Home
DNJ ANNUAL CONFERENCE FOCUSES ON THE POSITIVE FUTURE OF NEW JERSEY’S TOWNS Print E-mail

The 2009 Downtown New Jersey (DNJ) Annual Conference was held at the Hudson County College Culinary Institute.  This year’s theme, “A BRIGHTER ECONOMY STARTS DOWNTOWN!” illustrated the optimistic future for New Jersey's traditional towns as ideal places to shop, work and live while taking into consideration the status of the current economy.  Conference attendees and participants included State and local public officials, numerous downtown professionals and representatives from companies that service the downtown markets. dnj_conf_1

Registration and continental breakfast was followed by a welcome from Kathleen Miller Prunty, President of DNJ. A wonderful program presented by the St. Dominic Academy Choir, the Dominoes got this day started! Following were opening greetings from Rosemary McFaddon, Deputy Mayor of Jersey City and from Caren Fancini, New Jersey Economic Development Authority. Immediately following Mayor Healy will be keynote speaker Jeffrey Otteau, President of the Otteau Valuation Group, Inc. East Brunswick. Mr. Otteau gave a fascinating Keynote address about “Downtown and Their Effects on Economic Recovery – A Model for Growth”.  The presentation is available on this website for Members Only.dnj_conf_3

The morning was divided into two work sessions with moderators and panels covering topics including “New Retailers and Restaurants for a Changing Economy: Who are they? How to attract them to your downtown; Incentives for Developers: The Pros & Eons of PILOTs, Abatements, and other inducements; One Tunnel, Lots of Trains, Coming to your Downtown; Will You Be Ready?; Money? Any Money? How to find short-term credit and long term loans to put people to work in your downtown stores, offices, and Improvement Districts; Higher Education Institutions: Is there a role for them in your downtown?; Bricks to Clicks: Getting Merchants and SIDs online & selling.”

The day capped off with an impressive lunch made and served by the students of the Culinary Institute. Kathleen Miller Prunty presented the DNJ Downtown Development Award to David Milder of Danth, Inc. The venue and the conference received rave reviews from the attendees!
 
Downtown New Jersey Presents the Downtown Development Award to David Milder Print E-mail

Kathleen Miller Prunty, President of Downtown New Jersey at its 2009 Annual Conference presented the “Downtown Development Award to David Milder of Danth, Inc. This year’s recipient, David Milder, was selected to receive this honor because of his years of work in the Downtown arena and his commitment to Downtown New Jersey. David has served on the Board of Directors for over 10 years and has worked to help make DNJ the thriving organization it is today. award

N. David Milder is the president of DANTH, Inc., a consulting firm based in Kew Gardens, NY that specializes in the revitalization of downtown and neighborhood commercial districts. He holds a Ph.D in Government from Cornell University and taught at Cornell and the Ohio State University. He was the vice president for marketing for ManData Corp. At the Ohio Department of Economic and Community Development he designed the Ohio Housing Needs Plan and created and managed the Ohio Cities Consortium, a 16-city public management technology transfer network funded by the National Science Foundation. He then went on to direct the Urban Institute at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where he created a downtown revitalization technical assistance program.

In 1977 Mr. Milder formed his own consulting company, which in 1996 adopted the name of DANTH, Inc. His clients have included the City of Charlotte, various municipal agencies in New York City, the National Institute of Justice and countless downtown organizations in New York, New Jersey, Vermont, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and other parts of the nation.

Mr. Milder has numerous articles in such publications as Urban Land, Main Street News and the Downtown Idea Exchange as well as chapters in books published by the American Planning Association and the International Downtown Association. His book, Niche Strategies for Downtown Revitalization was published by the Downtown Research and Development Center.  His new book, Downtown Business Recruitment, can be downloaded from www.danth.com.
 
MAIN STREET NJ PRESENTS

creating_destination
 
Restaurant Crawl in Historic Newark Avenue Jersey City E-mail

Presented By:  Downtown New Jersey and the Historic Downtown Special Improvement District

 On June 3, 2009 as a preview to the Downtown New Jersey Annual Conference in Jersey City, 44 people met, ate, walked and talked along the historic streets of Grove, Newark and Jersey Avenues.  It was an opportunity to introduce new people to the wonderful tastes and treats offered by 6 different and unique restaurants.

The event began at Bar Majestic, a unique place located in the restored lobby of the circa 1907 Majestic Theatre, with lite Mediterranean munchies  and libations. From there the group strolled passed City Hall toward Newark Avenue where they were treated to specialty items from LITM and Sawadee Thai Cuisine’s superb soft shell crabs and spicy shell steak salad; down to Skinner's Loft, an elegant yet casual, upbeat bistro-style restaurant for luscious lobster sliders, succulent salmon topped with caviar and fresh crème on perfectly prepared potato skins, and jumbo lump crab meat ; followed by the opulent yet simple New American Ox restaurant for veritable feast of venison sliders and delicious Deviled Eggs Tartufato, a house specialty.  The evening finished at Made with Love, an artisan organic bakery and café with “all about chocolate plates” with three different offerings and fresh fruit tart accompanied with live music.

The participants were more than surprised and satisfied.   They all quipped about the quantity and quality of the food.  It was an event that eventually had to end.  As always, DNJ was there living the lesson showing how important restaurants are to a thriving downtown.  We highly recommend you take the “Crawl” yourself and mention this review, for you are sure to be rewarded.  Thank you for a magnificent experience.

 

LISTING:

 

Bar Majestic:
Location:  275 Grove St. Jersey City, NJ
Phone:  201-451-4400
Website:  www.barmajestic.com

LITM:
Location: 140 Newark Avenue, Jersey City, NJ
Phone: 201-536-5557
Website: www.litm.com

Made with Love Organic Bakery and Cafe:
Location:  530 Jersey Avenue, Jersey City, NJ
Phone:  201-850-3260
Website:  www.madewithloveorganics.com

Ox Restaurant
Location:  176 Newark Avenue, Jersey City, NJ
Phone:  201-860-4000
Website:  www.oxrestaurant.com 

Sawadee Thai Cuisine:
Location: 137 Newark Avenue, Jersey City, NJ
Phone: 201-433-0888


Skinner’s Loft:
Location:  146 Newark Avenue, Jersey City, NJ
Phone:  201-915-0600
Website:  www.skinnersloft.com