Moving Forward in the New Year

Happy New Year! With new beginnings come new opportunities. And a renewed spirit of optimism, even in the most challenging of times. 

As we enter the new year, the Board of Directors of Trenton Downtown Association (TDA) would like to thank the business owners in downtown Trenton, the dedicated staff of TDA and our clean and safe team for maintaining our district. We would also like to thank the City of Trenton and our many partners, with whom we share the same goal: to improve the quality of life and boost the economic climate in Trenton.

The COVID-19 pandemic challenged our retail businesses and kept many of the downtown workers at home. Due to state-mandated shutdowns, and out of an abundance of caution and care for the health and well-being of our stakeholders, TDA made the decision to postpone some programs and place a greater emphasis on small business communications and support.

During this period, we took specific steps to evaluate the current mission and activities of the organization, including the development of a formal “Organizational Assessment,” authored by Heritage Consulting Inc., which was completed in September. As a result of this evaluation, TDA has determined that a greater emphasis on quality-of-life management, capital investment and small business support services is needed to support both our property owners and retail businesses moving forward.

To help TDA develop and implement a revised work plan and budget that better reflect these priorities, we have engaged Commercial District Services, LLC (CDS). CDS is a managed services firm that specializes in urban Business Improvement District operations and provides support to some of our State’s largest cities, including Newark, Jersey City, Paterson, Elizabeth and Hoboken.

In the coming year, Commercial District Services will be implementing the work plan. We look forward to seeing tangible, visible results on the streets that line up around our downtown properties.

Much of the groundwork for these upcoming changes was laid by some of the board members who moved on during this past year. We would like to thank the following board members for their service to TDA: Ray Sziber, Willard Stanback, John Thurber, Eric Maywar, Kris King, Stephanie Campbell and Tom Fowler. We would also like to thank Patricia Hall for providing leadership as the Interim Executive Director over the last year. 

We welcome the new board members who were elected at the annual meeting last month: William Osterman, Liad Onitiri, Wayne Downing, Eric Poe and Raoul Momo. TDA looks forward to working with you and thanks you for your commitment to serve.

Sincerely,
Roland Pott,
Chairman, TDA

Chris Bernardo,
President, CDS