the location still? Is the location still important? Is it if you're gonna be in the retail business, particularly a service-oriented retail, is it better to be in a downtown environment like that? Or what do you what do you think those things have changed?

SPEAKER_01 8:59

Well, go back to when we started. We didn't want to be in a shopping mall. I wanted to be somewhere where someone could pull up on a downtown street, pull up in front of your store. We they can still do that through. Free parking. Free parking. I don't want to be somewhere where there's a parking garage. I don't want to be where there's meters. Um and we wanted to be visible right there where people could walk. The walking downtown was very important. And so that part hasn't changed today. Um that that is what is dan downtown Danville. People are walking and doing stuff, and keeping that pedestrian-friendly um atmosphere helps our store. And today, I wouldn't change that. There's no way I want to be in the shopping center. I said, I want to be right there where the activity is. Uh, you know, you do we shut down the streets for a car show, we're gonna have one coming up. Hey, it's you everybody's there. You see, you see the people, you attract all those people. And when you have activities like that, it brings more people to town. You just need to be visible, you're visible there. And so being being in the in the heart of downtown is very important, um, even on Hearts Avenue versus uh at a right in the middle versus another location. And that was the whole gist of when my brother and I kept looking at Danville. We actually were told not to open in Danville 35 years ago by some manufacturers. So we'll never open your account there because we have another business that's close by. And we said, sorry, we're gonna do it anyways. And sure enough, we have those we got those manufacturers to sell to us eventually on all that. But it was it was being in that spot of downtown in the community which was so important to us.

SPEAKER_00 10:39

Well, speaking of community, that's one of the areas I think how we met was that you got involved with the community. I mean, you weren't just selling things and providing a service. You were like part of the community, and I know you've helped start a few events. Um, sort of I'm working backwards, but the last one you helped bring back the Devil Mountain run. So tell us a little bit about it. How'd you get involved in those kinds of things?

SPEAKER_01 11:02

And well, it's as easy as a running event. You we sell running shoes, so that that part was easy. Um, but we we would host your packet pickups, we would host the race, so you drive people into it. So you want to do something like that all the time. Um the running event was easy. You know, when Children's Hospital backed out of uh wanting to support the race, we had to find somebody else. And you know, a good friend of mine came in and he stepped up, that was Chris McCrary, and brought the race, brought the race back. And he's turned it over now to another gentleman, and it's bringing all those people and having that support. But that's a town activity, you know, people want to come here for that race. I remember before I ever opened the store, people talking about the Devil Mountain Run. And this is 40 years ago, over 40 years ago. And it was the highlight of people's uh you know season to be able to come out and do that race right through downtown. Um, but it brings it brings the community back. And you have to, as a as a retailer, I can't just take, take and take and take from everybody that comes in. I've got to be able to support the local activities, like our cross-country teams, our track and field teams at the local high schools. Um we support all the athletes in the schools. So when they come in, we want to make sure we're taking care of them. So we participate in all those act all those things with those schools and teams. Um, but that's what brings back to us to get out in the community and do those things.

SPEAKER_00 12:31

Well, and and I just want to compliment you. You have been a great community partner because all of those events ultimately help nonprofits, right? Devil Mountain Run, when they came back, even before when Children's Hospital, obviously that's an important nonprofit. Um, but also one of the races, and this is probably the first time I came to the store, was you became a partner with um Run for Education. Used to be Primo's to Primo's run, then Run for Education. And you're right, all of the pickup, you stage all of that, help support all of that. How many years have you been doing that now?

SPEAKER_01 13:04

Um, well, that was probably from day one when we got into. You know, it's it's a little, you know, we still support it uh today, uh, even though it's moved out of town a little more so and back to you know another town. Right. But you you just gotta stay in front of all those schools. And you know, those schools all walk into into our store every day wanting, you know, some kind of donation, some kind of support. Um, the local schools put on their own races within the schools. That's right. Uh the big one that we just did last year, I was very impressed, was at Vista Grande, um, just you know, just right real close here to downtown. And that the support that was amazing. You know, see the people, and they say, Wow, can you help support us a little bit more? And I said, Well, I'm I'm sure we can we'll find something to do.

SPEAKER_00 13:52

Oh, that's great. You know, along that line, um, and all of us, you know, I own cup two companies, but by primary company, we were worried as COVID came along, you know, what's it gonna do to the world? What's it gonna do the economy? And it wasn't just being locked up in my business, but really concerned about what the future looked like. But you have a unique story that you actually sort of made a big pivot and came up with a model that worked. Maybe you can share us, you know, what did you do, what were the steps, how did you actually reach out to your customers? Because I remember you're doing literally home delivery, as I recall.

