Gold Coast Chamber - www.GoldCoastChamber.com

EDGEWATER - Brigitte Neumann, AVP  JP Morgan Chase Business Banking , is what you might call a chamber of commerce veteran. She’s a member of three active chambers in her region, belongs to another that’s currently dormant and this month started one of her own.

 

Her newly formed Gold Coast Chamber of Commerce opened in Edgewater as a place for businesses in the neighborhood to network; hold meetings and take up issues for discussion. Neumann, its president, wants the chamber to become a voice for business owners in the roughly seven-mile stretch from Hoboken to Fort Lee that includes the towns of Edgewater, Weehawken, North Bergen, West New York, Guttenberg and parts of Cliffside Park .

EDGEWATER - Brigitte Neumann, assistant vice president at Chase Business Banking in Secaucus, is what you might call a chamber of commerce veteran. She’s a member of three active chambers in her region, belongs to another that’s currently dormant and this month started one of her own.

 

Her newly formed Gold Coast Chamber of Commerce opened in Edgewater as a place for businesses in the neighborhood to network; hold meetings and take up issues for discussion. Neumann, its president, wants the chamber to become a voice for business owners in the roughly seven-mile stretch from Hoboken to Fort Lee that includes the towns of Edgewater, Weehawken, North Bergen, West New York, Guttenberg and parts of Cliffside Park .

 

“We have a need down here at the Gold Coast for a chamber,” says Neumann, who teamed up with Buddy Chick, a partner at the upscale Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse and Wine Bar in Edgewater to form the new group. Chick serves as the chamber’s vice president.

 

Edgewater’s population of about 8,000 residents is two-thirds white, one-quarter Asian—including a large Korean community—and about one-tenth Hispanic. Chick says a growing number of Asians and Hispanics are buying condominiums in town, and he sees potential chamber members among them.

 

“Our chamber’s networking events will draw every real estate agent in town, and some of the other events will hopefully attract business owners,” he says.

 

Chick relocated to Edgewater three years ago from Palm Springs, Calif. , where he ran another Fleming’s Steakhouse. The Edgewater Fleming’s is part of a chain of 50 such restaurants owned by Outback Steakhouse of Tampa, Fla., with operating partners at its various locations. “When I got here, I got involved with the Edgewater Chamber of Commerce, and it was somewhat successful,” says Chick. “And then it just disappeared.”

 

Neumann says the new chamber is basically filling the void left by the Edgewater chamber, which has been inactive for several months. “There are no meetings being held there, and the phone is disconnected,” says Neumann.

 

Karen DeMarco, president of the Edgewater chamber, says “It’s not closed down, it’s just not as busy as it once was.” She and another officer became busy with pressing family matters and two other officers moved their work out of town. DeMarco says she plans to revive the chamber in a couple of months.

 

Neumann has already enlisted about 20 businesses as Gold Coast Chamber members and is actively promoting the new group. “Right now, I’m targeting Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s,” she says. Meanwhile, she has mass-mailed invitations to 240 businesses in the region.

 

“We’d like to do seminars on how the local businesses can move up to the next level, and get professional speakers,” she says. “There are a ton of people moving in here from New York because of the quality of life.”

 

She says numerous real estate redevelopment projects are creating opportunities for a business group like hers. In West New York, a new shopping center has an A&P as its anchor and other tenants, including a Wachovia bank branch. In Edgewater, a mall, municipal offices and affordable housing are rising on a former Unilever site.

 

Neumann is in talks with the Greater Fort Lee Chamber of Commerce, the largest chamber in the region to partner with the new group for joint events. She is considering similar approaches to the Greater Paramus Chamber of Commerce, which has a strong presence in Fair Lawn and Mahwah.

 

“Our chamber’s networking events will draw every real estate agent in town, and some of the other events will hopefully attract business owners,” she says.