Spate of store openings, renovations show confidence in future of resort
OCEAN CITY — Judging by the flurry of ribbon-cuttings for new and renovating businesses on the island, it’s obvious there are a lot of people bullish about the future of Ocean City.
Since the beginning of the year, the Ocean City Regional Chamber of Commerce has been sending out so many press releases and pictures of city officials and business owners cutting ribbons that it is hard to ignore.
There remain a few empty storefronts downtown, a fact that caused some citizens to take to social media in recent months to decry the business environment in the resort, but the remaining spaces appear to be owned by landlords who aren’t ready to rent.
Those gaps between the active businesses received disproportionate negative attention based on the fact there are just more than a hundred active businesses in the downtown between Sixth and 12th streets, about 108 more in the city’s other main business district — the boardwalk. That doesn’t count the smaller districts including the 34th Street corridor, the deep South End and West Avenue, which includes a group of businesses on the 200 and 300 blocks such as The Sweat Studio, South Jersey Linens, SaltWorks Studio, Lenegan’s Plumbing and The Barefoot Market. The community’s 144-year-old local newspaper, the Ocean City Sentinel, has its office at 218 West Ave.
RELATED STORY: BUSINESSES THAT HAVE OPENED, RENOVATED OR EXPANDED
“I think this winter there was a transition where we were having some businesses turn over, especially in the downtown on Asbury Avenue, and it looks great now,” said Michele Gillian, executive director of the chamber.
Noting all the ribbon-cuttings, Gillian said the chamber released them to show its support, to promote them and the need to “protect our business community.
“It seems that right now businesses are on the endangered species list in the state of New Jersey with all the taxation and how expensive it is to pay employees over $15 an hour and with the overregulation,” she said.
Having a vibrant business community isn’t just for the tourism economy on which this island relies.
“People move here and make this their second home or their permanent home a lot because of the business community we have,” Gillian said.
Noting the more than 200 stores in the main business districts, she added that they are an “important part” of the community and “something we can’t lose.”
“We have people that want to invest a lot of money in Ocean City,” Gillian said. She talked about the “great” location of the island because of the neighboring communities (“bridge buddies”) including Longport, Somers Point and Upper Township and being the first stop on the Garden State Parkway as people arrive in Cape May County.
“We have over 220 shopping opportunities with unique boutiques and great restaurants,” she said. “We know that malls have gone down because of Amazon and big box stores, but there’s still people that want to get out and shop and have that experience. It’s a recreation. We have the best recreation and shopping in the region and we’re proud of it.”
Business owners are
confident in the city
Caitlin Quirk, already an owner on Asbury Avenue, just opened a new business a few storefronts away — The Garb Collection — at 1014 Asbury Ave.
“From my experience in my first business, Bowfish Kids, this is a very vibrant downtown,” she said. “The image that the downtown is suffering because some select stores are out is not a representation of how well the businesses are doing down here.”
Quirk said the problem with the few closed storefronts isn’t from lack of interest of potential renters.
“Unfortunately, in my experience, from what I know about those properties, a lot of them are landlord issues,” she said. “The ones that I know that are vacant, it’s truly the landlord is not willing to rent the space. I actually have other business owner friends that are trying to come into Asbury and there’s no available spots.”
Quirk said when she heard 1014 Asbury was opening up, “I jumped on it immediately because I know how few and far between they actually are,” she said.
As a business owner who is environmentally conscientious, Quirk envisioned the The Garb Collection as a different type of store.
“Some people kind of are comparing us to Poshmark (an online service), but in person. And we offer people an opportunity to resell their clothes and keep them out of landfills.”
She pointed out 80 to 90 percent of donated clothes end up in landfills; only 10 to 20 percent stay in circulation.
“I figured if people had a place to bring their clothes and have an opportunity to sell what they have, then it would keep it in circulation. It would also bring value back to that item because even if you’re assigning it a $5 value, it’s no longer disposable.”
The Garb Collection is a collective unto itself — “people rent space there and sell what they want at a price they set,” she explained.
There was one very visible storefront on Asbury Avenue that was vacant for a while, but only because it was undergoing a transition.
Roslyn Lifshin and her partner Nancy Miller operated Sun Rose Words and Music — the island’s only store selling new books — for decades. She and Miller weren’t ready to fully retire and Raj Khatiwala made a generous unsolicited offer to buy their building, while offering to let Sun Rose use some of the renovated space to keep selling books.
Raj and Yogi Khatiwala own numerous properties on the island, including a number of hotels, the Stainton’s building and the office/retail building at 801 Asbury Ave.
The opportunity gave Lifshin and Miller a chance to maintain their bookstore while putting aside so many other headaches with running a business and a retail property.
“I’m enjoying it. I really am. The store looks beautiful,” Lifshin said. “Bridget and Brad (Jacobson), who run the shop, have done a great job. Bridget designed it and it looks beautiful. It’s open and colorful, and the Sun Rose side of it is doing great.
“We were able to fit pretty much all the books we had in the other store so there’s still a good selection,” she said.
“It’s a good partnership. I mean, what Three Little Birds sells, the cards and the gifts, just works so well with the book side of it. It all works well together,” Lifshin said.
“I’ve always loved the downtown. I’ve always been a part of the community, and Nancy and I are both extremely happy to be here, to still be here,” she said. “That was the big benefit. We didn’t have to be landlords, but we could still do what we love, which is books.”
Brad Jacobson and his wife don’t just own Three Little Birds. They also own the businesses Stainton’s Gallery of Shops and the Shops On Asbury on the next block over, Stainton’s By The Sea on the Boardwalk and what will be Stainton’s Kids at 910 Asbury Ave., at the site of a former gym.
“We’ve always been a proponent of helping grow small business and that’s what the store is all about, whether it is Roz or the two other vendors” at 756 Asbury, he said. “We love Ocean City.”
Speaking of Lifshin and Miller, Jacobson said, “We’re not book people. To have them add to this nostalgia (about the downtown) and still be a part of the commerce of Asbury Avenue is amazing. And for us to be able to give them the opportunity to take a break in their life and not have to run the store, but only concentrate on what they’re good at.”
Jacobson explained that he and his wife take competition very seriously and ensure that with every retail opportunity that they provide, they will not compete against any other store on the street.
“Everything we have in here no one has in any other store in the street. And it’s the same at Stainton’s Shops on Asbury as well as the kids store,” he said.
He’s bullish on Asbury Avenue.
“We have growth year over year because of how dedicated the customers are to our businesses,” Jacobson said.
The American Dream
“It’s nice to be your own boss,” Gillian said. “It’s the American dream, to own your own business. I think that has gotten lost in so many conversations nationally and locally.
“When you go into these stores, the (owners) are so excited about it.”
She pointed out there is a “new vibrant youth” that is also taking over established businesses, adding to the vitality of the town.
“I think we’re starting to see a regeneration of younger people coming in who really have the concept that they want a small business to work,” Gillian said. “They are willing to put the long hours in, to put the time in … to get out there and sell the product that they believe in.”
“We don’t want to just become a shore community with no business. That’s not good, that’s not why people bought into Ocean City, into America’s Greatest Family Resort,” she said. “They bought in for the way of life that we have” and “the business community is still an important part of that.”
– By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
Photos courtesy of the Ocean City Regional Chamber of Commerce.