SPEAKER_01 14:29

As as COVID hit, I remember we shut we shut down. We had customers waiting for shoes that were they had ordered from us. So, you know, small staff said, Hey, we gotta stay here for the next five days or four days, and we gotta fulfill those orders. UPS is gonna deliver some truck, you know, packages to us, we've got to get that done. We closed on that following Sunday, one day. And I went home and said, What are we gonna do? I said, We're gonna we'll run out of money in a month, four weeks. Um, we gotta do something. So we came up with, hey, we'll start promoting home delivery. We'll call us up. We're not on the internet in terms of sales, we're not delivering stuff. Hey, we'll just start calling customers. Uh if they call us, we'll we'll deliver it to them. And so we just started a home, we pivoted, started a home delivery with our with our store van, logoed that up and said, need shoes, uh, give us a call and we'll come. And we had a staff that would drive out every day, and we started really slow, and it started building that we're selling shoes, you know, all day long with people calling up, and we would hand deliver that stuff, put it on their doorstep with a a nice bag and a note, and inside that bag was a fresh, fresh roll of toilet paper that was hard to come by at the time.

SPEAKER_00 15:45

And it made it made a lot of impressions to people. Yeah. I I was gonna say it really did. People talked about that for a long time. And you know, as as we came out of COVID, the first thing we could do was walk outside. That was it. You could walk, you had to wear a mask, and eventually got to. And I thought, boy, the first thing you're gonna do, more people are walking than they're used to. Maybe I need a pair of shoes to support that. Did you see a change in business after that? Did it did it rim drop off dramatically? Did it come back? How did things go?

SPEAKER_01 16:17

Well, with COVID, it dropped off quite a bit. Right. Um, and it was just trying to survive and just make ends meet. You know, you couldn't we couldn't do it without the help of landlords helping reduce rent. Um manufacturers extending terms and credit to you on all kinds of stuff because they said, hey, you're our business, we want to be in business. So that helped us quite a bit. Um we didn't really lay off, we didn't lay off any employees. You know, people got timed down, um, but we brought them all back. And as COVID lifted, everybody wanted to be out. They also wanted the experience of going back into a store without having to, yes, seeing people, seeing a first hand experience of actually trying something on. Um, but being out was the key. And so our traffic picked up quite a bit. You know, 22 and 23, our business was up quite a bit. And that was from people wanting to be out, wanting to go back into a store and socialize. Um, hey, I don't want to just sit in my house. I don't want to be at I don't want to be at home. I want to be, I want to be outside, I want to be and our act what we do for outside activities um is you know what the main business is, is we get people out to do stuff. And so we saw a big turn. So people really wanted to come back to retail and experience shopping, uh, if that was it, or the service that people give versus something just that was online, hey, I'm gonna point and click and uh get something delivered in my house, and but they wanted to have an experience, and that's what we've got to turn, you know, even today, you know, to it's gotta stay an experience.

SPEAKER_00 17:52

You know, it's interesting you mentioned all those, and you also specifically mentioned you're not on the internet, which is interesting, you know, retail as on a big scale, the Amazon model where everything's online, and yet you're the opposite of that, and have been in business 35 years. We've seen people come and go, and but people say I'm all on the internet and I'm doing this, I'm marketing that, and they're gone. Um, maybe you can, you know, probably repeating some of the things, but sort of coal that why not on the internet and how is it that you market? How do you you know it's obviously you're doing events and things like that, but what but what is that sort of conscious step that you're doing that keeps you off the internet and keeps you in business?

SPEAKER_01 18:41

Well, the key is is a long time I mean, probably 25 years ago, we started, we had a whole online business. And what we found that I had to spend a lot of money. What was I? Was I brick and mortar or was I an internet business, online business? And we had to spend a lot of money and to dedicate to that. And we started it, we tried it, and we said, hey, we'll build up, as we build up, I have a dedicated employee that'll start handling this, but they're gonna work in the store also. They're gonna handle the shipping, they're gonna handle the order, they're gonna build the website, they're gonna do all those things. What I realized is I really needed some money to dedicate to this. And at the time, back 25 years ago, I said, Well, I needed, you know, $250,000 to say set aside to have inventory, pay for an employee to do this to really get and do it. And so I didn't have that kind of money sitting around or to do that. So we said we need to stay where we are and what we are. And today we're the same thing. We're we're a brick and mortar. We decided, hey, what are we what are we gonna boot? What's our what is our you know, our our thing? We're here to we're here servicing people. I'm not gonna be a internet business. Um, I'd have to spend a lot more money today, even though it's easier to get on the internet and sell today, um, which we do, we have a little bit, we do some of our own products, um, but it's still a lot to maintain. Um, I gotta have dedicated people to that to handle that, and that part, that part's changed. Um, but the internet itself with online business today is it's it's kind of unique because I have to compete against every manufacturer there is. Right. So, how how do I differentiate what I do? We've got to be so service-oriented, we've got to be high quality and service. Personal experience. Personal experience, give that service, and that you you look at it and say, I'm not low cost, um, I'm the same price as every manufacturer. That's what people don't realize. Right. Um, you know, a manufacturer sells a shoe for $150, that's my price. You're not gonna get it any any less expensive somewhere else. So that's the beauty about a manufacturer. We compete against them every day, but prices are held the same. So, what differentiates us? We're gonna tell you what you need, we're gonna show you what you need, you're gonna let you try it on so you don't have to return it four times in the mail uh in terms of because you got the wrong size, or you don't have to buy four sizes and then ship three back because you don't know what you need. And we're gonna come help you on that. And that's the that's the key today is is we still have to differentiate the actual service aspect of what we can provide that you can't get anywhere online. They try to you try to have certain things online where you can build a shoe, you can figure out what you need, and most of the time that comes back. Um it's not the right stuff.

