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The View from the Trenches
One year later, New Haven chamber's Rescigno looks at successes, missed opportunities and future challenges
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Business New Haven
10/15/2001
By: BNH
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Everyone knows that a first anniversary calls for a gift of paper. That why BNH thought to memorialize Anthony P. Rescigno's first anniversary as chairman of the Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce by interviewing him for our paper. The week before we spoke, Rescigno and the chamber had staged the second annual Southern Connecticut Business Expo at Veterans Memorial Coliseum, a subject about which we began our conversation.
So what's the five-days-later assessment of the Business Expo?
We are so excited and delighted at the turnout. We're still assessing the numbers [of attendees], but we know from last year's numbers that attendance was up probably by about 50 percent [over last year's announced attendance of 4,500]. We went in with the booth sales thinking we were ahead of the 'power curve' because we were hearing throughout the state that most of these trade shows and business expos were not living up to expectations and in fact were off 25 to 30 percent. So when our booths sold out three weeks before [the October 3 event], we knew we were on a good trend. But I don't think any of us anticipated how well the attendance turned out.
How do you account for it?
I think in some ways the September 11 events played to our favor in that the business community really wanted to come together and take the pulse of what was going on, see what everyone else was up to and [gauge] the mood of everybody.
Mid- to long-term, does greater New Haven stand to benefit from at least a temporary exodus of business from Manhattan?
The sense that I have talking to real-estate people and developers is that we're in a little bit of a tough spot in that we are still a considerable distance from New York. If we do have some benefits it will be from bouncing off of Fairfield County once Fairfield County starts to get filled up. But we're a few months off, and it may be that we're just a little too far.
Most business expos attract politicians like flies. But we didn't get the governor, or our U.S. senators, or Congresswoman DeLauro, or even the mayor, to attend. Does that mean our local business community lacks clout?
I would hope not. It is an election year for some of those folks. We did ask the governor to be here but there was a conflict, so he sent one of his second lieutenants in Rita Zangari [deputy commissioner of the state's Department of Economic & Community Development] to do the breakfast speech. But I would hope not, and would [prefer to] hope that [their absence] was just one of those things that took place that day.
Is Connecticut in a recession now?
I would think that a couples of months from now we will probably read that we are. I'm not sure of the economists are willing to admit it at this point, but I think that we probably are as of now. I'm hoping though, that as some of the experts are saying, it could be deep but quick, and that we could be out of it in a short period of time.
What is the mechanism by which the chamber discovers new businesses starting up in its service area, presumably to recruit them as members?
There are several ways, but the main way is through the local town halls and city halls. We're able to find out when new companies come in because there's a change of use that takes place through the [municipal] zoning offices and we're able to find out about it that way. We're very fortunate in that many of the [new] companies seek us out. They figure that one of the first things you do when you move into a community or start a new business is to join the chamber, because they feel that we're a resource they are going to need. Those are probably the two main ways.
So what is your assessment of the level of new business activity in greater New Haven right now?
Without having any hard statistics, I think there's been an upswing. Look just at restaurants - right here on Temple Street there are three new restaurants that are either open as we speak or will be open at any moment. We have signed up 400 brand-new members since last September 1, the period that I've been here. That doesn't mean they're all no businesses, and they're not. But there is definitely an uptick in the number of new businesses.
Why do you suppose that block of Temple Street between Chapel and Crown has taken so long to be redeveloped since the Omni hotel opened right across the street?
I don't know. Things just take time. [When the Omni opened] the economy was just starting to feel its oats, but it takes a while.
How about the three signature downtown blocks - Malley's, Macy's and Chapel Square Mall?
I'm on the committee that's reviewing the [development] proposals for these three center blocks. There are three what I would consider extremely credible, top-notch developers that want to transform the city center. Having been born in the city and gone out to the suburbs, I think a lot of suburbanites think that, even though the rest of the city is doing very well, they look at Church and Chapel and they think that something is still wrong with the city. When this redevelopment takes place it will be a real grand slam for the city.
Where does that process stand, and what are the proposals?
They are all different, and each has different emphases. One emphasizes office space, one emphasizes residential and one emphasizes retail. Each has different ideas about how Long Wharf Theatre would fit; each has its own ideas about what sort of retail should go here. The committee certainly wants to see a fair amount of the kind of retail that makes New Haven a destination point for people who are 25, 30 miles away. People [already] know they can come here for quality arts and entertainment; they know they can come here for good food. [Now,] can they come here to do some serious shopping? I think the committee recognizes that we're lacking in that latter area.
For the record, the three developers are:
[New Haven-based] Matthews Ventures, William Jackson Ewing from Baltimore, Md., and the last one is S.N. Phelps Realty [from Greenwich].
You mentioned Long Wharf Theatre. I know there has been disagreement on their board about relocating downtown. Do you have a sense of where that board is today on this issue?
I think they're still conflicted. What I'm hoping is that some of these proposals that are being offered are so tempting and would give [LWT] a brand-new facility with some real opportunities that they change their mind and [decide to] want to come down to New Haven. They worry, and rightfully so, about losing some patrons because they're right off the highway [and offer convenient automobile access]. But I'm wondering how many patrons they will pick up if they're right in the center [city] including folks at the Omni - which is sold out virtually every night - and the New Haven Hotel. It's no different than when you go into New York City and take advantage of the [Broadway and off-Broadway] shows there. I'm hoping Long Wharf Theatre will see it that way.
What do you see as New Haven's greatest economic-development challenges right now?
The simple, mundane task of getting additional parking is probably the next major step. And we have been fortunate in recent months to get a commitment from the governor and the legislature to infuse about $30 million into the city for additional housing and work in Ninth Square but also a major parking garage right behind the corner of Elm and Church streets [in back of the former Union Trust Bank building]. It will serve two purposes: During the day we will be able to fill out additional office space with new companies if we have more parking; and in the evenings and on weekends, that additional parking will help out the additional arts and entertainment business that is so important to the city and the region.
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