RiverCenter welcomes new executive director
With broad experience in downtowns, Adams sees post as a good match
BY MELISSA KARSH Staff Writer

MELISSA KARSH Harriet Cook, director of RiverCenter operations, and Nancy Adams, new executive director.

RED BANK - - Political aspirations and downtown revitalization goals are two of the qualifications of Red Bank RiverCenter's newly named executive director.

Nancy Adams, of Maplewood, took the helm of the downtown alliance that oversees the borough's business district Oct. 1 and was introduced at the RiverCenter board of directors meeting Monday.

She is the organization's sixth executive director, filling the position left open by Tricia Rumola, who was River- Center's executive director for the past three years until she left Sept. 7 to join New York City nonprofit.

Adams has previously worked with several downtown organizations and dipped her foot into local politics before finding her way to Red Bank and RiverCenter.

"I hope to bring a new perspective from outside the area and that, combined with my many years of experience, hopefully will be able to achieve what we want to achieve there [Red Bank], what the board [of directors] and the people of Red Bank want their [downtown] to be," Adams in an interview last week.

In a press release Sept. 24, RiverCenter touted its new executive director.

"Nancy will manage all matters related to the administration of the nonprofit corporation and serve as lead representative and spokesperson for RiverCenter," it said.

Adams said she got her first taste of working with a downtown revitalization area by being a local activist in her community of Maplewood, after she moved there in 1989.

She co-founded the nonprofit special improvement organization Springfield Avenue Partnership, which manages the Springfield Avenue business district in Maplewood to curb the 30 years of neglect the district had suffered. "Nobody was really paying attention to [Springfield Avenue] as far as the public improvements," said Adams. "It became, you know, something that now I would be able to take my child up in a stroller on that sidewalk … and that's because of ongoing management and the organization that co-founded. [And] my work on spending year getting the township to pay attention to it."

Adams, who has three adult children, graduated with a marketing degree from Susquehanna University in Pennsylvania, and became certified in downtown management after training at the National Main Street Center, part of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

In late 1996, Adams delved further into downtown management as the director of Main Street South Orange, a position she held for six years. She continued her career in downtown redevelopment by becoming the executive director of two other downtown organizations, one in West Orange and one in Newark.

Adams worked at the Downtown West Orange Alliance for three years and at the Downtown Newark Partnership for six months before starting her own consulting company, Directions Downtown.

Adams said she has been working with a local engineering firm in Monmouth County called LGA Engineering.

"I've been working with them [LGA] mostly as a consultant with expertise on downtown when they are working in towns with redevelopment," said Adams. "So I am basically a subcontractor to them."

Adams heard about the job opening through an email list connected with Downtown New Jersey. for which she is a board member. Adams is also on the advisory board of Main Street New Jersey and both organizations focus on issues of downtown revitalization and redevelopment.

"The timing is right for me to go back into managing just one specific downtown," said Adams.

Adams said she is anxious to start learning the 'ins' and 'outs' of Red Bank and the development that is going on in town at this time.

"It's just about being able to learn everything, its always a little overwhelming just because you know there's so much to learn but you can't learn it in one day," said Adams.

She added, "Well I know there are outstanding issues that are of concern so the beginning of my job will be to get to know the district, get to know the town government, employees, officials and get to know what the residents of Red Bank feel they need in the downtown."

Another hat Adams tried on was that of politician when she ran unsuccessfully last June in the Democratic primary for Maplewood Township Committee.

"But you know things kind of turn out the way they are supposed to. I really enjoyed the craziness of being in a campaign. It was a cool experience," said Adams, who believes RiverCenter is the right place for her.

According to rivercenter.org, RiverCenter was established to manage and redevelop the downtown business district in 1991.

"When the RiverCenter District was established, the downtown was a shrinking asset, losing value every year," according to the Web site. "Businesses were closing their doors, properties were neglected. Back in the late '80s Red Bank was called 'Dead Bank.' According to the site, a few business leaders believed something could be done to rescue Red Bank. The plan was to establish a Special Improvement District (SID), which under state law would allow the borough to create a district and assess the commercial property owners within that district an additional fee based on the value of their property."

In 2007, RiverCenter expanded the SID to include portions of the west side of the borough.

"It's [RiverCenter] a well-established downtown organization and I've got a lot of experience so I think it's a good match," said Adams. "It's good to have somebody who's also had a lot of experiences and successes in the same line of work so it was a good match for me."