SPEAKER_00 21:26

Right, not exactly right. Well, I was gonna say that's that's an interesting story because um not only the internet had a pathway, but your success is not internet, it's still based on that personal service and experience. But at the same time, look at all the big box stores. Um I won't mention their names, but they were sold a lot of sporting goods, they sold you, they're all gone. They're out of business. Um and those models, which had no service whatsoever, just pick it up, walk out the store kind of thing. Um it's just sort of an Interesting observation, and you know, you've had to compete against those. But in a way, I think the story that we're hearing is you didn't compete. I'm providing something very different. Yeah, the shoes are the shoes of the shoes, but you're gonna get that other experience. So when you look at the town as a whole, because you've been able to observe, you've been down there every day for 35 years. I see you there every day. Um what are your observations? Um, you've seen successes, you've seen changes. You know, what what do you think is working downtown? Are there any ideas you have that we can do different that that you know towns should be doing different? Should we be trying to attract different kinds of businesses? What are what are the solutions you think we have to look at?

SPEAKER_01 22:42

Well the heart well the the there's a beauty, there's a good part to it, and there's a bad part to it. The the good part is downtown is you know, there's a certain inventory of buildings and type of buildings that we have. We don't have real large buildings. Right. So that keeps out those big box stores. They're not coming downtown. Not that we're deliberately doing it, it's just natural. And it also it also keeps out, let's say, even some big manuf big name retailers because they need a larger building. Right. Um so there's some there's so that helps protect a small business. Interesting. In terms in terms of somebody can't come into town because they don't have a big enough building to for what they need. Um, you know, an old house might not cut it for their kind of retail. And so the the the inventory of buildings, there's a there's a big bonus to say, hey, it's keeps it, keeps it small, keeps it local, which we really like, but it also keep it can keep away some of the big names that might attract people, like if we went to downtown Walnut Creek, if we went to San Ramon now to some of the stuff where they've built got big manufacturers coming in, retailers coming in that draw more people. So the real key is is if we can't have all those there, if we have a small amount of them, how do the local people drive people in? So we've got to be so unique in terms of what we do, what our business is. We can't be a run-um, the run-of-the-mill, we can't be the same thing as somebody else. We just gotta we have to be different. And that difference of the community, of what you sell, you gotta be focused. I mean, I can't be those big box stores, you know, they they've got everything. They're not real great at all of it, though, you know, or one thing. So when we focused over the years, I've come down from triathlon from bikes and swim, and we don't have swim business anymore. People miss that. But I had to focus, and we got to focus on what we do best. And today, really, we sell shoes. We sell shoes for exercising. And so keeping that focus and then being the best you can be in that, providing the service, the community. Um, and you've got to you've got to keep reinventing yourself too. You know, COVID, we had to reinvent ourselves. Right. Um, so we pivoted. Long time ago, I remember walking into seeing stores. I said, you know, that store, it's not changing with the times. Um I said, they need to change. I said, we're we're changing with the times, we're doing stuff. Well, in 35 years, I kind of got to look at myself in the mirror and I said, Am I becoming that store I used to talk about that's not changing? So even today, we've got big changes that we need to do. We we still need to reinvent ourselves in terms of how we do business. If it's our service, how do we keep improving that? How do we add something to it to make it different? Because people today, um, you know, it's so easy to sit at your desk or sit on your phone and and order something and just have it. I don't feel like driving downtown. We've got to, we've got to, we've got to create something to make the people want to keep coming downtown. Is it the personal service that we have? Is it how attractive downtown is and there's more things going on? But we have to create those things. And and I've got a tough, tough time in front of us to be able to keep on doing that. And how do we I gotta reinvent us a little bit? And so if we stay, if we stayed a status quo, um, we could be gone. And so we need to we need to keep keep evolving.

