On Wednesday, March 2, 2022, The Village of Great Neck Plaza held a welcoming ceremony for new businesses that had opened in the Village since Jan. 1, 2021. Since that time, thirty-five new businesses have opened in the village. While some of these involved a change of ownership of businesses that had already been in existence or a change of location from one location in the village to another, most of the businesses that had opened during this time period were new to the village.
Deputy Mayor Pamela Marksheid, whose idea it was to hold the ceremony, explained: “Our village normally holds ribbon cuttings when new businesses open in our village. The village wants to support our new businesses and help them publicize their opening. Unfortunately, during the pandemic, we were not able to do ribbon cuttings. I thought it important that we recognize all of these businesses collectively at this time and tell them how pleased we are that they chose to do business in our village.”
Invitations were sent out to the businesses. Approximately ten of the businesses attended the ceremony and most of the others had advised the village that that they were not able to attend. Representatives of the businesses in attendance were invited to speak about their businesses and all that were in attendance accepted the invitation to speak.
Mayor Ted Rosen spoke at the ceremony and welcomed the representatives of the new businesses. He explained how the village strongly supports the businesses within the village and told the representatives of the businesses in attendance that the village was here to help them.
In her remarks at the ceremony, Dr. Ailian Chen, MD,FACE, ECNU, an endocrinologist who recently established a medical office in the village told how she was delighted to have her medical office in the village, and at one point described the village “as heaven on earth.”
Mayor Rosen stated: “I thank Deputy Mayor Marksheid for thinking of this ceremony and for arranging it. Supporting our businesses has been very important to our village for many years and this ceremony allowed us to make up for the ribbon cuttings we could not do during the pandemic. I was particularly happy to see that almost all of the business representatives who spoke at the ceremony stated how happy they were to have their businesses in the Plaza.”
Trustee Michael DeLuccia noted “ The village seeks to support our businesses in whatever way we are able. For example, we provide an e-newsletter in which village businesses can provide information about their businesses at no charge. We want the businesses that are in our Village to be successful and continue in business.”
During the ceremony, Deputy Mayor Marksheid noted that the village had set up a table just inside the entrance to the Village Hall and invited the merchants and restaurateurs to leave brochures, flyers and menus on the table to help publicize their businesses. A number of the businesses in attendance left various items about their businesses on the table.
Ron Edelson, Executive Director of the Great Neck Plaza Business Improvement District, encouraged the merchants to become involved in the promotions sponsored by the BID.
Following the speeches by the merchants, a joint ribbon cutting involving all of the businesses present was held, with Mayor Rosen cutting the large red ribbon held collectively by the merchants and village officials.
During the ceremony, Mayor Rosen told the merchants about the program that the village had started with Hofstra University whereby village merchants could sign up for a series of six free monthly workshops taught by Hofstra instructors on subjects such as marketing, social media marketing, financial management and improving the customer experience. The workshops are paid for by the village and are intended to help village merchants succeed. He encouraged merchants to sign up for the workshops.
Marnie Ives, the manager of a retail store that is shortly to move to larger space in the village and was one of the businesses recognized at the ceremony, spoke about the Hofstra program in which she had participated when the workshops were first offered. She stated “I was one of the merchants who attended the workshops provided by the Village of Great Neck Plaza for village merchants at no cost to the merchants. The workshops were taught by instructors from Hofstra University and covered important subjects needed for retail success today. I learned a great deal of valuable information that has been and will be very beneficial to me in running the retail business I manage. I recommend that my fellow merchants in Great Neck Plaza sign up to take these free workshops when they are offered again, in the spring of this year.”
—Submitted by the office of Mayor Ted Rosen
