When three new businesses won permits from the Village of Great Neck Plaza earlier this month, it was a sign that the village’s small business economy may be picking up, according to local officials.
But Great Neck’s storefront vacancy rate – long a source of concern for local businesspersons and officials – is still elevated, and a plan by state Assemblywoman Michelle Schimel to increase financing and state aid to shopkeepers will likely help but is not a solution, officials said.
“In recent weeks, we have seen positive reports of the economy, both on the national level and on Main Street, reflecting an improvement to our current economic state. With these trends showing a slight decrease in unemployment statistics and consumers spending more across the country, we are encouraged that we will be seeing a steady improvement of the economy on Long Island,” wrote Village of Great Neck Plaza Mayor Jean Celender in an e-mail. “We have seen numerous applicants file for conditional-use permits to open their business here in Great Neck Plaza, and I think it is a testament to the work our Village Building Department and Board of Trustees do in order to streamline the application process and provide flexibility as compared to other villages. We are a very-business friendly village and we do all that we can to attract the businesses our residents want to see and market the businesses that currently call the Plaza home.”
As of January, the village’s storefront vacancy rate was 10.7 percent – a decline from June 2012’s 12.3 percent figure, but a rate that still drew concern from officials.
The Plaza has touted a marketing brochure released earlier this year as part of its efforts to attract new businesses, and Celender wrote in an e-mail that the village had received positive feedback from management companies trying to draw tenants to the village.
Great Neck Chamber of Commerce President Hooshang Nematzadeh agreed that the Plaza was seeing signs of a recovery, but cautioned that stores in the Village of Great Neck were not seeing the same boost.
“There’s a pickup in the Plaza of business. We see some of the stores are filling up,” Nematzadeh said. “As the Plaza is in the recovery mode, the Old Village is losing some stores.”
Village of Great Neck Mayor Ralph Kreitzman said in an interview that, as of the most recent count six months ago, the number of vacant store fronts in the village was largely stable, with one more empty space than existed a year earlier.
“We’ve lost a couple and we’ve gained a few,” Kreitzman said, citing changing village demographics as one reason for business closures. “With all the big box stores there are fewer opportunities for smaller merchants.”
The village is taking several actions to promote business, Kretizman said, including initiatives to make the village’s commercial center more pedestrian-friendly, redoing parking lots and attempting to rezone the business district with new appearance guidelines and greater allowances for height and mixed-use buildings.
“We’ve hired someone and they’re working to rezone that to rethink the permitted uses, the parking requirements, to permit residential above the stores,” Kreitzman said.
Schimel announced an initiative to secure more state financing and aid for businesses located near suburban centers with less than 20 employees – what she termed “Main Street” businesses. State aid is available for those businesses, Schimel said in an interview, but many businesses are not aware of opportunities for grants and financing.
“When I think of small business, I think of the mom-and-pop, Main Street type businesses,” Schimel said. “We had the idea that we were going to approach the state.”
Schimel said she had approached the Nassau County Chamber of Commerce and Empire State Development Corporation and found that while the state did have programs in place for such businesses, many owners were not aware of them. The initiative, she said, would focus on networking and education on state aid opportunities for business owners, as well as a possible legislative fix if financing and grants were still not forthcoming.
As far as the actual impact of the program, Schimel was cautiously optimistic, saying financing could help some businesses but adding that it was not a cure-all.
“Certainly businesses that know what they’re doing, that have been in business for a while, that have been hit with certain downturns in the economy – this should be able to help them,” Schimel said. “”Will it help Main Street? Possibly. That’s what I’m hoping for.”
Nematzadeh said Schimel’s proposal was a positive step, but that it did not address what he described as the root cause of Great Neck’s economic struggles – high property taxes. Taxes make up between one third and one half of rent costs paid by commercial tenants, Nematzadeh said.
“The real problem is the cost of operating a business in Great Neck, in Nassau County,” Nematzadeh said. “A landlord has to pass those taxes to the tenant.” Nematzadeh advocated for local governments implementing temporary tax abatements for new businesses and acknowledged that such a plan could hurt revenues for schools facing their own budget crunches.
But, Nematzadeh said, the alternative of business closures would be worse for everyone.
“You’re taxed too high, the businesses cannot survive. If the business do not survive they cannot pay the taxes,” he said.
Celender praised Schimel’s proposal, saying she had heard from small business owners who could use additional financing and grants to help cover improvements and enhance their cash flow.
This plan is an excellent way to level the playing field for small businesses who only have a few employees, the mom-and-pop shops that are the bulk of our retailers, while also educating them on funding and training program opportunities that are available to them,” Celender wrote. “The start of any good economic program for a local village relies on having a strong Main Street, a place that residents can shop and spend money here to benefit our community.”