SPEAKER_00 26:11

I think that's that's that's the observation that I'm hearing from you is that in 35 years you have. You really have. And and and while you say it, I need to change, you probably said that last week, last month, last year, and you did, and you have over time. Um but one of the things you mentioned was about getting people downtown. Obviously, the old town Danville um projects the image, it's nice to walk. People have a tendency that live here. Um they when their relatives are around, they always take them downtown. They want to show off the downtown. Um, but you know, one of the things we've heard from businesses is um we want more events downtown. And then we hear from another group of businesses. Well, I don't want you to do that. Because some people, when they see an event, they close their store. Others take advantage of it. Or let's say they stay open. What's your thought and and is there something that you see helps your type of business better than other events? I think any event downtown is gonna help.

SPEAKER_01 27:14

And you just have to you have to be willing to be there and be part of it. If if somebody's bringing people to town, it's the business across the streets putting on their own event, if that's bringing people to town, hey, you have an opportunity to be seen. They may not buy that day, they may not shop that day. Um, you know, when we do the we do the wine walks and and stuff downtown, we just had a sip and stroll. Um, you have people coming through. Did I get any business from people shopping in my store that that that night? Not really. But did people come by and you see you? Potentially, they're gonna come back. When you have a street fair, uh, if you have a car show, uh that may not be the focus of the people to shop for the car show. I mean, they want to be out there, look at cars, maybe have something to eat, something to drink, but they're gonna come back if they see you. And the key is we'll always try to do some kind of special event when that car show is going on. Um, I might want to move some product, I might have a sale. People ask me, don't you always have a sale in the car when something's going on downtown? I said, Well, we try to. And in, but that brings people to town. So if you can capitalize off of what's happening, it may not be that day, but another day they come back, just with uh Memorial Day. Um, I was close. We've always been close on Memorial Day. I talked to my neighbor, I was open, Marty. I had so much traffic downtown, I can't believe it. There's people that brought what you said, they brought their friends, they brought their out-of-town guests downtown. I said, Wow, I might need to rethink that the next time. But they had success. And I see that all the time with people coming in. Uh, they come into town, they want to show off, they want to show their friends where they live. Yeah, and they like bringing them downtown. And if you've got stores that do stuff, I mean, we sell stuff that says Danville, California, and people love that. They go home with something. But you you've got to take advantage of everybody's event. If somebody else is having a good event, putting on a nice event, that's gonna bring more people to town. And if if businesses can collaborate on all that, that I know that the store down the street or the restaurant across the way is gonna do a big promotion, maybe I need to get involved and talk to that owner. Um, that would definitely help um the whole community, help the business. Um, so the businesses need to be aligned on all that. So I I'm in favor of the vents, everything that happens downtown. You just have to be able to capitalize on it and and know what you're gonna what what type of uh outcome. You may not you may not see it that day, but sure enough down the road, hey, I was in, I came to the car show and I saw your guys, and I need some shoes.

SPEAKER_00 29:47

Yeah, good observation. Yeah, that that I think that that's one of the messages that um I think everybody struggles with, and I think you have a clear vision on it, is that don't count that event day as the day that, well, I didn't I didn't do a big business that day. You can't you're saying you're counting as a day for an opportunity for more business, and the more you can expose your store and what you do to more people, potentially you're gonna have more customers. And I think that's um that's a challenge that some people aren't don't see that. Um, and I and I think it's good to hear. And I think you know, this year there's 26 events downtown, more than we've ever had. And you know, the Chamber of Commerce has kind of pivoted to um try to focus on that. And I've seen just like you've probably seen over the the past 35 years, the downtown has um had high success, it drops and it kind of goes back and forth, and it's you know trying to get all of the forces heading the same way. Um but in that evolution as you've seen that, what do you predict in the future? What what do you think, specifically in a historic town like us, what do you think or what do you recommend is the focus that Danville and we ought to be doing with a downtown?

SPEAKER_01 31:12

Very good very good question. Um, you know, people come and say Dan, it's changed so much. People walk in the store and say, Well, I've been here 35 years, it's changed, but it's also it's very much the same in essence. But the whole key the whole key is is people think of Danville and they see that downtown, um, and it all comes back to a focal point in the community. And if we keep keep a focal point on, if we want to keep improving Danville, um, it's gonna improve at outlying areas everywhere, but that downtown is that focus. And as long as we keep strong, I say, uh we want to promote, promote business, promote things that are happening, um, hey, we'll look at this. We need to we need to look at things that we can do and be open. And I know the town's been really open about that for years, about about allowing certain things to happen. I mean, uh the support you give for the events um and stuff that you know to pr promote these these things, these happenings. Um we gotta keep we gotta keep doing that. I mean, the infrastructure that's in town, I mean, is is wonderful. I mean, we've got you know, nice walking areas, all those things. And you're not gonna have that in in every other city. Um, but keeping it a a downtown, a nice walking-friendly downtown um in the future. Um we've got parks, we've got things, we've got things going on. It's it's I think we're going in the right direction.

