HRC, MainStreet want to spur growth of downtown visitors, customers
Page 4 • Wednesday, January 29, 2020 • The Hammonton Gazette
HRC, from Page 1
We didn’t lose many businesses,
and we still brought in busi-
nesses,” MainStreet Hammonton
executive Director Cassie iacov-
elli said.
HrC
President
richard
rehmann said that the review of
2019 then led to several questions
that helped shape the course of the
conversation for the retreat and,
consequently, goals for the coming
year.
“What can we change? What do
we need to get rid of? What’s not
working? What’s working? What
can be enhanced?” rehmann said.
One topic of discussion was the
idea of strengthening the link be-
tween the atlantic City rail Line
and its draw from the Philadelphia
region to the downtown.
“We did spend some time talk-
ing about the importance of the na-
ture walk that goes from the train
station into the downtown, and the
opportunity that, as we consider
the importance of nature and nat-
ural appeal, that walkway has re-
ally good potential to make it
interesting, maybe with native
flowers and shrubbery,” iacovelli
said.
rehmann said that the need for
a hotel in Hammonton was also a
topic of conversation. iacovelli
noted that such a business proba-
bly wouldn’t be in the downtown
area, but she explained why a
hotel—or even a bed-and-break-
fast—is an idea worth exploring.
“We’re not capitalizing on a
unique opportunity with our town
and especially the connection to
the downtown, and that is through
the soccer tournaments. We lose
all those people. they come into
our town, and then they just leave
because they have no place to stay,
and therefore other communities
are reaping the economic benefits
because we’re not in a position to
do so,” iacovelli said.
Having hotel space would also
help keep out-of-state tourists in
the area for longer periods of time,
such as those from Philadelphia.
iacovelli said that facebook statis-
tics show that the number two at-
traction with their facebook
outreach is the Philadelphia mar-
ket. Much of that credit, iacovelli
said, is due to the eagle theatre,
but added there are other reasons.
“there is a real interest for
many of the reasons many of us
move here; it’s a quiet community,
it’s not as traffic-driven, we’re
close to nature being surrounded
by the Pine Barrens, we have agri-
culture, we have craft breweries,
we have wineries, so i think we all
recognize that we have a complete
package to sell as we move for-
ward to create interesting experi-
ences that continue to draw people
to our town,” iacovelli said.
rehmann was quick to point out
that the focus isn’t strictly on in-
creasing tourism but also raising
the amount of local traffic in the
area.
“We would like to increase the
level of local participation in the
downtown, in the sense of getting
people to shop locally to a greater
level; doing what we feel we need
to do to help the economic viabil-
ity of the stores and shops, which
might be even advocating for a
greater diversity of food or expe-
riences or other elements in order
to enhance that. if we have work
to do on our side, we want to make
sure we’re putting that work in,”
rehmann said.
One of those other elements
rehmann mentioned involves ex-
ploring some manner of down-
town sound opportunities—the
ability to have music during the
holidays and so forth.
“We have somebody working
on the future of the electric light
posts that are going to be coming
into our downtown a couple of
years from now, and the ability to
include Wi-fi sound in that com-
ponent. We’ve been exploring
ways to provide sound for events
that make more sense than what
See DOWNTOWN, Page 17
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