COSTA MESA : Merchants Given $8,000 Grant by City

Merchants in the downtown area have received another grant from the city to help promote their businesses during Costa Mesa Freeway construction, which has kept many customers out of the area.

The City Council this week allocated $8,000 to the Downtown Merchants Assn. to help defray advertising costs while additional work on the freeway extension project gets under way.

Including the recent grant, the city has given $20,000 this year to help the merchants advertise. The merchants themselves have raised $30,000 for advertising during the construction project.

“We’re real happy to have the money from the city in these tough times,” said Randy Garell, president of the Downtown Merchants Assn. He expects the money, coupled with donations from association members, to go toward print and radio advertisements to reach customers in other parts of the county.

“We’re getting good support from the local residents, but we feel we need to reach people in other parts of the county that normally would be put off by the construction down here,” he said.

Councilwoman Sandra L. Genis cast the lone vote against the $8,000 allocation Monday, saying the grant would encourage other groups of business people suffering in the economic recession to seek help from the city.

“I had originally supported it because I think it was a government-created mess . . . but, hey, business is down everywhere,” she said.

Although nationwide drops in sales have been reported over the past year, downtown stores started seeing a slowdown last Christmas season, when the freeway construction project closed north and southbound lanes into the downtown area. Now, with an even tougher economy and the continued construction project, downtown businesses are reporting sales drops of 20% from that of last Christmas, Garell said.

In addition to the promotional grants, the city has posted signs along Newport Boulevard reminding drivers that businesses are open during construction.