SPEAKER_00 32:46

You know, and and I appreciate hearing that. And one of the things that we've heard along with that line, you know, we're trying to focus as much as we can. If we're gonna do an event, we want to have it downtown. You know, we were using Oak Hill Park as uh a place we did our um concert series, our free concerts, you know, music in the park. Well, we've tested for a couple of years and did improvements in the um the theater parking area, Front Street parking lots, uh and on the town green, that we can do concerts there. And we see, boy, when you do a concert, restaurant businesses go up before the concert and after. So we have a new building, it's just gonna start construction right on Front Street, right next to the Town Green. It's uh real purpose is for um uh uh maker uh space for artists, but so we can do more art classes, but public restrooms. And then we also so we'll have bigger public restrooms and the bandstand sort of gazeba that we're gonna enlarge it so that we can have larger bands and things like that. So we've heard that message, and I think that's hopefully, and I'm glad to hear it from you, Marty, as well, that we want to try to focus on those and just give everybody a reason to come downtown. And one other thing that's coming up, and and I'll share it, and we'll get your opinion live. Um and this has been something personal. I've been trying to get a high-quality small boutique hotel downtown, a bed and breakfast. And it was tried originally at the Padva House. Um, and that's when the Padva family um were moving on and they were gonna sell the house. Opportunity to fix it up, do an expansion, and town lost the opportunity. We got outbid. And uh, but now there's a proposal for a small 55-room Napa-style boutique hotel. We'll have nothing but rooms. So all of the breakfast, lunch, and dinners would be within the community. And they want their whole plan is to partner with every retail business, every service business in the downtown core. And you know, we have one hotel fairly full, particularly holidays and things like that. Um do you think that would help you and your fellow retailers in the downtown area?

SPEAKER_01 35:11

Oh absolutely. Uh bringing people, if you you can fill a hotel every night and you could have ties with that. I mean, there those people are gonna need to go out to breakfast. They're gonna need to get lunch. If whatever the whatever reason they're in town for, they're gonna need dinner. Um, they're gonna want to walk around. Um, to have to bring more people downtown, just like housing downtown, um just creates more of a vibe. And that vibe just brings, you know, you know an activity. If you have a if you have a crowd going on, it creates more of a crowd. And and as I say, if all of a sudden you see all this stuff happening in my store, people kind of wonder what's going on. They they come, they want to see what's going on. So the more people you bring, it just creates more people to want to be there. Um, you see an activity happening, you see something going on. What is that? I want to be, I want to know what that is. I want to be part of that. And so the more you bring, I think the more you bring, you know, it create it creates that that atmosphere that you want to create, which is inviting. And I think as people, we want to be around, we want to be around all that stuff. To have a downtown hotel downtown or in that proximity, um, I think would be a boost, a boost to the town, a boost to the local businesses. But then you gotta you gotta tie into that hotel. Oh, yeah, that hotel is, hey, I'm here in town for three days. Are there some good walking trails, uh, some places to go? Well, here's a business right here in town that knows all that. They'll point you to where you need to go hiking, where you need to go running if you want to do that, where you can walk, where you're at where those kind of activities are. And you have that synergy with the businesses. Value of good service. And then we've got to do that with even still today with with all of our other like businesses. Um we just had a person come in the store that just the other day and go, Do you have, you know, I need leather leather sandals or dress shoes, thinking we have those things. Well, no, just walk right across the street. From men you need that, just walk across the street. There's Patrick James right there. If all the businesses are are working together like that, too, it's a nice, it's a nice synergy. Um, and you get if you have a hotel that's pointing people in the right direction, um, or if you you partner with them, um, that's what you need to do. And I think as businesses, we all need to keep partnering, partner with the town, um, so we can build, keep building the community that it is. And it's like my success today might be somebody else's success tomorrow in terms of when we bring. It's just like when we do our Wednesday night run. You know, I might get 25, I might get 75 people out. And what are they doing afterwards? Hey, can we promote a local restaurant? A lot of these people are heading out to the restaurants, or they're doing something else. Maybe they see something. We have a local chiropractor that came in and talked to the group ahead of time. Oh, interesting. All of a sudden he drove we drove, you know, seven patients to that person in the next week. Um, so the more we can keep partnering and keep um piggybacking off of each other's successes, um, I think the town will keep growing and keep doing well.

