Truly amazed at Mayor Phil Guenther’s new found interest in business development in Brigantine. I’m on the Commercial Development Board. In the two years I have served on the board, the Mayor has attended 3 meetings…in January 2013, in May of the this year, when for the first time, he had a challenger to his office and in October, when that challenger gave a presentation on…Business Development, something Phil Guenther never did.
The board chair; Mike Brennan, has encountered such dis-interest, that he’s still working on his original goal from 2009, mixed commercial development, trying to breathe some life into the center of the island. You tube video from 2009 of Mike at city council meeting is available.
In this Press of Atlantic City article about local business, the Mayor uses his tried and true “Sandy” lines. We are two years post Sandy. This Sandy line can only be strung out so far.
Funny, in one of my first meetings joint in 2013, I asked how many businesses were affected by Sandy and who could we help. I also asked how much square footage in empty storefronts we had. No one had the answers. When I suggested we contact businesses that are open year round in other towns similar to ours, to investigate how they remain successful, I was told that real estate professionals were only interested in selling million dollar residential properties and not renting $1000 a month stores.
There has been no leadership from Phil Guenther in business / commercial development. This “news” article will be forgotten tomorrow.
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