Tom Gilmour, who was Asbury Park's director of commerce for 13 years, will now head the Trenton Downtown Association
TRENTON -- For the last 13 years, Tom Gilmour was part of the efforts to breathe new life into Asbury Park.
Now the Trenton Downtown Association is hoping that Gilmour can do for the state capital what he did for the Jersey Shore town: attract and retain businesses and help establish the city as a tourist destination -- not only a government center that shuts down by 5 p.m. when state workers leave.
Gilmour, who served as Asbury Park's director of commerce from 2002 through October 2015, has been named the new executive director of the nonprofit, the organization's board announced.
He replaces Christian Martin, who left in November to take a job in San Francisco. Iana Dikidjieva has been serving in the interim.
"Tom's deep knowledge and experience in urban revitalization make him the right person to steward and build upon TDA's successful record," board chairman Clark Martin said.
Gilmour said when he took the position in Asbury Park, the city was in "bad shape" with six functioning businesses downtown and a high crime rate that kept people away.
"Today, the city is very vibrant," he said, pointing to its thriving food and music scene.
He hopes Trenton can see a similar turnaround, but acknowledges that it will take time.
"We have to create reasons for people to be in the city in the evening hours and the weekend," he said.
Gilmour said that, like in Asbury Park, much of his work will focus on bringing in new stores and restaurants that people would want to frequent, working with existing businesses and creating special events to encourage more visitors to come to the city.
"With these events that we run, we will slowly get people to come back and quite frankly, discover Trenton again," he said. "Trenton has great bones. They have architecturally great buildings and they have an amazing heritage so you have to work around those kinds of assets initially and figure out who the audience is for those kinds of things and how we get them into the city."
Among the events that TDA sponsors is the popular weeklong Patriots Week, the Capital City Farmers Market, the Capital City Book Fair and, for a second year in a row, a free summer concert series. Asbury Park was the only other New Jersey city that was awarded a $25,000 matching grant from the Levitt Foundation to put on the 10 shows.
Gilmour said he sees the arts as an economic engine and believes the city's growing arts scene will continue to play a vital role in redevelopment efforts.
"I will get myself introduced to the arts organizations down there and start to think about ways that we can expand that and market it," he said.
Gilmour was laid off from his $85,912-a-year job in Asbury Park after city officials voted to eliminate his position and replace it with a director of communications -- over the objections of business owners who said he was a key figure in the city's revival.
Gilmour will start in his new position June 6, but in the meantime, has been making almost daily trips to Trenton.
"I've got a lot of homework to do and I have a lot of ideas," he said. "When I get a little more familiar with the city, we'll be able to see which of those ideas we'll be able to implement."
Cristina Rojas may be reached at crojas@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @CristinaRojasTT. Find NJ.com on Facebook.