Table of Contents
Miscellaneous
• From The Publishers
• Last Look: Syd Farber
Cover Story:
Where’s Everybody Going?
What’s causing some small businesses to pack up and leave? And what should we
be doing to stop them?
Feature Story:
The Excessive Costs
of Doing Business in New York
A productive Small Business Day in Albany, but worries still exist for Rockland-ites and other New York based businesses.
Feature Story:
How’d They Do That?
Follow Provident Bank CEO George Strayton’s strategies for success.
DEPARTMENTS:
Economics Roundup
• The Smart Investor
• Money Talk
Business Roundup
• Unlock Your Potential
• Marketing By Design
Retail Round-Up
• Talking Shop
• Odds & Ends
Ask the Expert
• Estate Planning
• Mortgage Advice
Invest in Your Community
• The Bottom Line
• First Annual Non-profit Leadership Summit
Dedicated Section:
Rockland Business Association:
The President’s Desk
A new voice for Rockland County and a new advocate for its hottest issues and concerns.
Pinnacles of Success
RBA’s best honored at the
Third Annual Pinnacle Awards.
RBA Happenings
• Committee and Council Info
• Calendar of Events
• New Members
Retail
Roundup
Talking Shop
By Adrian Burke
Retail continues to be a draw for the county as recent repeal of state sales tax expected to create a savings of $10 million for local consumers.
Rockland County is a destination for many reasons, not the least of which is shopping. This is a merchandising Mecca, with one of the nation’s largest malls at the center. The county attracts huge numbers of shoppers from outside of Rockland—from Westchester and Orange Counties, as well as Bergen, other parts of New Jersey—and as far away as Virginia!
The Palisades Center Mall helps to anchor a solid core of retail businesses, which also include the nearby Nanuet Mall and Spring Valley Marketplace. In between, shoppers head to Route 59 for national chains such as Borders Books, Ethan Allen, and Kids R Us, then make village by-ways their destination for the kinds of goods and service that only a local establishment can provide, such as having keys made at the Handy Store in Suffern, or to pick up some handmade chocolates at Gourmet Goodies in Nyack.
Retail is a huge draw—estimates claim that most of the visitors to the Palisade’s Center, for example, come from outside of the county—bringing in revenue, creating jobs, and bringing hundreds of thousands of shoppers into the county who may also spend on tourism, hotels, the arts, dining and more.
Palisades Center General Manager Peter Janoff points to new stores and restaurants, and a few pending projects such as East, a new Japanese restaurant, and an eatery developed from the Seinfeld “Soup Nazi” character called Soupman. Along with David C., an apparel store, look for shoes at the Belle Shoes. There are also plans for a 24-lane bowling alley and a new children’s center, Club Libby Lu, opening in May that combines a retail store with a kid’s club.
The Loew’s Theater in the mall, with 21 theaters—including an Imax theater—is among the top selling in the country. The Imax is the 3rd most successful in the country.
There is news, too, of a possible $50 million-plus revamp of the Nanuet Mall, which would add theaters, restaurants and new stores, including national brand names. The mall, which has just over 900,000 square feet of space spread over two levels, was built in 1969, and the redevelopment by its owner, Simon Properties of Cleveland, would bring it into line with newer malls.
What effect will the repeal of
the state’s sales tax have on our county?
The recent repeal of the state’s sales tax on clothes and footwear
may cost millions of dollars in lost revenue for Rockland County,
but it is a boon for shoppers. Early in April, legislative leaders
decided to let a long-dormant law take effect, thus eliminating a
4 percent state-imposed sales tax on clothing and footwear costing
less than $110. Municipalities can still collect local sales tax,
and that holds true for Rockland. The repeal of the state sales tax
will generate a reported $600 million in savings to consumers across
the state—locally, it is expected to be about $10 million.
However, the action will also mean the end of the tax-free shopping
weeks that Rockland shoppers once enjoyed.
Will it send consumers out to buy new refrigerators, cars and carpeting? That remains to be seen. Although the local economy continues to be healthy—the most recent report from the New York State Department of Labor finds that recent unemployment figures were the lowest in five years—and job growth strong.
The private sector job count increased in March by 6,400, according to David J. Trzaskos, director of the Division of Research and Statistics. However, says a local economist, Rockland consumers may see extra costs associated with rising energy prices eating up the dollars they might once have spent on retail purchases.
“What it really gets down to is our disposable income, and we can only dispose of that which we have left after expenditures,” says Bruce Mason, Chief Economist of Union State Bank. “Increasingly we are using those funds for increases in energy-related costs.”“Sales tax really is a regressive tax that hurts the middle class and the poor,” Mason continues. “The state government has been collecting more and more sales tax, to the point where they have a windfall. They are now going to help the consumer by reducing the sales tax, thus passing on that windfall to the consumer. How much impact it will have remains to be seen.”
Retail: Where the jobs are
Although we might not be spending as much as retailers would like, there
is good news on the retail front. According to a new labor department
study, area companies will add about 2,100 sales jobs through 2012, which
includes Rockland, along with neighboring counties of Orange, Sullivan,
Dutchess, Ulster and Westchester.
The report, by the New York State Department
of Labor, says the areas with the most “favorable” or “very favorable” outlooks include retail sales clerk, with an expected job growth of 1,600 positions a year. RBD
