Town Expected to Bid Out Downtown Study Next Month

After news came out last Wednesday night that , Town Board members are moving forward quickly to develop a strategy to market downtown to potential investors.

Supervisor Sean Walter had spent much of his first two years in office courting the nationwide movie chain. But Thursday marked a change in approach.

As he continues his "store-by-store, block-by-block" approach to downtown development, following his experience with Regal Walter said he needs one big tool in his toolbelt to draw some anchor stores downtown - namely, a demographic study.

With that in mind, a consulting team including urban planners, a transportation expert, a retail analyst, and other consultants attended last week's work session to give the town an idea of what they believe needs to be done. it wishes to use to fund the study, and town board members will soon be going out to bid on the plan.

"I need to be able to go in not just with my team of [Community Development Director] Chris Kempner, the deputy supervisor [Jill Lewis], and my team from the Business Improvement District," Walter said on Thursday. "But I've gotta be able to hand them a document and say, 'OK, you've heard from us. Now read the document.'"

Eric Alexander, executive director of Vision Long Island, had gathered the team of consultants at the request of Walter. Alexander - whose organization focuses on smart growth and redevelopment - said Walter called him sometime in December and asked him to make a presentation to the board, which served as a preliminary discussion outlining how the town should present its bid for the BOA study.

Noting that the current administration in town hall is the most focused on downtown he's seen, and that the past 12 months have already seen an improvement on Main Street, Alexander outlined three "planks" he said he would like to see improved upon downtown with the benefit of a study. 

Alexander said he hopes future public dollars can be leveraged - for example, to upgrade the 70-year-old sewer system downtown - using the study. In addition, he said attracting projects based on surrounding demographics could be improved, as well as bringing people downtown day-in and day-out.

Walter said in an interview on Monday he hopes to have the bid specifications out by early April, and did not want to speculate on a dollar amount for the study.