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pans of the City to announce a distinct place. A facade improvement and/or signage program may also be appropriate to help give the area a cohesive feeling. much like Fourth Street in Berkeley. While San Leandro"s performance in home furnishings sales is already quite strong. this district could also be used as an incentive to attract additional retailers in this categon . Furniture retailers typically recognize that they benefit from the synergism of being with other similar stores. and are therefore eager to locate within such a district. rather than try and draw customers to a competing location. The Alvarado Street area is well suited to this type of activitly. since furniture retailers often need large floor areas and are also price sensitive. which discourages them from locating in prime retail areas. Roles and Responsibilities. Economic Development staff should assume the role of facilitating the initial organization of the merchants located in the furniture district. Once established. the district members themselves should be responsible for on -going management and coordination. Depending on the level of organization. the district may find it useful to raise funding for a staff coordinator. One opponuniry in the future might be for the DBA and the Furniture District to share staff. ` Priority: MEDIUM Costs and Sources of Funding. Costs for this program will initially involve in -kind Economic Development staff time. but might also involve consultant services. The Objective of the program is to eventually shift the responsibilin, and costs of the project from the City to the Furniture District members. as their level of organization increases and Positive results are generated from marketing activities. As an incentive for merchants to organize and participate, the Economic Development Authorin could pledge a portion of its revenues derived from increased sales in the home furnishings category to support district activities. Estimated on -going costs for this action are MEDIUM. excludingany incentives that might be offered through other programs. Non -Retail Sales Tax Non -retail sales taxes are usuallx generated through "business -to -business"" transactions which involve the sales of goods in a non -retail setting, such as a contractor purchasi mechanical equipment directly from a wholesale distring butor. or a manufacturer making a direct sale of equipment to a large user. Historically. San Leandro has had a very strong non -retail sales tax component within its overall sales tax revenues. In recent years. this revenue source has declined. In the future. the Cin can make up some of this deficit by increasing retail -based sales tax revenues. however. there are limits to the extent the City will be able to expand its retail activities due to basic demographic and market trends. The regional population base served by San Leandro is not growing very rapidly: and the neH retail segments that have recently entered the marketplace to serve the existinry population. 6 �,