NANTUCKET - On a hot Tuesday morning, tourists clog
Nantucket's cobblestone streets, strolling from boutique to art
gallery to coffee shop.
Walking from Main to Centre streets, they sip a latte, buy a hooded
island sweatshirt and brunch at the Jared Coffin House, knowing nothing
of the obstacles this old whaling city has overcome just to serve them.
Now is always a good time to market a quality product, say a number of Island entrepreneurs opening new businesses this summer.
"Our idea ... was to kind of seize the moment," said Frank Pellegrino, opening a Mexican restaurant where Lawry's seafood restaurant used to be in Edgartown.
He said that he and partner Denise Page didn't want uncertain economic times to deter them from taking the lease to a valuable piece of property: Not many businesses come with parking lots attached, he said.
With six shopping days left until Christmas, Tisbury merchants say the women will come early, the men late. Parking will be tough, but when isn't it? And though the wind may be cold the shops are warm, and the white lights of a Main street night alone make it worth the walk.
Vineyard Haven store owners are hoping this weekend will bring a rush to boost holiday business. December is usually one of the more profitable months of the year, but so far sales have been lackluster.
Like a twist on the old Homer Price story, it wasn't the doughnuts that piled up this weekend at Janice Casey's bakery in
downtown Oak Bluffs, but the signatures.
An investor group headed by principals in Conover Real Estate has signed an agreement to buy the landmark Navigator Restaurant and Boathouse Bar in Edgartown from its longtime owners, the Young family.
Moves are afoot to use the economic stimulus package being planned by President Bush and Congress to deal with the national economic crisis, to also resolve an immigration problem which threatens to leave Island businesses without their usual supply of foreign seasonal workers.
Cong. William Delahunt is pushing the proposal to restore immigration provisions of the H2B visa scheme, which have expired as a result of the Congressional gridlock over immigration law.
For 10 years, Mark Luce, innkeeper at the Dockside Inn and Oak House, has employed the same seven-member Jamaican extended family to help run his business. But this year, they won’t be coming.
Darren Morris hires the drivers for the Martha’s Vineyard Transit Authority. Every year he hires 15 or 20 Bulgarian workers to drive buses. But this year, none.
The Upper Main street business district in Edgartown will see some new enterprise this year following approval by the town planning board of two business projects on Tuesday night.
The board approved a change of use permit that will allow the Edgartown Meat and Fish Market to open in Post Office Square, and also voted to allow a new construction project by the owners of Wave Lengths salon.
