Even though it has been around for 100 years, the Great Neck Chamber of Commerce is still fighting to improve the business climate of downtown Great Neck.
“Simply, we are a union of merchants and our aim is to do whatever we can to improve commerce in Great Neck,” chamber President Hooshang Nematzadeh said.
Nematzadeh, president and CEO of Nemat Homes Inc. and a Village of Kings Point trustee, said there are many issues facing the chamber and Great Neck as a whole, including the high storefront vacancy rate, which Nematzadeh said in March was at about 6.4 percent.
The chamber, which will celebrate its 100th anniversary April 30 at a Gala held at Leonard’s Palazzo, doesn’t have authority to impose regulations to help increase the amount of businesses, Nematzadeh said, and instead has to rely on lobbying government agencies to help. High rent and high taxes, he said, are the main issues facing Great Neck businesses.
He said businesses now have to pay about $8-$10 per square foot in property taxes. In the Village of Great Neck, businesses have to pay about $23-$24 per square foot in rent, and in the Village of Great Neck Plaza businesses have to pay about $30-$35 per square foot, Nematzadeh said.
“Landlords have to charge more, and if they charge more the businesses fail,” Nematzadeh said.
Businesses have also faltered as a result of internet sales, Nematzadeh said.
“It’s a really unfair competition because brick and mortar stores have to pay rent for facilities where internet companies have very low operating costs,” he said.
The chamber will honor 10 people at its gala who have supported the chamber and Great Neck businesses.
U.S. Rep. Steve Israel (D-Dix Hills) will receive the President’s Award, while Town of North Hempstead Councilwoman Lee Seeman (D-Great Neck) and her husband former Great Neck Estates Mayor Murray Seeman will be given the Centennial Award.
Nematzadeh, who has been involved with the chamber for 10 years and president for the past four years, said when Israel was chosen to represent Great Neck the first thing he did was contact both he and the chamber to hear what he could do to assist the business climate in Great Neck.
“With his policies he is a champion of middle-class causes,” Nematzadeh said. “Of course the prosperity of that category of people translates to purchasing downtown.”
Both Murray Seeman, who is almost 101 years old, and Lee Seeman have been serving Great Neck for much longer than Nematzadeh said he can remember.
Other honorees include Norman and Rachel Lee of Tennis Junction/Sportset and Vic and Val Santelli of Santelli & Son, Inc., who will all be given the Robert E. Freedman Retailer Awards, Robert Chizever of the Rotary Club of Great Neck, who will receive the Jesse Markel Award, Dennis Grossman of DMI Advisors, who will receive the 2013 Businessperson of the Year award, and Scott Zimmerman of Aura Salon & Style Lounge, who will receive the 2014 Businessperson of the Year award.
The gala is $100 a person, or $900 for a table of 10 people, and will begin at 6:30 p.m. with cocktails. Dinner will be served at 7:30 p.m.
