EDC encourages dialogue about downtown

By FRANCISCO E. JIMENEZ
Staff Writer
reporter@sbnewspaper.com

The San Benito Economic Development Corporation (EDC) planned to host a downtown merchants meeting, “Coffee with the EDC,” at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, March 20.

Slated inside the San Benito Municipal Building, located at 401 N. Sam Houston Blvd., the meeting will be an opportunity for business owners to discuss the development of downtown San Benito as well as provide feedback on downtown issues and improvements.

“There’s a number of objectives,” EDC Executive Director Salomon Torres Said Tuesday. “One of them is to begin a dialogue among business owners and the property owners downtown, a dialogue that will result in some recommendations that would be made by that community to us, the EDC and the city, on what kind of programs or improvements we need to work on.”

Torres, who hand-delivered invitations to business and property owners in the downtown district, said he would consider the event a success if at least 15 to 20 people attend.

Describing the meeting as a “listening session,” Torres continued, “We want to get them comfortable with meeting once in a while as a group, that way they can communicate with us what they’re thinking. Mostly, [the meeting] is for those who are currently invested in downtown, who currently is a renter or owns a building. We want to know what they’re experiencing, whether good or bad, so that we can turn that information around into some action.”

While the meeting is primarily aimed toward local business and property owners, Torres indulged in the idea of “anchor businesses,” or nationally named department stores and restaurants, attending and encouraging other businesses to do the same. Still, Torres explained that, in most cases, local businesses show interest in downtown districts.

“This is geared more to the local business or property owner who is already there, or is thinking of investing somewhere in San Benito,” Torres said. “We really want them to look at downtown. The car traffic is already there. We want to see what ideas people have to make it more attractive and more successful for the businesses.”

Among the ideas he hopes to present at the meeting is the possibility of forming a merchants group that would meet on a regular basis to share ideas, as well as creating connections between local businesses in which they could do business with each other.

Read this story in the March 20 edition of the San Benito News, or subscribe to our E-Edition by clicking here.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.sbnewspaper.com/2013/03/19/edc-encourages-dialogue-about-downtown/

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