I'm not sure how I made them change their mind and honestly I was not trying to get involved or make them change their mind. I honestly was curious to see what their marketing ideas would look like and was anxious to see the proposals at the next BID marketing meeting. I don't feel he wasted anyone's time and all of his concerns at the meeting were valid as far as I could see. But Mike Whalen, owner of the Paragon movie theater, decided to withdraw their request for matching funds from the BID.
Guess they liked the top 3/4 of the article where I praised the theater no end, and then didn't like the last 1/4 where I questioned the deal, yet in the end, I did say they should try them out, so I'm not sure where the conflict is. I have always been the first to champion the theater and have always written about them in glowing terms, from their first inception when they spoke to the Village Council about it on day one. I have been to all their events, covered their planning stages and opening events and showed photos and always talked them up. I am a fan of Paragon Grove Theaters. Just do a search and you'll see all the happy upbeat reports on Paragon.
I only publish the letter here because it was sent to multiple people and since I apparently am to blame for him pulling out of the request. If I was not blamed in the letter by name, the letter would be appearing here now. I am not even on the BID board and the BID takes no recommendations from me and never has.
This letter was sent to David Collins, BID Director and Naomi Evans, head of the BID marketing committee, I was cc'd:
"I am writing to officially withdraw our request for matching advertising dollars from the BID. I read Tom Falco's article in the Grapevine today and at this time I do not wish to use any of the BID's money for an advertising campaign to promote the Grove and its businesses. My hope was that by utilizing our ability to barter and putting up $20,000 of our own money we could create a sizeable $60,000 to $80,000 ad campaign ($40K in total cash and $40K in barter) and one of "scale" for the BID to promote the Grove in a big way with radio, billboard, print, and direct mail. It is great that people who live in the Grove spend money on our retail, restaurants etc. but no one outside the Grove is aware of the great changes that have taken place over the last year. I can tell you this from the zip code studies we have done on our customer base. The Grove needs to expand its horizons beyond its own residential base to flourish. My hope was that we could promote the Grove in a big way in the media by using our own money and our ability to use barter to get a bigger bang for the buck that the BID and the Grove would have directly benefited from.
"We will focus on our add campaign solely on our theater without promoting the Grove in general nor the "bouncebacks" we could have done with businesses (both restaurants and retail) in the Grove as part of the campaign. I apologize in advance for taking time out of everyone's day to which I thought was a good idea to drive business in the Grove. Thanks in advance."
Mike Whalen
Paragon Grove
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