SPEAKER_00 38:16

Well, and we're that's I think we're hopeful. So the the hotel will not be on hearts, it needs to be backed, tucked away a little bit. There's good quiet spaces that are really close, very close to you, um, that um would not directly enter or access anything off of hearts, but you can walk through because you know we have those wonderful little walkways and one right next to you that ties to the parking lot. So I think that's a hopeful, and they're expecting that that has eight to twelve million dollars a year of disposable income to be spent on restaurants and retail. So we're hoping that that is something. And also from uh community pride to get a high quality um place to stay to have your friends and family you know seems to have value. So that that's another idea. So two things more Danville, downtown centric, on concerts, the focusing the events, and maybe getting a few of these complimentary uh uh businesses. Um we're hopeful that it's gonna help. So um what um, you know, as you've seen these 35 years of uh changes, and and I go back to just after you opened, Danville probably went through the highest vacancy rate in downtown. 40% vacant on hearts, kind of north of you, going that direction. Rents in some places were 80 cents a square foot. Hard to believe they were that cheap. But we did go through that. And I remember the town started its first real big investment in just fixing sidewalks, doing things like that. And we've done it now since I've been here. We've done it three times. And, you know, it'll probably be in a year or two. We'll start figuring out the next one. I think it goes along with what you're saying, uh Marty, is that you have to keep thinking about the future. And I know other council members say, well, that's great, we're done, now we can move on. I said, you know, maybe we have to think about this is what we've done. You can never always do everything you want, because you have, you know, financial limitations. But I think the reality is we have to continue to think about the future. What are the things that'll make it even a nicer place to be? Our north end of town still doesn't have the quality and the feeling of the south end. The trees, we finally got trees in there. We were prevented for 25 years of doing anything based on property ownership, complicated easements left over from when it was a state highway, a long list of things. Those are all settled, but it doesn't have that look. So, you know, I guess the question back to you is that a role that you think the town should continue to play in trying to do that, or is it more left up to what the businesses are gonna do?

SPEAKER_01 41:05

Um, I I it needs to be a collaboration. I mean, the the the town can have its direction and what to do, but we've got to be able to pull in not only the businesses. I you know, I don't own my building. How do our property owners, how do our property owners feel about that? Do they want to improve, do they want to improve their building? Do they want to improve their property, the value on that? And I think when everybody can work together that way with the landlords, the businesses, and the town, um, that then you get that sense of community of of what needs to be developed or how do you enhance it. Um but I think still I'd like to see the town keep continuing to strive to say how can we keep improving the downtown? What can we bring? What what infrastructure can we bring or activities can we bring to town on that? And then we just got to make sure our property owners and our business owners are are in in, I'd say, uh in sync with that. Um because that that helps quite a bit. I mean, I've got a you know, I've got a very good property owner that's you know long-term. So I've been the only tenant they've had uh in 25 years. Um but you know, we gotta have everybody's gotta be invested in that in terms of how do I build it? How does my building look? Do I need to, you know, do I need to enhance my building? And I know the town's been very good about you know helping businesses and owners fix up their storefronts and and to improve the look if that's necessary. But just the the actual infrastructure itself and getting around town, moving around town, um, that's really important. Um is it easy to drive downtown? Is it easy to walk downtown and park? And and park, and and park is the biggest key. I had people, you know, I can't find parking. I said, where what do you do when you go to another town where it's all meter and it's parking garages? You park and you walk about three blocks. I said, You couldn't park in front of my store today because someone else was. But right behind us, there's a big parking lot. There's a huge parking lot, and there's right across the street, and over there is another parking lot, and you can only have to walk a block. And and I said, You get a little exercise, but that's fine, but you never have to worry about it. And I having that ease of business of creating, you know, that parking itself helps business. Um, yeah, having that ease of driving around and walking and that parking makes it all the better.

SPEAKER_00 43:24

And it's safe. You know, that's the thing. I've heard the same thing. And because we are that small town, lots of times, because I I walk downtown every morning and usually in the afternoons, but absolutely every morning. And you know, in the morning you can park any place you want, right in front of your store. And you get that old town feeling. Oh, I can just drive out in front of Marty's store, jump in, out. Um, but yeah, maybe I have to park a block away. But when it's busy, but the fact is, you know, this is you know, 40 years ago when I brought my family here and we were, you know, very young children, um, it was different. It wasn't that we were Unsafe, it was people had a feeling that communities weren't safe as a whole. People didn't walk as much. Now kids ride their bikes to school. They walk to school. Kids on kids walk to school. My neighbors, their elementary school kids, feel so good they can walk. It's only four blocks of a school. They walk to school. So, yes, you can walk from the parking lot one block away and feel really safe. You know, what is what have you seen in the changes of things like that? I mean, do you have a sense that the community feels safer, or is there still sort of that general fear of being out in commercial areas or things like that?

