Asbury Park Chamber of Commerce, Monmouth County New Jersey Shore

The Retail Committee meets on the first Tuesday of every month from 9:00 - 10:00 in the Chamber office, 308 Main Street, Asbury Park. (inside Sovereign Bank)

SPECIAL RETAIL COMMITTEE MEETING THIS TUESDAY AUGUST 5: DOWNTOWN RETAIL ZONING DISCUSSION AND INPUT WITH MEMBERS OF THE CITY PLANNING BOARD
The City Council has asked the Planning Board to gather input into the issue concerning changing the retail zoning downtown. A subcommittee chaired by Sara Anne Towery has been formed to do this. Sara Anne, City Planner Don Samett, Tom Gilmour and Susan Gruel, of Heyer and Gruel, the Board's planner for the CBD (her firm led the development of the Asbury Park downtown redevelopment plan) will be present to gather your input and to discuss the history of the present zoning, the pros and cons of change and reference the experience of other NJ cities with similar retail zoning. If you are concerned about this issue and making your views know to the city council, please attend. This discussion is likely to take the entire hour of the meeting. Any other issues will be taken up at the subcommittee meetings listed below.

NEW RETAIL COMMITTEE MEETING SCHEDULE
As a result of increasing participation and the need to focus on specific need, the Retail Committee divided into interest driven subcommittees (see descriptions below) developed a new meeting schedule. This was put in place in June. This schedule is the following:
- 1st Tuesday of the month: General Retail Meeting (Dennis Carroll, chair and Marilyn Schoshbach, co-chair): this is a meeting of the full membership, reporting on the the work of the subcommittees and covering issues of general concern.
- 2nd Tuesday of the month : Downtown Retail Meeting (Kathy Ragauckas, chair and Mike Evans, co-chair): this meeting focuses on downtown retail concerns.
- 3rd Tuesday of the month: First Saturday/Event Meeting (Aaron Coleman, chair and Mike Evans, co-chair): This meeting focuses on First Saturday and special events.
- 4th Tuesday of the month: Main St./Uptown Retail meeting (Ed Simon, chair): This meeting focuses on Main St. and uptown retail concerns. This subcommittee will meet for the first time on Aug. 24.
- Other: Restaurant Meeting (Marilyn Schlosbach, chair): This subcommittee meets as needed and has met several times over the last 2 months.
- Other: Hotel/Hospitality Meeting (Robert Doran. chair): This subcommittee is now being formed, Robert Doran is contacting businesses owners in this group and a meeting time will be announced soon.

SUMMARY OF RETAIL SUBCOMMITTEE ACTIVITIES FOR JULY
FIRST SATURDAY/EVENTS SUBCOMMITTEE

September First Saturday Asbury Park
The Chamber Board agreed to name the the Back to School Block Party and the Ridge and Bangs Revitalization Committee which raises money for back to school supplies for students as the charity for August First Saturday, Labor of Love, event. The Board will also make a $1000.00 donation. Michael Brim, as he did last year will head the subcommittee for this event.
Michael reports:
-The chairperson of the event is Lori Ross, who works for the city.
-The block party is scheduled for September 6th from 11:00AM until 3:00PM at the Middle and Bangs Avenue Schools playground. In past years they have had a budget of $10,000 to $15,000. This year the event has been cut back due to funding to $7,500 which includes the Chamber's $1,000.
-The first 500 students will receive book bags this year (1,000+ last year). They will be given wrist bans as they enter the area. With the event being so early in September, I feel we need to start the September fundraiser now and not September. People would most likely give before the event than after.

A subcommittee has been formed under the leadership of Greg Demaris to explore sponsorships for First Saturday Asbury Park (FSAP):
-The program's intent is to capitalize on the success of FSAP by designing a Simple Sponsorship package would allow for individual sponsorship opportunities for each of our monthly themed FSAP events.
- Sponsorship opportunities would be made available at a cost of $2,500 for each month
-The monthly Sponsorship's would be exclusive. Each sponsor will be granted space on our postcard mailing, e-mail blasts, posters, print ads, banner and website.
-Sponsors would be allowed to erect their own table/stand on the Street during the FSAP event
-Because each month's FSAP event has a unique theme it allows sponsors to pick the theme that best aligns with their business
-One of the questions we hear a lot is "what exactly is First Saturday?" The funds collected would allow for increased and much needed FSAP branding and continued event growth by allowing us to hire regular FSAP street performers, installation/removal of themed street decorations, additional FSAP branding (posters, more print advertising, creation of an FSAP website) and a permanently installed banner across Cookman.

FROM THE JULY 8TH, DOWNTOWN RETAIL SUBCOMMITTEE MEETING:
-Recapped First Saturday/Fourth of July. It was ok for some retail merchants but not as good as the two previous years. Crowds are the same but revenue is down.
-The AP Police Dept. asked us to mention to the merchants that Asbury Park has an open-container law and patrons may not walk about the street with tumblers of alcohol.
-August First Saturday theme is a Luau/Hawaiian party theme.
-We discussed the upcoming RoadTrip weekend and Downtown Saturday night street party with stores staying open late, a Fashion Show and live music at several venues.
-Fourth of July 2009 was discussed and Ed, Serena and Tim all volunteered to put a committee together to start working on 2009 now.

RESTAURANT SUBCOMMITTEE
- Discussed a valet parking plan and drafting a letter to the city and the UEZ for help in funding signage and marketing to get it off the ground.
- Met with Ruthanne Harrison who is the event planner for Oyster Fest and Taste of Asbury.
- We had a discussion on Asbury shorts in which we would offer dinner packages for with restaurants selling tickets and dinner as a package with a $5 discount for the downtown restaurants
- We are all in agreement that another night to promote such as a Friday night Art in the city would benefit us all. A Subcommittee for Art Night was formed (Jenna Sinclar, chair) and met once. Another a meeting planed for next Monday Aug. 4 at 4 at the M Studio office on Mattison Ave. The group is currently in the beginning stages of planning and creating a name and marketing strategy for this monthly event. All interested are invited to attend.