NEWPORT BEACH : Consultant to Help Drum Up Business

Beach cities hoping to boost business at their small retail centers face increasingly stiff competition from regional shopping malls, an economic consultant told the City Council this week.

Newport Beach, like other coastal communities, has long relied on its picturesque waterfront to draw business.

“You weren’t just attracting the locals. It was an event to go to the waterfront to have dinner,” retail consultant Linda Congleton said.

But an increase in the number of fine restaurants and specialty stores nearer to affluent inland communities has hurt beach towns by keeping big spenders closer to home, she said.

That has led some coast dwellers to surmise that “beach bums” and rowdy college students are overrunning their communities, particularly during summer months, and scaring off the more affluent people who once came for summer vacations and day trips.

“It’s not a question of our areas being overrun by people who don’t spend,” Congleton said at Monday’s council meeting. “It’s that the big spenders are coming last.”

Congleton, who has served as a retail consultant to developers of small shopping malls from Marina del Rey to San Diego, has been commissioned by the city to do a thorough study of the retail area and help develop a plan to improve it.