Civilis Consultants

In the News

Returning to awesome downtown Modesto to elevate retail visibility, get ready for the holiday shopping season, and help businesses recover from COVID was so much fun. Thank you for having us! The Modesto Bee covered our pilot project at the Chartreuse Muse:

First impressions make all the difference, and downtown Modesto businesses now have the option of revamping theirs with a new window improvement initiative.

The Chartreuse Muse, an art school and gallery on 10th Street was the first business to have its windows [redone] as a part of the program. A team of experts in urban design, retail merchandising and lighting spent a day taking down the gallery’s existing window display, installing new light fixtures, and making space for new product displays.

“If people can’t look (at your business) for about a second and a half and understand what experience you offer, what you sell and what you do, they will never walk through your door,” Reeves said. “The hardest thing to do is get someone to come into a new business and cross a threshold.” Window displays, especially those that are well-lit and high-light the products offered can make all the difference, she said.

By investing smaller amounts of money into a larger number of projects the DID and the Downtown Partnership are hoping to reach as many businesses as possible and transform the overall look and feel of Modesto’s downtown core, one storefront at a time.