Owners of S&S Custom Framing, Ltd., they currently are looking for a place to locate their business.
They chose Trenton.
And it would appear to be a perfect fit.
“Our first choice,” Donald said, “is Trenton. Anywhere in the city would be good for us, but the area around the hotel would be ideal.”
There’s more to the Benjamins’ decision than just love for the city, however.
“We think this is a sound business decision,” Donald said. “Or else, we wouldn’t have made it.
“The hotel will do a lot to bring people into the city. That would only help any business located around it and we’d like to be one of them.”
The city just unveiled an ambitious $5 million plan to improve the “streetscape” in the area around the 199-room Marriott hotel and conference center being built just behind the War Memorial building.
In other words, the city wants to clean up the neighborhood.
In addition to opening the remaining block of the Trenton Commons to traffic (finally) and making part of South Warren Street two ways, the plan calls for putting a tree-lined median in Lafayette Street, reopening Factory Street and paving Peace Street and Howell’s Alley with bricks.
New sidewalks, curbs and, probably, street lights would be included all around.
And, it says here, that S&S is the kind of small business that would fit perfectly among the refurbished Colonial-style buildings along the first block of Lafayette or the block of South Warren between Front and Lafayette.
It’s more for the wine-and-espresso crowd than the shot-and-beer drinkers but, let’s be honest, that’s the kind of people who will be staying at the hotel anyway.
It’s unlikely many folks who live in the city will spend a weekend at the hotel but out-of-towners will.
And what do you think they would like to see outside their hotel room window?
A nice little business, run by people with roots in the community, where you can browse, learn a little about art and have anything from small photos to large posters framed by someone with the practiced eye of an artist, or another bail bondsman, run by someone who takes your money and drives home across the bridge or, even worse, to Hopewell?
Nothing against the businesses or the people who own them (because they also are vital to this city), but do we need pawn shops, dollar stores and places selling fake gold jewelry across from the hotel?
How many pizza joints, sneaker stores and discount clothing emporiums can you cram into downtown?
Is that the image the city wants to present to the people staying at a hotel complex it’s costing $53 million to build?
Or does the city want them to see things like an art gallery, a coffee shop and a nice restaurant?
All of those things already are in place by the way.
So are some boarded-up buildings just begging for a new life.
“We think the mayor’s right,” Sonia said. “The hotel will draw people back to the city and having things for them to do and places for them to shop close by is important.
“We think we have something to offer. We’ve been doing this for about a year but we’ve been doing home shows. Going to people’s homes is nice but having a shop of our own would be perfect.
“We think ours is the kind of business that would be good for that area.”
So should the city.
Maybe someone could give them a call at (609) 671-9870.
It couldn’t hurt.
Tony Persichilli is a columnist and copy editor for The Trentonian.
