The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Main Street Lorain taps marketing consultant
Main Street Lorain has enlisted a new marketing consultant to help downtown bounce back after the economic shutdown caused by the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Dan Crandall, former marketing director of Crocker Park in Westlake, will work with the fledgling organization this year.
An Elyria native, Crandall said he grew up fishing at Lorain’s Hot Waters municipal boat ramp.
He spent more than five years working with Crocker Park until the COVID-19 recession forced developer Stark Enterprises to lay off staff.
Crandall, who now lives in Fairview Park, began rediscovering Lorain last fall at the invitation of his friend Jimmy Penttila, Main Street secretary and client relationship manager for a Lorain-based BITS information technology company.
“When Jimmy contacted me back in October, I wasn’t even sure why he was contacting me,” Crandall said.
Crandall said he made a trip out to see end of construction of the Broadway streetscape project and was impressed.
When the downturn led to the job loss, Crandall became full-time golf clubhouse manager for a northern Ohio park district.
He will work with Main Street Lorain, functioning like an interim director would while the organization resumes activities put on hold during the pandemic, said Kurt Hernon, president.
“Obviously, with Dan here already, we would hope that he would enjoy his time here and want to apply and see where we go in 2021,” Hernon said. “The timing was right and it was needed, to be honest.”
The local merchants involved with Main Street continue to support the organization, he said.
But they all are busy pondering the best way to keep their businesses alive while coming back safely, Hernon said.
Crandall managed events at Crocker Park including Liberty Rocks, the Crocker Park Food Truck Challenge and the annual Tree Lighting.
The experience will apply well to Broadway and downtown Lorain, Hernon said.
“I think there’s so much crossover in terms of what you had to do at a place like Crocker, which was sort of trying to create a small city of its own,” Hernon said to
Crandall.
“That was trying to emulate a downtown like this,” Hernon said about Crocker Park. “The ideas there are great, they’re exactly what a good city should be.
“Let’s bring them back in the city.”
Crocker Park is like a small city within a city, with 2,000 residents and 7,500 workers there daily in restaurants, stores and commercial services there, Crandall said.
Downtown Lorain already has an eclectic group of merchants and services, he said.
Part of the city’s growth is to examine what the downtown area needs next.
Broadway also must cater to Lorain residents every day, along with attracting new visitors from outside, Hernon and Crandall said.
On June 4, Crandall spent the afternoon with Main Street Lorain’s committee leaders at the Transportation Center at the Lorain Port Authority’s Black
River Landing.
They discussed the nuts and bolts of programs to help develop Broadway’s economy and identity by working with merchants, residents and visitors.
Topics ranged from last weekend’s public beautification campaign with new planters, to organizational bylaws, to vacant buildings.
“I think, again, just trying to drive traffic back down here, after all this, just letting people know that our businesses are open, take advantage of our entertainment district,” said City Councilman Rob McFarland, who represents Broadway in Lorain’s Ward 2.
McFarland also leads the organization’s economic vitality committee.
In the COVID-19 recover, businesses likely won’t move quickly into expansion mode, said Tom Brown, executive director of the Lorain Port Authority.
“Who’s open, we’ve got to help them survive,” Brown said.