By John Burton
RED BANK – Feeling that neither Red Bank RiverCenter nor the Borough Council are sufficiently addressing their concerns, a group of merchants are banding together for what they say is the betterment of the downtown.
Approximately 50 downtown businesses have come together to establish what they’re calling the Red Bank Business Alliance. They plan on taking their issues to the two established entities that they hope would have a direct say in addressing the issues.
“There definitely is a disconnect,” among the storefront merchants trying to do business in the community and Red Bank RiverCenter and the governing body, said Alan Placer, the manager of Hobby Masters, 62 White Street, a member of the alliance.
Placer stressed Red Bank RiverCenter is well-intentioned and subsists largely on the volunteer efforts of business- and property owners and a very small paid staff. “Nobody would be working with RiverCenter or be on (the organization’s) board (of trustees) if they didn’t want what was best for the town,” said Placer (whose ex-wife is Amanda Lynn, RiverCenter’s program director). But somewhere along the line, he maintained the organization has ceased to take the input of those on the frontlines of the business battle.
“They really don’t take our suggestions,” said Placer.
The newly formed alliance, which is casual and informal at this point, held its first meeting about two weeks ago to hash out its issues. “It’s done very open and friendly,” Placer said. Among the concerns is the ever-present issue of the chronic parking shortfall; the type and number of special events and their benefit or lack of benefit; and maybe most prominently for the business group, the lack of communication and education emanating from both RiverCenter and the borough council.
Members from this new alliance have begun meeting with individual borough council members, including Michael Whelan who chairs the council’s parking committee, to discuss future plans to address that matter as well as taking things directly to RiverCenter and its executive board.
The problem has been that different business entities have been working on individual issues that would have a direct impact on those businesses. There has been a lack of coordination among the disparate groups. “We want to get everyone to work together,” Placer said.
On the education front, he believed the borough council should work harder to make the residents aware that the business owners and commercial property owners shoulder about 40 percent of the tax burden in the community, to stress, “How’s what’s good for the business is good for the whole town,” Placer maintained.
James Scavone, RiverCenter’s executive director, pointed out that there are approximately 400 individual businesses in the commercial Special Improvement District that encompass the downtown area as well as some portions of the borough’s West Side. “We try to do what’s best for the district and what’s best for Red Bank as a whole, which is really why we exist.” And special events the organization undertakes is for that goal and and admittedly may not benefit all types of businesses, he added.
RiverCenter, however, “cannot function as a marketing organization for an individual business or a group of businesses,” Scavone explained.
The organization has yet to meet with representatives of the alliance but “We’re more than happy to work with this group or any group in Red Bank,” Scavone offered.
Mayor Pasquale Menna said he has unofficially learned of individual concerns from the alliance members through conversations and second-hand information he’s received. And in a handful of cases, concerns were alleviated when the mayor and governing body became aware of the situation, he said. On the flip side, Menna said, he hasn’t been formally approached. Should he be, “I have no problem meeting with them, talking with them, discussing with them, trying to find solutions.”
But there are some local businesses owners “who are off the reservation,” in Menna’s words, “because they blame everyone for their inability to meet current relevancy in marketing,” failing to keep up with the times, or for complaining about such things as that borough employees don’t sweep the sidewalks, when it’s not the municipality’s responsibility.
As for the issue of parking, the mayor stressed, “We are working on a parking solution. We are spending money on it,” investigating redeveloping the White Street municipal parking lot for a parking deck or mixed use facility containing parking tiers.
“I guess we’ll believe it when construction begins,” having heard for years the rhetoric that didn’t move forward on the parking issue, Placer observed.
Red Bank RiverCenter is a 501 ( c ) 3 not-for-profit management and advocacy organization established in 1991 to oversee the then just-created commercial Special Improvement District, or SID, to assist in the area’s redevelopment after years of decline. The SID initially covered just the eastside downtown area. The SID was expanded about a decade ago to include portions of the West Side.
Owners of commercial and mixed used properties in the SID pay a required additional assessment based upon a complex formula factoring in the property value, its location and its uses.
