FROED One Government Center Fall River, MA 02722-7700 Tel 508-324-2620 Fax 508-677-2840 info@froed.org		‘NOW!’ FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT Business groups want to manufacture new image for city The Herald News, Wednesday, May 27, 2009 - Page B1 FALL RIVER — The business community is poised to reach out beyond the city’s borders to attract industries that would complement what’s in place and new ones that would benefit each other, said Alan A. Amaral, president of the Fall River Office of Economic Development. “We’ll be reaching out to targeted businesses that have demonstrated success elsewhere,” said Amaral, who also chairs the Chamber of Commerce Downtown Waterfront Revitalization Initiative Committee. That committee and FROED have introduced a new theme — “Fall River Now!” — and are setting up a Web site by that name. They've also put together an eight-page, glossy color brochure that will be mailed to targeted businesses, Amaral said. “There will be a correlation between the brochure and the Web site when it goes live,” he said. Originally slated to be online last week, The FROED Web site, www.fallrivernow.com, should be available in the next three or four weeks, Amaral said. FROED already maintains an organization Web site at www.froed.org. The picture brochure emphasizes waterfront sites, monuments and museums and downtown revitalization, including the new courthouse expected to open in early winter. It also trumpets the city’s architecture and history, with notable structures such as the Historical Society, public library, city parks and the old B.M.C. Durfee High school, which is now a state court building. George Delaney, with experience in public relations, advertising, marketing and photography, put together the brochure. “This represents the second phase of the revitalization initiative,” Amaral said. Last March, the city passed a zoning ordinance creating an arts overlay district and 10 special liquor licenses as part of the revival effort. The downtown and waterfront arts district — about 160 acres covering 20 blocks — was designed to bolster cultural and performing arts, quality of life and business investments while promoting attractions and supporting historic preservation. This second phase, said Amaral, a key leader of the arts overlay district research and initiative, would be modeled in many ways with New Bedford’s Art-History-Architecture (AHA!) Project. Formed in July 1999 as a collaborative nonprofit partnership to establish downtown New Bedford as the regional hub for arts and culture, AHA! “draws on the city’s diverse cultural resources," according to its Web site. "The project operates as a committee of Downtown New Bedford, Inc. with a volunteer steering committee and in-kind programming provided its 35 downtown partner venues.” Amaral noted that AHA! organizers spent more than a decade planning and implementating the project, and said Fall River Now! will take an evolutionary process to succeed. He said the seeds are in place and that his organizations have identified businesses and sectors with likelihoods of interest in locating into the downtown and waterfront. He was not ready to identify them yet. Their concept to “bring in business clusters and groups of businesses that complement one another” might include law offices and the high-end Conference Center on North Main Street that would benefit from the new courthouse. A FedEx or UPS shop might be other complementary businesses, he said. Amaral encouraged area businesses and residents to keep an eye out for the Fall River Now! and its promotions of the city’s present assets and future aspirations. Back