Published: May 15, 2008 01:37 am            

DEVELOPMENT: Transit North marketing effort ready to roll

A revamped Transit North.com will make its debut next week in Las Vegas.

Lockport Town Supervisor Marc Smith has a stash of glossy brochures, rack cards, CD-ROMs, memory sticks and lanyards, even ChapSticks and eyeglass cleaning kits, ready for handout to the curious at the ReCon 2008 retail conference by the International Council of Shopping Centers.

When they’re working the Town of Lockport’s booth at the five-day trade show, Smith and town board member Mark Crocker will be wearing aspiration on their front sides. Along with the giveaways, their conference T-shirts are emblazoned with the Web address “TransitNorth.com.”

Everywhere they go in Vegas, their goal is to get retailers wondering, what’s Transit North?

The answer, suggested prominently on the Web site, is a $1 billion opportunity.

“I think it’s an instant winner. I really do,” Smith said. “I haven’t seen anything else like it.”

ReCon 2008 is the second major retail convention that Smith has attended on behalf of Transit North, a concept of reinventing the stretch of Transit Road from Main Street, Lockport, to Tonawanda Creek, Pendleton, as an urbane retail-residential mecca.

The Town of Lockport is footing the roughly $2,500 bill for Smith and Town Council Member Mark Crocker to attend the conference and promote Transit North. The conference typically brings in about 55,000 participants and is seen as a premiere way for communities and national retailers to connect.

Fred Teeter, Niagara County’s marketing consultant, is going along to help and also promote the assistance that Niagara County Economic Development Agency can offer newly locating businesses.

The county played a key role in the Transit North sales effort, as the Niagara County Legislature earlier this year gave the steering committee $12,500 to produce the Vegas-bound brochures and digital marketing pieces.

“The time seems to be right,” Teeter said. “Even in a difficult economy, there’s more activity on Transit. ... The corridor is already fully developed in Amherst; that makes Lockport a logical option.”

The Transit North marketing effort is designed to tell retailers what they most want to know about Lockport: Where the money-making opportunities are. Demographic data and respected Claritas estimates of how much local retail demand currently exceeds supply are displayed prominently. Around the charts and tables, text touts proximity to major northeastern population centers and photographs show the “look” to which Transit North aspires.

The site was built by Lockport-based Web Essentials, whose owner Shelley Reid Salmons said the content — and the possibilities that it raises — made a strong impression on her. She put aside other work to finish the update ahead of ReCon as much out of dedication to the idea as her job.

“I was really impressed at the amount of research that’s been done, showing all the things that aren’t here that we spend money on somewhere else. I would much rather see my money spent in Niagara County. ... We would be such an anchor if we had (Transit North),” Reid Salmons said. “We put our heart into this site, my husband and I both, because ... we want (Smith) to look good out there. We want him to beat out the competition and bring those businesses home.”

Smith said he already has six appointments set up at the conference, including several with retail developers. Representatives of the types of businesses that local residents have said they most want — movie theaters, clothing stores, book stores, etc. — will be sought out and handed a brochure and digital piece, or their contact information will be taken for a post-conference mailing. Casual passers-by will get a rack card or trinket referring to the Web site.

The site includes a link to detailed maps of property in the town, in case developers want to look up assessment and infrastructure data.

“They can shop from their homes,” Smith said.

The supervisor also is taking to ReCon a bundle of glossy flyers advertising space at Harrison Place, the old Harrison Radiator factory in the city.

When Smith ran for re-election last fall, his critics complained he seems to work harder on Transit North than solving their neighborhood problems, and he’s aware that some view his Vegas trips as a folly. The town, alone, is footing the bill for Transit North’s delegates to the conference, with no shares paid by the city or Pendleton, and Smith is unapologetic about it.

“Every day I am asked to do something that becomes an ongoing expense for the town — put 24/7 streetlighting somewhere — that’s a benefit for a few. This is a two- to three-year investment, out of pocket maybe $20,000 for the town, that will pay for itself when the first business moves in,” he said. “The benefit to the town as a whole is (generating) sales tax and providing the quality of life that residents demand. It’s one of the greatest returns we can provide.”

Contact reporter Joyce Miles at 439-9222, ext. 6245.

        

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