Dunwoody Mayor Lynn Deutsch on Creating Environments Where Entrepreneurs Can Thrive

Recently, the Atlanta Small Business Network was on-location at TiECON Atlanta 2022 where anchor Jim Fitzpatrick spoke with Dunwoody Mayor Lynn Deutsch.

Stay tuned for more coverage from TiECON Atlanta 2022!

Transcription:

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Thank you so much, Lynn, for joining us.

Lynn Deutsch:
Thank you, Jim, for having me.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Sure. So, you gave a great opening talk at the TiECON Atlanta conference. Talk to us about what you told the audience.

Lynn Deutsch:
Well, first I told them I ordered this perfect weather for them.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yes, you did.

Lynn Deutsch:
Chamber of commerce weather, and it’s always like this in Dunwoody, which is not totally true. And that Dunwoody is striving to create an environment where entrepreneurs and innovators can thrive. And we’ve partnered with TiE. We’ve always had sort of a casual partnership with them for the last few years. TiE has often met in Dunwoody. And so, we formalized that partnership this year as part of my economic recovery plan at the beginning of the pandemic. I’m a little bit of a worrier by nature and genetics. And so, I was concerned about what happened next, at a time when none of us had any idea how long the pandemic was going to last.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
That’s right.

Lynn Deutsch:
And so, with the help of the city of Dunwoody economic development team, we formed an advisory committee, and out of that committee’s work, came sort of a clear mission of how do we support entrepreneurs, small businesses, creators, innovators? How do we become a place where we are those type of people’s first choice?

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yeah. That’s fantastic. So, did you see a kind of downturn in small businesses during the pandemic in Dunwoody?

Lynn Deutsch:
So, we were very fortunate that DeKalb County elected, because they did not have to, share their federal money that they got during the early days of the pandemic funds. And we took $2 million of the funds we received and we essentially paid 2020 rent for small businesses that were customer facing.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Wow, that’s great.

Lynn Deutsch:
So restaurants, retail stores-

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Fantastic.

Lynn Deutsch:
Personal care businesses and the businesses that were the hardest impacted, where work couldn’t go on as normal.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Sure.

Lynn Deutsch:
And so, we’ve been very fortunate, unlike a lot of my peers across the country, most of our restaurants weathered the initial storm pretty well.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
So, out of all the cities that people that live in Atlanta and metro Atlanta have to choose from to open up a business, why is Dunwoody a good one?

Lynn Deutsch:
So Dunwoody is a great place to open a business because first and foremost, our residents are huge believers in supporting local. So if you’re opening a business that serves people directly, they’re always eager to try and support and help businesses thrive.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Sure.

Lynn Deutsch:
If you’re a technology company or in other spaces, financial businesses, healthcare, we have a MARTA station right in Dunwoody. We have access to transit. You can get to the airport in 30 minutes without… You hop on the train and then you’re there. There’s no traffic to worry about. MARTA runs pretty well on schedule, so you’ll know. But also if you’re looking to grow, transit definitely helps you attract employees.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Sure.

Lynn Deutsch:
We are very central to metro Atlanta and in our Perimeter area, which is home to the largest amount of commercial square footage in the southeast.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Wow. No kidding.

Lynn Deutsch:
No kidding.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Wow.

Lynn Deutsch:
We have lots of different kinds of office space and retail opportunities and restaurant opportunities. And as a city, we’re working really hard. Certainly, the pandemic slowed us down to make the Perimeter area and all of Dunwoody, really walkable.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Okay.

Lynn Deutsch:
Connectivity is a big priority of the Dunwoody City Council, and we are investing pretty heavily. Like I said, it got slowed down by the pandemic. When I ran for mayor, one of the things I said was, is that at the end of my first term, obviously not having a pandemic in mind that, “If people who worked in the Perimeter area had to get in their car to go to lunch, I was doing something wrong.”

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Wow. Okay. That’s a pretty lofty goal there.

Lynn Deutsch:
Really lofty goal. So, we have plenty of restaurants, but if it doesn’t feel safe, if there’s not a good sidewalk. If you don’t feel safe, if it’s ugly, if you don’t really have anywhere to walk, you’re not going to do it. So my goal, is to make particularly Perimeter Center, very walkable.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Sure. A number of people in Atlanta look at Dunwoody and they say, “Whoa, that’s a very affluent area.” So with that in mind, I’ve been told by a few friends of mine, “You want to fish where the fish are.”

Lynn Deutsch:
Yes.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
So, if you’re going to open up a business, Dunwoody might not be a bad place to do that, right?

Lynn Deutsch:
Right.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Talk to us about the average income versus other areas.

Lynn Deutsch:
So Dunwoody is very affluent, but we certainly have our pockets of underserved community residents.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
True.

Lynn Deutsch:
But we are a great ecosystem because it’s not just Dunwoody. We have the best retail opportunities. We have Perimeter Mall in Dunwoody. I don’t know that everyone realizes that. And for the last little while, it’s been the best performing mall in the state of Georgia.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Wow. No kidding. That’s great.

