There are a lot more of us. Our houses are more expensive. We make the same, or a little more, money than they do. There are more professionals working here. There are more manufacturing jobs. There are more young people.

Basically, the Twin Cities have more of all the good things that retail stores look for than Augusta, but still a lot of the big names skip right over us.

They’re in South Portland, and now they are heading to Augusta. Somehow they must have missed the signs on the turnpike for Auburn and Lewiston. It’s time to get serious about attracting retail.

If we want to shop at Pier 1 Imports or Linens ‘n Things, it’s 40 minutes north or 40 minutes south. In just a decade, retail sales in Lewiston and Auburn have been eclipsed by our smaller neighbor to the north: Augusta.

Besides the obvious advantages of a broad retail base, the lack of name-brand and high-end shops hurts our cities in other ways. When people and businesses look to relocate, convenient shopping is a sought-after amenity.

“It’s very important because the character and quality of a community is judged as a whole,” Christopher D. Lee, director of human services at Bates College, told the Sun Journal. “Retail is part of that, in decisions about where a person wants to live and work.”

Retail tends to cluster. Stores like to be around one another because the increased traffic helps everyone. Once a locality, say Augusta, attracts a few new stores, momentum builds, and the city becomes more attractive.

We often lament the loss of our young who move away because there’s “nothing here.” They see the ultra-hip ads on television for Old Navy and the Gap, but don’t see them when they look around the community.

Lewiston and Auburn can boast of several innovative retail success stories. But increasingly, we are losing our retail edge. What’s needed is a concerted effort to reach out to the retail industry and reverse that trend.

Augusta used aggressive tax incentives to encourage new development. That might not be the best approach for L-A. It favors new businesses over existing ones and hurts the overall tax base. But there is a role for public investment in infrastructure and marketing.

We have a lot to offer. About 500,000 people live within 30 miles of the cities. The downtowns are in the midst of a renaissance, and our proximity to the turnpike gives us room for large-scale growth. There’s already a big push to bring in Kohl’s, and Boston developer Ron Adamian says he has 88 acres near Exit 12 he plans to turn into a retail center.

The time is right to launch a major recruiting campaign aimed specifically at retail investment. We’ve been a retail hub in the past, we can get there again.


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