Oct. 15--When it comes to its mix of downtown businesses, Novato is big-time jealous of San Rafael.

Marin's two largest cities have radically different components of their core businesses, as a study by the Novato City Council's Downtown Committee documented this week.

The scorecard: San Rafael has 155 businesses in its downtown area and 81 percent are retail or restaurants; Novato has 196 businesses on Grant Avenue and 33 percent are retail or restaurants.

"I found the mix of businesses mind-boggling," Councilwoman Carole Dillon-Knutson, a member of the Downtown Committee, said at a council meeting Tuesday.

The report showed how much a new Whole Foods grocery store, expected to open in March 2010, is being relied on to spark new business and prompt existing store owners -- most of whom are members of the Downtown Novato Business Association -- to stay open longer. Once opened, Whole Foods' hours are expected to be 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day.

If more businesses adopt later hours, it would vastly improve the chance that Novato residents -- two-thirds of whom work in other cities -- would have the chance to spend money downtown, the report said.

Extended store hours "need to be in the DNA of the DNBA," said Ron Gerber, head of the Novato Redevelopment Agency.

Whole Foods, at 40,000 square feet, would double the amount of retail space in the Old Town area. Gerber said he has talked to a number of potential business owners, including bookstore owners, who basically

said "call us when Whole Foods opens."

The committee is comprised of Dillon-Knutson, Councilwoman Madeline Kellner, Gerber, deputy planning director Elizabeth Dunn and several business leaders.

It emphasized that marketing and promotions will not only be key to attracting customers downtown but also attracting new businesses to open there. The report included a campaign of online coupons, gift cards, direct-mail postcards and shopper contests that would follow successful practices in places such as Pleasanton and Tahoe City. Posting of attractive signs pointing toward Old Town was recommended as well.

San Rafael's mix of businesses can be traced back many decades through natural selection, but a conscious effort was made in the early 1990s to bring more nightlife to the Fourth Street area. More than 600 people participated in a Downtown Vision project that had a theme "Alive After 5" to make the area an evening destination.

"I think that was a guide for getting us where we are today," said Nancy Mackle, San Rafael's economic development director.