Business & Tech

Luther Flurry's Grand Plans For Montclair Center Development

New head of BID talks about the future

Luther Flurry is effusive in his praise of Montclair Center.

He says that not only is the downtown area already a destination for out-of-town diners and shoppers, but the area will become an even bigger draw once the redesign of South Park Street is completed, hopefully before next summer.

And that's a good thing. Indeed, his positivity is just what any Montclair resident would want.

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On Sept. 15, Flurry took over from Tom Lonergan and became the new interim executive director of the Montclair Center Business Improvement District (BID).

With 20 years of managerial and financial experience at various nonprofits—not to mention more than seven years on the BID Board of Directors—Flurry seems perfectly suited for his nine-month term in the appointed position.

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Flurry said that the board was looking for someone to replace Lonergan who was already familiar with everything going on in Montclair Center—including the South Park Street project.

"The board wanted a seamless transition," he said.

Born in Atlanta, Flurry, 50, moved here with his wife and two children from Park Slope, Brooklyn, in 2000. He said he loves the diversity of the downtown area, which he said has become a destination for diners from surrounding towns.

"Cars pull up on Bloomfield Avenue and one person will ask the other where they want to eat ... and people will know they can just walk around and they will come across somewhere nice," he said.

Flurry said that on any given Friday or Saturday night, some 1,500 to 2,500 diners visit Montclair Center's 75 or so restaurants.

And if there's a Wellmont concert and other activities going on, those numbers can swell to about 5,000 people.

Of course, he admits, restaurants do tend to come and go—just like they do in any town.

"Some 80 percent of restaurants close in the first year—those are national statistics—but we actually do much better than that national average," he said.

When the South Park Street project is brought up, Flurry expresses optimism that the project will start in the spring and be finished by summer.

"When the township went out for bid we wanted to be done by the holiday but because there was not a bid we could accept we decided we needed to either do the project over the holidays or wait until spring," he said, noting that—for the sake of the retailers—completing the project in the spring was preferable.

The redesign of South Park Street, first talked about as long ago as the late 1970s, was originally expected to cost about $750,000 and be finished by Christmas but will actually come in at between $1 million and $1.3 million.

"I think the project will be great when it's completed," Flurry said.

When asked about his plans to boost economic activity and business among the district's 360 or so storefronts, he has an array of ideas.

For example, Flurry hopes to encourage more affinity marketing, which would link complementary businesses so that they might develop lasting partnerships.

"There are about a dozen merchants that cater to weddings in Montclair Center and, in fact, you could hire everyone you need for a wedding right here," he said.

Flurry also said you could decorate a house with all the design and furniture shops in Montclair Center.

"It would be great if you could go to a furniture shop and, if you don't find what you want, have access to cards from other nearby shops so you could check them out," he said.

The idea, he emphasized, is that groups of similar businesses work together to promote one another so that, ultimately, businesses are building on each other's successes.

"There are also probably more alternative health spots in Montclair than there are in any other comparable community," he said, adding that "these spots could work together as well."

In addition, Flurry also has launched monthly roundtable discussions on various topics.

"We had about a dozen businesses here recently and we talked about how to fix up windows for success," he said.

Flurry said another goal is to crank up Montclair Center branding.

"We want to make sure the brand and slogan are in more places so more people see it," he said.

After Flurry's first six months on the job, the board will evaluate his performance and his level of interest and decide whether to appoint him as the permanent executive director at the end of his term or to launch an open search for potential candidates to replace him.


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