2 min read July 2023 — Stephanie Immelman, president and CEO of the Delray Beach Chamber of Commerce, talked to Invest: about the destination marketing strategy that the city followed to attract people and businesses, how the city is addressing the affordable housing challenge, and how the chamber collaborates with authorities to funnel people into high quality jobs.
What are some of the advantages that entice people to set up shop in Delray Beach?
People fall in love with Delray Beach. It is not just about the great amenities of this place like the downtown or the beach, but also the community. Community is also at the core of the Delray Beach Chamber of Commerce. We focus on the business interests of our members and advocate for them, but we are also about bringing the community together and finding ways to marry the community interests with the business interests to make Delray Beach a better place for everyone.
What has been the strategy of the chamber in attracting businesses to the city?
More than 25 years ago, the Delray Beach community came together to tax itself, bring the infrastructure up to speed and make our town a beautiful, vibrant place. We started by throwing special events and bringing people to our downtown. After people began to recognize the charm of this area and we laid down infrastructure, we started promoting Delray Beach as a vibrant community, which started around 2012. The destination marketing circle model shows that if you build a place that people will want to visit, they will want to move there and they will bring their businesses along with them. It is a virtuous circle that starts with building infrastructure and results in businesses coming to town.
How would you like to envision the future of the historic Delray Beach Golf Club?
I was surprised that the proposals that the city received to redevelop that property were turned down. The community that utilizes this place felt strongly about the decision and had their voices heard and the city commissioners paid attention. These people also came with answers and solutions, and they are looking for ways to get a grant to fund it because it is a historic golf course.
What is the strategy of Delray Beach to prevent local residents from being priced out of their homes?
The price points are really high in Delray Beach, but we are doing as much as we can to promote affordable housing. The Community Redevelopment Agency of Delray Beach has focused its efforts on that and opened several projects. They are collaborating with developers and opening up more areas between Swinton and the highway. The city commission is really encouraging affordable housing. If a project has housing options of this type, it is much more likely to be accepted by the authorities.
How has the membership of the Delray Beach Chamber of Commerce changed?
We have doubled our membership since mid-2019. Despite people not knowing what was going to happen during the COVID-19 pandemic, they found that our chamber was worthwhile and took advantage of our programming. We are now also developing targeted programming for various vertical markets. We are addressing the construction sector, health and wellness, real estate, tourism and nonprofits in our roundtables to boost collaboration.
What has been the strategy for the chamber to navigate the current economic environment?
In 2021 and 2022, we focused on working with the City and our partners at the DDA and the CRA to have virtual job fairs to help people who needed jobs and the businesses in our communities that needed employees. We are also working to create a funnel for our high school students and recent graduates to flow into the automotive industry, which is a lucrative and high-skilled business line. We are collaborating with school board members, city commissioners and automotive dealerships to find ways to funnel the people who need training and jobs into the auto dealerships that need people.
What are some areas of Delray Beach that your team and the city are addressing?
Atlantic Avenue in downtown is vibrant and thriving, and we want to take that vibrancy to other parts of town and make them just as charming. The Congress Ave corridor is a great place to do it, and we want to work with the county with respect to the roads and the developments there. People can live in the area, commute through the Tri Rail, work there and provide amenities. We want to make it a transit hub, beautify the area and make it more vibrant. We also have the Andre Design District in that area, which is attracting a lot of artists and creative people. A lot of creative classes and creative businesses are springing up and people are having art shows and evening walks there. These artists are spreading the vibrancy dynamism to other parts of our city, which is a great thing.
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