Monmouth in Focus - November 2024 Edition: Fall Tourism Press Conference
We'll talk a little bit about what occurred during the summer season. What occurred going on into the fall? What's going to occur there? Which is all positive, but you know what? We're always hosted by somebody from a municipality. Whether we're opening the season or we're closing out the season.
And we're joined today. And I like to call up to say a few words. Holmdel Mayor Rocco Impreveduto.
Rocco. Well, welcome, everyone, to historic Holmdel, New Jersey. I want to thank Commissioner Director Arnone, Deputy Director Licitra, Commissioner Anderson and Commissioner DiRocco and Monmouth County Tourism for selecting our town and this extraordinary building for this event.
And thank you, Ralph Zucker, wherever you are. I don't see you. There he is. For your incredible vision, talent and partnership. From the early days of the American Revolution to discoveries that changed how we view the creation of our universe, our small community, so rich in history, culture, and natural beauty, has had an undeniably big impact on our world.
And as Holmdel Mayor, I and the governing body work to ensure we appropriately honor those contributions. Our landmarks, both natural and manmade, stand as symbols of our heritage and the vibrant spirit of our community. People from all over the state of New Jersey visit Holmdel Park to experience our picturesque trails, open fields, and tranquil lakes. Whether you're hiking, picnicking, or simply taking in the scenery, 565 acres of Holmdel Park are where you can connect with each other and with nature itself.
A nestled within Holmdel Park is historic Longstreet Farm, a 19th century living history farm that allows visitors to step back in time and experience life as it was in rural New Jersey over a century ago, with period appropriate farming techniques, costumed interpreters and authentic buildings, Longstreet Farm brings history to life in a way that is both educational and engaging for people of all ages. Now we move more towards present day...the PNC Bank Arts Center, an amphitheater designed by noted modernist architect Edward Durrell Stone for nearly six decades, has served as a venue for some of the biggest musical, comedy and cultural acts in the entire world.
Holmdel is also home to the New Jersey Veteran, New Jersey Vietnam Veterans Memorial, where more than 14,000 visitors are welcomed by the museum and educational center each year, where they can honor the sacrifices made by our brave soldiers and gain a better understanding of the war in Southeast Asia. And then, of course, we stand here today in a modern marvel of engineering, vision and creativity. Bell Works. Originally constructed as the headquarters for Bell Labs in 1962.
This building was once a hub of innovation and scientific discovery. Today, this reimagined complex is a thriving space that blends business, cultural experience, and community, serving as a symbol of Home Bell's ability to evolve and innovate while honoring its past. I'd also be remiss if I didn't acknowledge that another impressive Impreveduto, former mayor Pat Impreveduto, was instrumental in helping bring this place to life, as well. And last but certainly not least, Holmdel is home to the future site of Robert Wilson Park thanks to an unbelievably generous contribution by our county leadership.
Our town purchased 35 acres across atop Crawford Hill, the highest point in Monmouth County and home to the world renowned Horn Antenna. It was here that Robert Wilson and Arno Penzias discovered cosmic microwave background radiation, which provided evidence confirming the Big Bang Theory as the creation of the known universe. So as we consider these tourist attractions, these landmarks, and take in their significance, we're reminded that they're more than just places on a map.
They're part of the very fabric of our home Bell community. They tell the story of home past, reflect our present, and shape our future. They are our legacy, and they serve as proof that you don't need a beach to become a tourist attraction. We will, as stewards of this community, protect and preserve these special places, continue to welcome all those who choose to experience them and ensure that Holmdel remains a town where history, nature and progress coexist in harmony. So thank you once again to everyone who's joined us, and thank you once again to Tom and the Monmouth County leadership. And that actually is a great kickoff to the to the fall tourism, summit.
I guess you say that we have here today because basically that is exactly, and one of the comments said, that the mayor said about the beach industry then falling into the the fall season. Of course, everybody sees tourism as, as you know, the big, big, initiative is and I guess the funding source comes from our beaches, which in most cases it is. But we tried to extend that even longer now, and it's working. And I want to thank our, led by Carolyn. Burtnick, over there that led by the tourism industry.
They're doing a phenomenal job of keeping in touch with our municipalities and most importantly, our chambers of commerce, which are the backbone. And I know that all my commissioners here and let me also address I forgot to mention Maureen Raisch, our surrogate right here as look staring right at me. So I apologize for that. Maureen.
Our our our business district. That's that's the backbone. And, you know, we'll let we'll let Ralph say a few comments later, because what he's done is created, you know, a model of of what you can do with a, with an elderly building that potentially could have been devastating to the town of Holmdel and now has been the the jewel of Holmdel. So according to the State New Jersey Visitor Economy Report, Monmouth County continues to experience positive economic growth since 2020, which is very important because that's when we took a complete nosedive during the pandemic.
Is a major contributor to the state's overall economy. 2023 saw over 9.5 million visitors to Monmouth County. Our food and beverage increased our visitor spending increased.