SPEAKER_01 44:36

Um you know, you talk about the parking. I mean, I don't know. What do you feel? I don't know anybody that feels bad about parking their car and their car's gonna get broken into. Right. I mean there's not there's it that's not that's not happening. Um I don't even think about it. I mean, my car's left unlocked. I mean, my car's parked right near my store, but it's it's left unlocked, the windows are open, everything. I had a customer come in yesterday, and he parked, he was riding his bike, he parked his bike out front of the store. He goes, Hey, can I bring this bike inside the store? Because I don't want to get stolen. And I said, you know, that's a that's a pretty big bike, and and I don't know if it's really gonna fit in here. We don't have enough space for that. But you'll I'll say you can leave it right out there at the front, you can see it. And in 35 years, I've never had a bike stolen in front of my store. And and and that bike, I've had a $10,000 bike sitting out here in front, and they haven't been taken. And I think we'll be all right.

SPEAKER_00 45:25

You used to have a very custom bike um retailer above you, I think, for a while. Yeah. But uh yeah, I'm glad you said that. That's a that's a good point. But it's interesting how we have those stereotype images. And um and it just sort of takes that reinforcement. The more often you do something, the more comfortably you get with it. Um yeah, so being safe, and that's been a value proposition that we've worked on for years, takes a lot um of effort. And you know, many communities um when I came on the council thirty over thirty years ago, we have the same number of employees, the same number of police, we have the same number of everything. And in most communities, in that same 35-year period, they've doubled their staff, their revenues. Ours don't. And they don't because Danville got classified. It's complicated, but post-prop 13 states said, Oh, you're gonna be a limited service city. It was just an excuse that they can take most of our property tax. So most cities get 22 to 25, we get seven. So it makes it harder to do all of those things, and so we have to save. It's like when we do the downtown improvement projects, it takes us eight, nine years to save the money. Um, if you had sort of a magic wand, and this is just brainstorming, um, and there was one thing that we could do, what do you think? And I mean we, I mean the town, what could the town do that you think might be sort of that crown jewel that might do one more thing to help make downtown better? What might that be?

SPEAKER_01 47:02

It's a very good, very good question. And and I think there's a few other retailers who would like this too. I mean, downtown, we've recently done all the those new improvements. We've added some street lights and stuff and things like that. Um I'd like to see some more lights downtown.

SPEAKER_00 47:17

Right. So we have holiday lights now because we got the low voltage, so yes, there's an opportunity.

SPEAKER_01 47:23

I mean, but even walk, even walking downtown, brightening up, brightening it up most of downtown a little bit more. Yeah. Um, I've go I go into some places that are very much like Danville, and they're just they're lit up like a Christmas tree. Yeah. Um, and I think that'd have a little have a little bit more at night, um, a little bit more flare, and now and that would do and that would really help.

SPEAKER_00 47:46

Um I think it's a great idea. And and you know, we it's taken a long time, you know, as this is the technical part, but lights used to be 477 volt. Well, you can't put those cool little decorative lights out there. But when we went through, and particularly this last round, um, it's all LED, so it drops back down the same voltage you have in your house. So the 120 volt, and it's built into all of those lights. So the holiday lights that we started, what, a year or two years ago, we figured out we could add lights. So those are lit up, and now we found out we can add more lights. So um I I wanted to put it on the podcast. I think everybody ought to hear that. And we just got to get everybody to really say that's a great idea, and then we can start to look at how do we do that now that we have the backbone and the infrastructure to support that.

SPEAKER_01 48:34

And that, I mean, regardless of the holidays, having that you know 365 days a year is is phenom would be phenomenal. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 48:42

