Some say the root problem is parking, while others say it’s an imbalance in the store mix in favor of high-end goods and services.
But whatever they identify as the cause of Red Bank’s economic woes, downtown merchants agree that there’s simply not enough foot traffic, even in good economic times, to sustain them.
“Increasing foot traffic is one of the things we hear most about,” says Red Bank RiverCenter executive director Nancy Adams.
Hoping to address the shoeleather deficit, the 18-year-old business promotion organization is hitting the rails. RiverCenter this week unveiled an advertising campaign aimed at selling the town’s cultural variety to potential daytrippers and weekenders who ride New Jersey Transit.
Over monthlong runs in April and September, posters themed “Only One Red Bank” will appear on station platforms along several NJT lines, says Adams.
“Commuters are kind of the demographic we want to reach around the state,” she tells redbankgreen.
The posters are scheduled to appear April 6 at train stations in New
Brunswick, Princeton Junction, Edison, Metro-Park, Middletown, South
Orange, Morristown, Westfield, Belmar and elsewhere. A ‘welcome’ poster
will be displayed at the Red Bank station.
A website (www.OnlyOneRedBank.com), still under development, will
provide links to sites of cultural organizations and other attractions.
RiverCenter’s marketing committee came up with the “Only One Red Bank” theme.
From a newsletter the organization sends out monthly:
We were brainstorming to figure out what message about Red Bank we wanted to get out to the rest of NJ and beyond, when we realized that we have so much to offer it’s tough to narrow down, so why bother?
So, the campaign touts all that we have: shops, galleries, boutiques, nightclubs, restaurants, antique shops, live theatres, arthouse movie theater, historic boutique hotels, beautiful waterfront, and…Only One Red Bank.
RiverCenter, with a $600,000 annual budget funded by a tax on commercial properties within its borders, is paying for the campaign with $16,500 in grant money from the state Division of Travel and Tourism and a contribution from the Count Basie Theatre.
