Paint supply retailer Benjamin Moore & Co. has chosen downtown Nyack as the launch site this month for “Main Street Matters,” a company-funded national revitalization project that will brighten with colors the facades of business districts in 20 communities.
The New Jersey-based company”™s Rockland County contractor, Spilotras Painting Ltd. in Chestnut Ridge, spread sidewalk paint cloths, raised aluminum ladders and began work on Nyack storefronts Sept. 17. In the next three to four weeks, owner Michael Spilotras”™ contracting crew will apply fresh coats of paint to the exteriors of 20 businesses on Main Street between North Broadway and Cedar Street in the riverfront village.
With a Sept. 16 outdoor kickoff event and the first brushstrokes postponed by rainy weather, Benjamin Moore representatives instead met with Nyack Mayor Jen White at City Hall to discuss the logistics of the project.
“We are a very active business district that was severely hit by Sandy,” White said. “It did a lot of damage, and it was tough on small businesses. This project is going to be a real boon for the community and increase the interest and the foot traffic in the downtown.”
The mayor said the last time Nyack had a major renovation project was in the 1970s. Since then, the only renovations on Main Street were at Harbor Hill, a three-story American restaurant that reconstructed its exterior nearly seven years ago.
Nyack last year added new streetlights and benches and repaved roads and sidewalks. But the mayor said even a small-scale project like that took eight years of planning. Approval came quickly for the Benjamin Moore project compared with what could have been another extended wait process, she said.
Clad in bright-red “Main Street Matters” t-shirts, painters began their work in sunny early-autumn weather at Koblin”™s Pharmacy at 96 Main St. and at Johnnycakes, a popular diner posting chalkboard specials at 84 Main St.
Koblin”™s Pharmacy store manager Chuck Travers said a drug store has operated at that site since the 1800s. In 1934, owner David Koblin opened Koblin”™s Pharmacy. The family-run business was passed down to Jerry Koblin in 1967.
“This renovation project is great for Nyack, especially in a tough economic time, to refresh the storefront,” said Travers, a Nyack native. “We just repainted the whole front of the building last year and replaced the awning. Benjamin Moore is now going to freshen up our storefront with the same color scheme ”“ federal blue and dark blue.”
Benjamin Moore chief marketing officer David Melançon said the project gives downtown retailers and business owners supplying the project a chance to partner together. The Benjamin Moore business at 124 Main St. will provide some of the paint for the project, which will tap into 120 gallons of Benjamin Moore stock.
“We”™ll be offering further discounts to other businesses not on Main Street that want to repaint their storefronts,” Melançon said. “We”™re also giving seminars on how to grow businesses through partnering organizations and providing communities with plans for resilience in the face of natural disasters.”
The project is expected to be completed by Oct. 4 with a celebratory event taking place on Main Street following the renovation.
Nyack was chosen as first beneficiary of the Main Street Matters project because of its proximity to Benjamin Moore headquarters in Montvale, N.J.
“There was no ranking of one through 20,” said Benjamin Moore spokeswoman Kimberlee Bradshaw. “We”™re rolling it out in terms of the work being done in Nyack first because we want to start near our headquarters and also end near home in Sea Bright, New Jersey, towards the beginning of next summer.”
Benjamin Moore representatives reached out to more than 100 communities that were close to any of its retail stores and asked local governments and businesses if they wanted to nominate their municipality for the competition. After Benjamin Moore launched its competition on www.paintwhatmatters.com, about 800 cities, towns and villages nominated themselves. In the end, 20 were chosen based on the number of votes cast from May to June.
“You could do one vote per day,” Bradshaw said. “What was great about this campaign was you saw people vote for towns they didn”™t live in.”
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