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Two city interns are knocking on doors of North Main Street businesses in High Point, surveying things such as business type and hours and parking availability.

“We want to get a sense of the businesses there,” said Wendy Fuscoe, executive director of Core City High Point.

The area being surveyed is known as the North Main Street District, or Uptown High Point area, of the Core City Plan. This covers the area on North Main Street from Ray Avenue to State Street along and on Lexington Avenue between Johnson and Long streets.

Other Core City areas, such as South Main Street and Washington Drive, will be surveyed later.

The information gathered will be linked with the city’s geographic information system. The GIS is a database that lists lots and buildings throughout the city.

Used together, the information and GIS will be used as a marketing tool, Fuscoe said. “For example, if there are two restaurants and 20 retail shops, it’ll show a need for more restaurants,” she said. “If no business is open on Saturday, we may ask business owners to open on the weekends.”

The goal is create a business hub that’s a dining, shopping and entertainment destination.

Fuscoe encourages residents to get involved by patronizing local shops and restaurants.

The director expects the interns, who were hired through the JobLink program, will need three weeks to survey the uptown area. The interns, who are working with Core City High Point through the second week of August, will survey other Core City districts if time allows.

It may take a couple of months after the information is collected for the Core City High Point and city staff to analyze the data and pinpoint what businesses and services are missing from the uptown area.

The organization and city have been looking for ways to attract businesses and developers to the Core City area and to encourage property owners to spruce up their properties.

One tool is a small business loan pool. Fuscoe said city staff may have details of the loan pool ready by this fall. The city would provide 40 percent of the funding, and a collection of small banks would provide 60 percent.

Fuscoe said studies of other downtown revitalization projects have shown that a healthy mix of restaurants draws people to downtown business districts, but most banks are hesitant to give loans to restaurants. With the loan pool, the risk is shared among the city and several banks, therefore increasing the chance a business owner could obtain a loan to start a new restaurant.

Core City High Point is also working with real estate agents to encourage property owners to update their buildings. Fuscoe said an example could be a facade grant. “Let’s say a property owner wants to buy an awning and it costs $2,000,” Fuscoe said. “The city could say it would pay half the cost and the property owner pay the other half.”

A new organization, Uptown High Point Association, also has been formed to mobilize and assist Core City in bringing growth to the area.

“We want to be the vibrant center for the city,” Gray Wehrley, chairman of Uptown, said. “Most of our downtown is now known as the showroom district and only open twice a year for our two markets. So, where do people go for that traditional downtown browsing, leisure and fun? Well, that’s what we’ve decided to create. That’s what Uptown is all about.”

Contact E.A. Seagraves at 883-4422, Ext. 241, or elizabeth. seagraves@news-record.com