Port Washington has a new strategy for bringing people through its businesses’ doors.
The first part is a glossy brochure that was just released to tout Port merchants and the area’s beauty. Other components are expected to include another flyer, a business and civic committee and even the hiring of a public relations firm.
The effort is the brainchild of Dina De Giorgio, the North Hempstead councilwoman whose district includes Port. De Giorgio understands “a thriving Main Street is important to property values,” but also knows how difficult it is to do business in the community, which sits at the end of a large peninsula and whose Main Street is relatively quiet even on weekends.
“I think businesses on Main Street are doing better than other Main Streets in the U.S., but they are still struggling,” De Giorgio said.
The new, four-page fold out brochure is a way of perhaps tempering the situation. “Port is probably one of the most affluent communities on Long Island and we shouldn’t have this problem,” De Giorgio said of the lack of business. “People should shop here; not just people from out of the area, but residents should shop locally.”
The flyer is glossy and eye-catching, showing an aerial shot of Port Washington, Manhasset Bay and Long Island Sound on its cover and listing businesses and points of interest on the inside.
Since Port has a railroad station, the brochures, in part, are meant to target people from the boroughs. And because Port is on the waterfront, De Giorgio’s office called about a dozen yacht clubs, extending from Long Island to New Jersey to Connecticut, and they will be distributing the flyers.
Also, each of the 12 Port businesses that sponsored the brochure was given 500 to distribute.
In all, 10,000 brochures were made up and since team De Giorgio began distributing them in the middle of July, just 2,500 were left as of mid last week. And the town actually made a $4,200 profit on them, with each of the 12 sponsors paying $350 and the brochures costing about $2,000 to produce.
The brochure, done with aid from the town and its Business Development and Tourism Corporation, is just the beginning of De Giorgio’s plans to get more people shopping in Port. She is already thinking ahead to a second brochure, to come out in April, just ahead of the summer season, and a “Master Committee” that could be made up of entities like the Chamber of Commerce, the Business Improvement District (BID) and civic groups to work together on business development plans.
De Giorgio would also like to hire a public relations firm to develop marketing strategies for Port and up its social media presence.
“People should know how much we have in Port and we have all the elements to make it the best place it can be,” De Giorgio said.