And it goes along with, you know, we've been pushing with restaurants and encouraged and found ways to facilitate to get more outdoor dining. Because one of the things you mentioned earlier struck me that, you know, who wants to go to a store that's empty? But when there's activity, everybody wants to go. Restaurants are even more so that you drive by a restaurant or walk by it, and you don't see anything, you're a little you're saying, I must be something wrong, maybe I'm not going in. So, you know, having outdoor dining, having it lit up, and having patrons, and our weather, you know, is just perfect, generally speaking, that you can do that. Um so, yes, adding lights um on the streets to create that festivity and activate the streets, um, I I think that's a great idea. I think, you know, probably it's going to start at Hearts Avenue, and you know, we got some other side streets we can't forget about. Right. Um, but if we could get it all the way from one end of town to the other, and particularly, you know, not forgetting about the north end as well. There's an opportunity there for the future. And I remember one of your friends who's a restaurant tourist said, you know, I was saying, Bo, we've got a lot of restaurants coming in town. Are you worried about it? And he said, absolutely no. He says, you know, the more restaurants and the more success we have, they may go across the street, and when they're full, they're coming to me, or vice versa. So he says, No, I'm not worried about more restaurants. And so I thought that in the restaurant business was an interesting observation. And we probably have tripled over the past, and really since COVID, that was the opportunity because we had to eat outdoors, we've tripled the number of outdoor spaces for dining that we used to have. And now that's the big, you know, how can I get more space? And there isn't enough space. Um, but lighting up, I think, is part of adding to that festivity. So, you know, as as I said, we have to save our money, right? And we'll do it and get a consensus. Um, so I appreciate you sharing your uh opinion of that. Um we're getting close to just a couple of minutes um left here. Um and maybe um ask you what um what do you see just in high level view of uh you know the what Danville is going to look like in the future? What do you see, predict, or want to see in the future? And you've you've had the opportunity to see what it used to look like, and people don't remember that. And I remember somebody says, Oh, Danville's changing so much. And I and I remind people, I says, Well, do you remember when the cement plant was on the clock tower parking lot and all you could see would be the big conveyors and the big dump trucks or cement trucks every day, and go, Well, I don't remember that. I says, I do. And I don't want to see that again. So, yes, we've made changes and stuff. So, in your view and everything that you've seen, what do you what do you predict the future of Danville is gonna look like downtown?

SPEAKER_01 51:37

I I think I think it's gonna keep I think it's gonna keep growing. I think the the the drive for people and community uh is gonna enhance it to keep keep building downtown. More people want to be here. You know, the thing about Danville was um a long time ago, and you think about this for business, when I wanted to locate here, uh I kept coming back to Danville. But think about where Danville is. It's right in the middle. You take your freeway and your traffic corridors and stuff, you got to the south of us, we got 580, 680 corridor. Um, people down south, they have all the shopping, all the stuff they need. They have all the hotels. They'll come north, they'll stop in Danville. They're not gonna go north, they don't want to get to that 680-24 interchange. You go north, they're gonna come south. This is what we found for our customer base. They're gonna come south. So people want to come here. Up 680, they're not going past Danville. They're not going, anybody living up in Walnut Creek, they're not going down to Dublin or San Ramon or to Pleasanton Shop. They have all those needs where they are north. Danville happens to be right in the middle. People from the north and people from the south will come to Danville, which is a beauty. And that was why we wanted to be downtown a long time ago. So you can draw those people from all those. I'm not just drawing from one little small little little area. You're pulling people here. And the more we keep enhancing downtown, the more we have new businesses, uh, creative businesses promoting all those things, um, you're gonna see more people and more people want to come here. Um live here too, um, if we can and afford all those things. But for for the businesses and so forth and for the town and the community itself, um, more and more people are gonna want to come here because of that.

SPEAKER_00 53:31

You know, I think that's an interesting observation that Danville kind of always was. I remember when I was young in the 1950s, because I am older, um, we stopped in Danville on our way, because our relative lived in um Alamo and Arinda. So we're coming from the Central Valley, and you came down the old highway, which was Hearts Avenue, San Juan Valley Boulevard, Danville Boulevard. Um it was the place you stopped because it was the midpoint. You know, and that's why the north end of town looks so much different. It was all gas stations. There were nearly a dozen gas stations just in that section, and it's changed. Um but I think I you know, I think your vision for the future is just that. The restaurants help create that sense of quality atmosphere, a reason you want to be downtown, and then all the complimentary businesses such as yourself, um, you know, sort of fill in all of those gaps and create a new sense of community. Um and I think your business, and I was written down, you know, you you have figured out you're a community hub. You're a hub of information, you're a hub for nonprofits, you support run for education, Devil Mountain run, things like that. So you're not just a retailer, you are that hub, your full service, which you know, businesses have a tendency to provide that little area, and you found your center of gravity. You went from um bike um and swimming and focused on one business, and you've been here 35 years. There are very few people who can say they've been in business 35 years, and we hope that you know your kids and your family will carry that on. So I I really want to thank you, uh, Marty, for uh not only what you do in the community, your role, your leadership, um, but just your commitment to Danville and helping make it successful. But thank you for uh joining me today and for those listening in. Thank you for listening in, and uh thank you for being part of this conversation. And if you enjoyed this episode, you know, I hope you can consider sharing it with a neighbor or friend, share it with your friends, because they can find out the real story, because in the store, you know, it takes probably multiple visits to find out who's Marty Breen. Maybe maybe people learned a little bit more about who you are today, and uh the great retailer and the great business and community partner you've become. Well, Newell, thank you very much.

SPEAKER_01 55:59

And uh I look for I look forward to being here for years to come and the store being here for years to come. And so we just gotta keep figuring it out. Great. Well done, Marty. All the best to you. Thanks.