Driving traffic in

Spring is bringing new businesses to Baldwin Park, an indicator that the "live, work, play" community's economy is looking up, experts and business owners say.

In the past few months, O'Boys Bar-B-Q and Showcase Acting Studio opened, and Seito Sushi expanded their restaurant. U-Top-It, a frozen yogurt place, and My French Neighbor are planned to open this summer, along with an 11,000-square-foot Orlando Metro Gymnastics and Aquatics Center, which should be finished later in the summer.

The business owners in the town say it's a great indication that their economic situation is perking up and will continue to in the future.

But they haven't been immune to closures. Trish's Teas has closed and Merrigan's Boutique plans to close by June 1. The store's merchandise is 40 to 70 percent off as owner Katie Merrigan prepares to open her own public relations/event planning business.

Randy Anderson, a professor and the inaugural Howard Phillips Eminent Scholar Chair in Real Estate at the University of Central Florida, said that small businesses are at the heart of economic growth. And though he can't speak for Baldwin Park specifically, he said any start up of new businesses is a positive economic sign.

Gene Hess, a past vice president of Baldwin Park's Merchants Association, current member and CPA firm owner in the town, said she thinks the new businesses are a great addition because they add variety to what the downtown already offers.

"I think Baldwin Park has an advantage," said Hess. "It has active neighbors and active businesses; it has everything you could want."

Sean McCabe, a newcomer to the town with his business Showcase Acting Studio, agreed with Hess.

"You get a good taste of everything," he said. "It helps because it brings more street traffic."

And with more businesses, instead of the Baldwin Park downtown being just a destination stop to one place where you need something specific, it'll be a place more like Park Avenue, where people come to walk around, Bullfish owner Brian Wettstein said. This kind of traffic is gold for businesses, especially for new ones such the Studio that many people may not know existed before wandering by.

While the "if you build it, they will come" mentality doesn't always work in favor of businesses, master plan-type towns such as Baldwin Park have a good future, said Mike Sorich, owner of Tropical Realty Advisors, a real estate appraisal and consulting firm in Orlando. Because of the increasing cost of gas, people will want to move to places such as Baldwin Park, where they can live, work and play in the same area. This seems to bode well for the business owners able to sustain themselves through the tough economic recession.

Wettstein said he's seen business at his specialty "lifestyle concept store," which sells anything from stationary to wine, grow this year. He hopes the new gym will bring even more people into his store.

"It'll be regular traffic coming into the downtown every single day of the week," he said.

Hess sees the gym as a traffic attractor as well. When her children were young and in swimming lessons she didn't want to go home and then drive back to pick them up in an hour.

"So what do you do? You go shopping," she said. "That's going to create a lot of activity."

The gym will benefit McCabe's acting studio because most of his students are children, and the gym will bring families into the downtown area.

Sorich said that while the gym industry is exploding right now, the center might not sustain business in the future.

Wettstein also mentioned the expanded offerings of other businesses helping to bring in traffic, such as Lago serving brunch. The easily accessible parking also helps to welcome people to the downtown, something you can't often find in places such as Winter Park and downtown Orlando, Wettstein said.

Hess, on the other hand, gets a confidence boost in her town's business by experiencing the exact opposite. She revels in the fact that she can't always snag a prime parking spot in town.

"I'm amazed sometimes it's hard to find a parking space."