We're confident when the new state report is released next spring, we will see the same upward trend from last year. We're anticipating and we're I think we're waiting on like maybe three more beach communities to come in. But if we stay on trend and just those beach communities, bring in what they brought last year with the numbers that we have now, it looks like we will have a record this year of surpassing over $30 million in revenue here in Monmouth County, which is huge. So that's that's a major credit. You know, and we could kind of tell by some of the destinations, like we saw the largest crowd since 2015 at the Haskell this past year, close to 40,000 people were at the Haskell.
So people look at that and say, okay, but a lot of those people are not Monmouth County people. So what do they do? They need to come and lodge someplace, and then they go out to different destinations for different types of, you know, events, eating or just enjoying the entertainment here. Of course. Of course.
Our Monmouth County Tourism continued to help keep our visitors and residents safe with being I'm sure we're not the only county now, because usually people follow Monmouth County, but our free public beach safety dashboard that has been extremely, extremely popular to let people know when they're going to a destination. Is that beach overly crowded? Is there lifeguards? What is the tides? Is it safe? Is there a red flag? All those things are very important to give people. You know, what destination they should go to. You know, a lot of towns put that fake sign up there that the beach is closed.
Well, this is real accurate here. Some of them just try to do it, to just keep some of the the, heavy traffic out of their town. So we obviously had our travel guide, which we really, really now have done mostly internally, a lot of that out. We used to outsource a lot of that, but what it does is it gives and we spread thousands and thousands of copies out all over, Monmouth County and to other states. So how we try to help those, businesses and our beaches, during the seas off season, we, you know, we're at different, shows.
Our, our tourism department is at different shows. Distributing them and letting them know what Monmouth County really has. It's very important this time of the year to showcase what we're going to have for the following year, to take that $30 million revenue and increase that the following year.
But we're here today in the fall, and we had a very successful year. The fall is one of the best times here in Monmouth County. First of all, a little less traffic. It's all events for our our people here in Monmouth County to enjoy. And what's fortunate enough is we're getting still good weather lasting through, you know, later in the season there.
And what's happening there is people are extending the potential revenue base for their businesses to extend. So when those seasonal businesses years and years ago would end come Labor Day, we're trying to extend that through the holiday season, which makes those off years until the following Memorial Day gets shorter. And that's the goal of government. That's the goal the Monmouth County government. And I want to commend my Commissioners for that, because that's something that we said day in and day out to try to find ways to increase events, assistance to events and help our municipalities.
And anyway, with our chambers to help them to market their events so they continue to grow. Let's see, I like to mention a few resources and programs that the Commissioners and I have developed to help residents, residents and visitors find and enjoy for activities right here in Monmouth County. Something that we're we're very, very proud of.
And I know we have John Chew foe here from our economic development side, our Grown in Monmouth program, which was developed to retain and grow our county's agriculture industry. So, like I've always said, it's very popular. Everybody wants to see down in and I'll use towns, for example, Belmar or Asbury, you know, Long Branch, all those towns. We want to see that commotion.
We want to see that hectic lifestyle, all that traffic there. But I will tell you, when you come out and you leave Holmdel and you're going out to the western part of the county in the Manalapans, the Milllstones, the Upper Freeholds, the Allentowns. They want none of that. They want to see just open space, land and farms. And that's great. That's what makes us very unique,
compared to other counties. But what we can do is we can take the benefit of what they specialize in. And that's the farming industry. And tie that in to our business climate that is very active and busy. And that's what we're we're trying to do and we're achieving doing here in our Grown in Monmouth. We created something very special.
The Commissioners and myself, created the Brewed and Distilled, industry here. Ironically, I don't know if this is a good thing, but Monmouth County has the most breweries and distilleries in the state of New Jersey in one county. Let's take advantage of it and enjoy it as long as it's safe. So what we do now is we market it.
We market it, not just to breweries and distilleries, but we market the surrounding businesses around it. There. So and and in every region. And I'm sure each and every one of us in this room know of a special destination that we enjoy of a brewery, a distillery that we go to where marketing the surrounding businesses. So we're not just focused on just that there. So it's something that we're we're extremely, extremely happy about. Recently, the Red Bank River Center hosted their second annual Octoberfest, where attendees which doubled in attendance.
From last year, were able to sample local breweries and distilleries. And the idea came out of a launch event that happened right here, what happened in Red Bank, where Brewed and Distilled program was two years ago. That's where we created the idea of Brewed and Distilled. Also want to mention that both Highlands Business Partnership and Downtown Freehold.
And I know we have representatives here from Downtown Freehold are hosting their Octoberfest. And obviously we're very big on heritage. So on the heritage tourism front, we have, already begun planning for Americas 250, as we all know. And I want to thank, Jennifer and Ralph here because they are going to be a very big part of our celebration in 2026.
