Discover Yonkers Downtown

 This is a time of new beginnings, great challenges and opportunities for us as a nation and as a community here in downtown Yonkers. The Obama Administration took the reins of power on January 20 and got down to work to deal with the most serious economic crisis since the Great Depression, which has been impacting all walks of life. As the anticipated massive economic stimulus program is debated in the coming weeks, I am encouraged by the entrepreneurial spirit and creative energy of the merchants in the Business Improvement District (BID) who have been working very hard to navigate their way through a turbulent sea of tight credit and diminishing consumer purchasing power. Like the rest of the nation’s business world, they have made sacrifices — foregoing salary increases, reducing benefits and other expenses and not hiring. They’ve also implemented strategies to retain and attract new customers — ranging from lowering prices for their services and products to offering  premiums and incentives.

 The business and marketing efforts of the BID’s merchants are especially challenging during the winter when business activity is typically slower than other times of the year. That’s why I am pleased to announce that the Downtown BID has taken the initiative to launch a new, free seminar series designed to provide local business owners and merchants with practical tips and guidance to help them during these tough economic times.

 Presented in cooperation with the Yonkers Library, the one-hour early morning sessions —known as the BID Sunrise Seminars — got underway at 8 a.m. on Tuesday, January 27, at the Library’s 1 Larkin Center location. Appropriately, How to Market in a Down Economy was the opening topic, presented by two marketing and business development experts. They are Liz Bracken-Thompson, partner and executive vice president of Thompson & Bender, a leading Westchester public relations/marketing/advertising firm, and Peter G. Klein, project manager for Struever Fidelco Cappelli (SFC), one of the leading developers of downtown Yonkers.

 Bracken-Thompson began her career in 1976 with the Gannett suburban newspaper group where she served as vice president of Marketing for Gannett’s entire 10-newspaper group —now The Journal News. At Thompson & Bender, she has managed award-winning public relations, advertising and marketing campaigns for a diverse group of clients, including Cappelli Enterprises, The Thayer Hotel at West Point, White Plains Hospital Center, New Roc City in New Rochelle, City Center at White Plains and The Ritz-Carlton, Westchester.

 Klein, who serves as vice chair of the Yonkers Downtown BID, manages much of SFC’s marketing efforts and has worked for the Fidelco Group for nearly four years in the management of real estate projects and in financings. Previously, he worked for more than a dozen years for various commercial and investment banks in corporate finance. He was the president of Integrated Commerce Solutions, an e-commerce marketing firm operating a distribution network for general merchandisers and advertisers and a brand manager for Daymon Associates, coordinating the product selection, merchandising and marketing of over 800 grocery items for a variety of retail supermarket chains.

 We are planning three more seminars that will be presented in February and March focused on Banking for Your Small Business; Curb Appeal (The Importance of Attractive Storefront Design and Visual Merchandising); and Eco Mania (The Environmental & Other Benefits of Making Your Business Green). These sessions will be presented with the support of the Yonkers Chamber of Commerce which will promote these events to its members. The names of the presenters and dates of the future seminars will be announced at a later date.