Lynn Deutsch:
So, we don’t just draw Dunwoody, because we’re really central. So, people from Brookhaven, Chamblee, Sandy Springs, even Roswell and Alpharetta come to Dunwoody to shop or to eat. And we’re working on making Dunwoody a destination for not just people from out of town and businesses, but from residents in other places. So we have an area called Dunwoody Village, which is really a series of 1970s shopping centers that have really thrived in some ways despite the recession in 2008. In some ways, we’re very fortunate. We don’t have empty shopping centers anywhere in Dunwoody.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
That’s great.

Lynn Deutsch:
So we’ve been very fortunate, but we are in the process of updating Dunwoody Village with our partnership with Regency and Brand.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Oh, that’s great.

Lynn Deutsch:
We have a new restaurant called Barn, which is like a bar restaurant, and there’re going to be four other new restaurants. A new coffee shop coming to the village. And that’s just what I know about. And there’s live music multiple nights a week now. Because we want people to not eliminate Dunwoody when they’re thinking of how to spend their Saturday night.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Sure. And it seems as though there’s been a trend over the last few years, where more people are staying north and they’re not necessarily going into Buckhead for nightlife or restaurants, right?

Lynn Deutsch:
Right. And so, one of the upsides of the pandemic, if you can call it that, from my perspective as Mayor of Dunwoody, is that my community discovered or rediscovered what Dunwoody had to offer because nobody was going very far during the pandemic.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
That’s right.

Lynn Deutsch:
And so, if they wanted to go out to dinner and we supplied picnic tables that were artistically painted for businesses that wanted them, so they could expand their outdoor seating. They stayed home and all of a sudden they discovered that these restaurants were here and how good it was to stay local, but also they would see their friends and their neighbors. And they found that there was more of a sense of community. And that seems to be continuing, though the pandemic is waning. And so, that’s been really positive.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
With all of the news that we hear out there with inflation, gas prices and rents and things like that, is now a good time to start a business?

Lynn Deutsch:
So, I think now is a great time to start a business. Certainly, supply chain issues and inflation make things more difficult. But with the flexibility that we’re going to see as corporate America continues to return to the office space, I think it’s going to open up new rental opportunities for people that need office space. In addition, I think there were lots of leaders across the country that believe that out of this pandemic will come a new renaissance. We certainly are seeing it in how people work.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yeah, I think you’re right.

Lynn Deutsch:
We certainly are seeing it in how people consume.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Sure.

Lynn Deutsch:
And how they consume entertainment and how they eat out and everything. But we’re also going to see it in ideas. And I think some of the challenges we are facing have slowed that renaissance down a little bit, but I think it’s still out there. I think people had a lot of time to look at what their hobbies were and what their passions are, and figure out how to make that their livelihood.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Sure.

Lynn Deutsch:
And also, had time to step back and say, “What is it that I want to do? How do I see my future? And even if I can’t quite pull the trigger right now, it’s out there as an idea.” And I think it’s an awesome time to be a creator.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Sure. I agree. One last question before you leave, and thank you for all the time you’ve given us. What’s on your agenda to get things done? What’s on your to-do list as mayor of Dunwoody?

Lynn Deutsch:
So, right now we’re doing a study called Edge City 2.0 of the Perimeter area to figure out what the next 20 to 30 years of Perimeter look like.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Okay.

Lynn Deutsch:
We’ve had public meetings, I have an advisory committee, we’ve done studies. We’ll have more public meetings. And over the next few months, I’ll look for that plan to be presented to the city council and to the citizens. Perimeter Center is our biggest asset, but we can’t allow it to turn into a liability.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Right.

Lynn Deutsch:
And so, we have to figure out what the future’s going to demand of a commercial center and what that looks like. So, that’s one thing. The Dunwoody Village that I mentioned is another. When we became a city, we had no public art. We’ve been a city now for about 14 years. When I became mayor, two and a half years ago, we had no public art. We’re up to about 11 pieces of public art.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
That’s great.

Lynn Deutsch:
We want people to want, who live here, to spend their time here. And we want people who work here to find an enrichment outside of just their offices.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Live, work, and play right here in Dunwoody.

Lynn Deutsch:
Live, work, and play right in Dunwoody. And so, we are working hard to become… We were a new city, and all those years were our childhood and we’ve entered into our adolescence.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
That’s right.

Lynn Deutsch:
So what comes next for teens? Is pushing the boundaries and pushing the envelope. And that’s what we need to do. So, we’re starting Cultural Arts Month.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
That’s great.

Lynn Deutsch:
Public art is a big part of what we need to feel like a real city, I think.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yeah.

Lynn Deutsch:
And so, that’s where we’re headed. We’re headed to great things.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
That’s fantastic. A big bright future here in Dunwoody.

Lynn Deutsch:
Absolutely.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Lynn Deutsch, Mayor of Dunwoody, thank you so much for joining us on the show. We very much appreciate it.

Lynn Deutsch:
Thank you so much.

Jim Fitzpatrick:
Thanks. Appreciate it.

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