We are standing in an area that we hope, we hope everything goes well, will be a gigantic gala, and you can fit a lot of people in here. And it's going to be something that we're hope we're going to have representation of all 53 towns, kind of like nostalgically make it that town. Freehold Borough will have a table there. All the towns. That's going to be a great event. We're also looking to do is, have a 10K run hopefully speaking to Ralph, maybe we could do something coincide with with, Holmdel with their local roads and our county roads, leaving from a destination that we have, ample parking at. So all those things are stuff that is, is, like, really special.
And the offseason to continue that our ultimate goal. I know it kind of slows down in the January February, but if we could keep it active all the way to Christmas there, just think about that. Everybody gets that itch come March 1st. So once that it starts, if we can keep that from March until December, I think you know all our business, industry will be extremely excited. But, you know, again, like the mayor said, we're in a place here today that I mean, if if anybody knows what the history was and what it was and what it is today, it's it's really special and and it's a vision that not many people can do unless they're visionaries.
And, and we have one right here in Monmouth County. And it's my honor to introduce here Ralph Zucker, the CEO and founder of Somerset Development. Where's my mother when I need her? Thank you. Tom, and thank you, mayor and freeholders. And councilmen and women, and everybody involved. If I'd start thanking everybody, we'd be here forever.
But it really is an honor for us to stand here and welcome all of you once again, to what we refer to as the world's first metroburb, a metropolis in suburbia. And if you look around you, you'll see you can work out, you can do cryotherapy or oxygen therapy. Go to bar method. You can go to the library. Could drop your kids off at the Montessori school. You can just play here on the turf. Obviously the Monmouth County Library home, the libraries here, which we're so proud to have and on and on and on.
You can have your dogs pedicure here. You can get ballet lessons. You could take Off Broadway shows. We had Dionne Warwick here for a special the other night. It's unbelievable.
When we walked in here in 2008, and when we started working in 2013, the world bet against us. The people of Holmdel and Monmouth County, some of the people you see standing here today, bet with us and helped us make this happen. But you know, when people ask me, what's the biggest resource in New Jersey, in Monmouth County? And usually most people say it's the beaches, we say it's the people. The people of this county, of this state are, are just incredible.
We bet on bringing people together. We took a building that was closed off to the public. Nobody really knew unless you worked here.
Nobody knew what hid behind what was dubbed as the world's greatest mirror. You were stopped. As a matter of fact, there was a police officer.,
one of the first times that I came here, a police officer pulled me over and he says, what are you doing here? This place is closed. And I said, would you believe I'm thinking of buying it? And I said, well, [he arrested you...no] you know, he almost did.
And he said, what are you going to do with it? And I described sort of the vision which is beginning to percolate. And he said, that's great. We have nowhere to go over here. So whoever you are, officer, thank you very much. But all kidding aside, we bet on the people of this county, on the people of Holmdel and the people of the state. When Eero Saarinen designed this building in the 1950s, he designed a place to bring people together.
If you look around, you see the hallways are on the perimeter. Everything is open. Everything. You can see everybody from everywhere. It was designed to take people out from behind their cubicles, behind their desks, and cause serendipitous encounters that scientists need to ideate, to collaborate, to cross-pollinate. Well, we took that a step forward, and we brought that to everybody.
We opened the doors. Bell Works is open to the public every day, 6 a.m. to 12 a.m., day in and day out. It's open to the public. You could come here, you could walk around, you can walk your dog.
We even if somebody came here to walk their pet pig, you can play basketball in our basketball court. It's all free. Just come here and enjoy.
Because the greatest resource that we could bring to our tenants is all of you. It's the people. And our season is not over. It's a 12 month, a year season. And believe it or not, the summer was strong.
We thought everybody would be at the beaches. We had a strong summer, our Wednesday farmers market was mobbed constantly. Our retail is full.
We've opened new restaurants to bars. You can come here to eat. You could come here to drink a little bit. Be careful on your way out. Everything.
So we're proud to welcome the people of Monmouth County, the people of New Jersey and all the tourists everywhere. Come here and see what you can do when you simply embrace a clear, simple idea. Bring people together. Thank you very much. So, I have to tell you, personally, when when I heard about this vision.
Not that I doubted Rob at all, but I knew he was going to run through a lot of tough challenges, and it was going to be difficult. This is a big space. Take a walk through here. As, do our director’s challenge here. And that we just started starting today. The amount of steps that all our employees are trying to achieve that goal.
I know they're all looking at their watches now. And I hope you achieve that first day. You can achieve that day by just taking a walk around this place upstairs and downstairs. You'll achieve that goal. So it's a big challenge to make sure he was able to fill this building with successful businesses.
And I say this over and over, and I'm sure it it frustrates certain other members of other counties when I say it. We are the best at what we do, and it's not because of the five of us, it's because of the 53 partners that we have and all the 650,000 residents that we have here in Monmouth County, and most importantly, our business district. So let's enjoy the fall.
Let's extend the fall, and let's make this the fall season. As successful as those numbers were during the summer season, I want to thank everybody for coming. I want you to enjoy the holiday season that's about to come and enjoy Monmouth County. It's the best place to live. Thank you.
2024-11-30 19:18
