How Much Retail, Restaurant Space Needed for New Convention Hall?

CAPE MAY — If this city is moving towards a summer-only economy like Stone Harbor, how much retail and restaurant space should be included in the design of a new convention hall?
At an Aug. 1 special meeting of the city’s Convention Hall Committee, Architect Martin Kimmel said the first job of the committee is to determine the size and scope of a new facility. He asked if the city wanted a “legitimate convention center” where meetings were held over a period of days and concerts were staged or a hall like the current facility, more for community use.
“What kind of destination do you want that building to be?” asked Kimmel.
Committee member and Washington Street Mall store owner Hillary Pritchard said she favored a one-story hall and believed two retail stores in the new center would be enough. She said a single hall on the first floor would be sufficient unless a management company was hired to keep the hall booked all the time.
Pritchard said she worried a concert hall may only be used a couple of times a year.
Mayor Jerome E. Inderwies said he wanted a convention hall that was affordable and used on a daily basis not just for concerts in the spring and fall.
Scheme four, a single story hall, which received favorable comment from the committee, has space for two retail stores.
“ I think it’s going to be very hard to put retail income figures on these units in our present market with empty storefronts around town with rents probably falling,” said committee member Tom Carroll.
Pritchard said Cape May could be sliding back into a shorter and shorter tourist season.
Committee member James Wyatt said the promenade was used from May to September while the mall was used a most of the year other than six to eight weeks in winter.
Committee member Linda Steenrod, who is a city councilwoman, said businesses remaining open in the slower fall and spring seasons was a “double-edged sword.” If stores and restaurants stay open and no one is in the city, business owners lose money, she said.
But if they close, people come and there is no place to eat and no place to shop, visitors may never return at that time of year, said Steenrod.
She asked if committee members thought the $10.2 million, two-story scheme five, which includes space for, five retail stores had merit.
Inderwies said a new convention hall did not need more than two retail stores since stores on the promenade would not be open in winter. He said a city-owned store on the promenade currently is empty despite “very reasonable rent.”
Pritchard said a larger two-story convention hall was inappropriate if restaurants and motels were closed after the summer season.
“The entire town’s infrastructure would have to be modified to make this thing a viable operation,” said committee member Dennis Crowley.
Convention Hall Committee Chairman Skip Loughlin said he liked the larger scheme five plan. He said he has lived in Cape May for 14 years and noticed the business atmosphere of the city has changed.
“There was a certain cohesiveness amongst the all business people in town,” said Loughlin. “It didn’t matter who got what business. As long as the business came, we all got a slice of the pie.”
He said a new breed of business owner has come here that only considers itself. In order to make a success of the scheme five convention center, the city, the chamber of commerce and business community would have to actively promote the facility, said Loughlin.
Fourteen years ago, the city had many more permanent residents, said the mayor. He said trying to support a large convention facility with a second floor performing arts hall 12 months a year was unrealistic.