
Downtowns across New Jersey are facing a unique set of challenges. While many towns are seeing a rise in the number of people who want to live in a walkable, mixed-use town center, they are also facing the challenges of keeping their downtowns vibrant and full of retail tenants when New Jerseyans increasingly do most of their shopping on laptops and not in stores.
The Changing Downtown Retail Paradigm, a panel discussion led by Debra Tantleff, the founding principal of TANTUM Real Estate, focused on the trends that were bringing more people downtown and the hindrances that developers, mayors, and others were encountering in trying to capitalize on these trends.
David L. Bieber, executive vice president of Newmark Associates, admitted he’s guilty of doing most of his own major purchasing online. But he’s optimistic about downtowns, with more people wanting to live in walkable areas, and said that downtowns with services that cannot be bought over the internet will flourish.“I don’t cook, I don’t cut my own hair, and I can’t give myself a massage,” he said. “Residents with disposable income who work from home and live over retail will come down at night and spend their money in restaurants and bars and salons.”
Patrick Schiavino, a developer, artist, musician, and founder of Asbury Underground, has created concerts and art happenings that have helped make Asbury Park a popular weekend destination, even when it’s not beach weather. His “Light of Day” weekend festival puts musicians in all kinds of venues across the city. It began with an initial audience draw of about 500, and has grown to showcase 100 musicians with more than 10,000 people coming to hear music in the dead of winter. That translates into increased foot traffic throughout the year. “Every weekend now, there’s not enough parking, and that’s a good problem for us to have,” he says.
Downtown Westfield’s executive director, Sherry Cronin, talked about the difficulty in attracting and keeping national retailers, because of their rules and stipulations about proximity to malls and other brand stores. She said that presents an opportunity for local retailers, but that they can no longer just come in the back door and stay in their stores. “They have to get out and know their neighbors and partner up and create events and happenings that will bring people in,” she said. She cited examples of downtown retailers working together, such as local liquor stores and BYOB restaurants, and florists that partnered with chocolate shops.
In order to create more vibrant, robust downtowns, the panelists all agreed on a number of points:
As a newly elected official in the Borough of Clayton, Gloucester County; I found this forum to be very informational. We are a small town located a few short miles from the ever growing “Rowan University”, and trying to come up with ways to boost our own economic development have been very challenging to say the least. Although we have a very busy highway run directly through our town, we cannot seem to attract or sustain the business that our neighboring towns have.