After years of being outpaced by retail upstart Augusta, consumers spent more money in the Twin Cities last year.
More trips out to eat. More trips to Lowe’s and Home Depot.
More shopping, period.
New sales tax figures show people shelled out $895 million on personal goods in Lewiston-Auburn in 2005, according to the State Planning Office. That’s a 25 percent increase from 2000. Among Maine’s retail center heavyweights, that’s also the largest growth spurt.
“I’m not surprised,” said Auburn Economic Development Director Roland Miller. “Our market area has … a momentum now that everyone seems to recognize. That just helps with your ability to attract more and more.”
State planners and Maine Revenue Services spent all last year revamping sales tax data collection and never released the usual quarterly updates. The whole batch just came out.
Trends from 2005:
• “Employee discount pricing” didn’t save car dealers’ bottom line.
While some cities measured sales spikes last June and July, statewide auto sales in 2004 and 2003 were bigger.
• More heads on more hotel pillows in the Twin Cities.
Lewiston-Auburn had a 43 percent jump in lodging revenue – from $6.6 million in 2000 to $9.4 million – but it’s still a tiny market. More people spent the night in Waterville, Rumford and Rangeley markets than the Twin Cities. (Rumford includes Bethel.)
• Shift in shopping power.
L-A unseated Augusta as the fourth-largest shopping center in Maine, behind Portland, Bangor and Freeport markets.
• Local construction market kept building.
Taxable sales for building supplies were up 58 percent here from 2000 to 2005, to $96 million. Among big cities, only Brunswick grew faster.
Paul Badeau at the Lewiston-Auburn Economic Growth Council said he suspects construction spurred gains in restaurants and lodging.
Not too long ago, he met a couple here to consult on a bank building who’d lived at the Hilton Garden Inn for weeks.
“It was a New Hampshire firm that built the Southern gateway projects: Northeast Bank and Oxford Networks. If you’re in Maine and you live more than two hours away, you don’t want to drive,” echoed Lincoln Jeffers, assistant to the city administrator in Lewiston.
Miller thought higher gas prices might be another factor that kept dollars local.
He said Auburn’s getting ready to announce new retail development that ought to make local shoppers happy. That city’s been focused on the area around the Wal-Mart Supercenter.
At Exit 80, where Lewiston wants to channel future retail development, Jeffers said there’s been movement, but nothing to announce.
In 2000, sales in this market accounted for 5.8 percent of all sales in Maine. Last year that slipped a little to 5.5 percent. Some comfort: that figure fell in Portland, Freeport and Augusta areas, too.
Badeau’s been struck by the local restaurant scene and the potential there with so many new offerings: Fish Bones, Ruby Tuesday, Super China Buffet, Cleopatra.
“It’s pretty amazing when you think of 18 months ago – slim pickings,” he said. “What these numbers bear out, and what we’ve learned, is that when we have options in shopping, options in dining out, options in consuming, people spend their dollars here versus going elsewhere.”
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