Village of Great Neck Mayor Pedram Bral said he is seeking to create a “destination area” in the village and wants developers to share their ideas as plans continue to progress.
“One suggestion that I have is to create an area, not in a busy section where traffic will be significantly increased, but on the northern side where it is almost, for lack of a better term, a “dead zone,” Bral said. “When you go north of Steamboat Road, there are certain areas that are completely quiet, completely dead.”
He also said he spoke with U.S. Rep. Steve Israel (D-Huntington), who told him that he was willing to help the village if they came up with a plan to construct a boardwalk on the waterfront near the AvalonBay Communities project on East Shore Road.
“That could definitely be a huge destination area in Great Neck,” Bral said. “It may or may not be that AvalonBay can help that vision.”
Bral and other local elected officials and business owners gathered at the Inn at Great Neck last Thursday for a Great Neck Chamber of Commerce-sponsored breakfast to discuss store vacancies and how to improve business in Great Neck.
Great Neck Chamber of Commerce President Hooshang Nematzadeh said store vacancies were at a “record high” and the chamber wanted to help combat the problem.
Bral, who ran against and defeated longtime Village of Great Neck Mayor Ralph Kreitzman in June, said he thought smart village development would improve the issue of vacant stores.
“Despite what people may have thought when I was running, we are not against development. We are against development that doesn’t make sense for the town,” he said. “We all agree that in order to revitalize any area, we need developers to come in and make changes.”
Bral added that developments should try to increase local business from consumers in the surrounding villages of Kings Point and Saddle Rock.
Nematzadeh said six years ago, the Chamber of Commerce created a committee made up of village mayors and other local and state elected officials to study why Great Neck had so many store vacancies.
The study showed the primary reason for vacancies, he said, were high taxes resulting in high rents.
Bral said that store owners today have told him they have different problems, more specifically the ability to get permits from the village and the loss of customers who choose to shop on the internet.
To tackle the internet shopping problem, Bral said the village needed to figure out what types of businesses could provide services for customers that the internet could not.
He added that the chamber should find out what can be done to attract a younger generation of people to the area.
“When you speak to the younger generation, there is really nothing for them here. And they’re the ones that are driving the economy. If you look at it, we’re not offering those who are 25 to 35 anything in the village or even in the Plaza. I think we need to bring in young people,” Bral said. “The Chamber of Commerce should invite them and ask them what is it that they want? Instead of going to Queens or Manhattan or the South Shore, they will stay here and that will increase our traffic, but not car traffic.”
Early store closings, he said, drive people away from wanting to come to Great Neck.
“When you go out at seven, the only places opened are restaurants,” Bral said. “Its always so sad. There’s nothing opened except the ice cream store and some of the restaurants.”
Nematzadeh commended Bral for his efforts in trying to help local business, citing his monthly “meeting with the mayor” events that gather residents at a local business to discuss their concerns and suggestions.
“He has started some of the initiatives that I applaud. For example, he is doing his part by having a monthly meeting and he rotates and picks a business in the old Village of Great Neck,” he said. “He goes and sits and hears the comments and views of the residents. By doing that, he is now highlighting particular stores. We applaud him.”
