Bristol Looks To Continue Positive Business Trend In 2017

Last year was big for the business landscape in Bristol Borough. More businesses entered the main business corridor, the dock project was approved and perhaps above all else, a sense of camaraderie and collaboration has emerged.

“It’s been a great year in terms of growth,” explained Shea Cialella, the administrative coordinator for the Bristol Borough Business Association (BBBA).

While 14 businesses left town, all were replaced when 15 new business either opened up or moved to town. Two new businesses are coming soon in the new year as well.

The shops coming to Mill Street, the main business corridor in the town, are varied. Restaurants like the King George II Inn and the Mill Street Cantina are joined by specialty retail shops like Trainpops Attic, a hobby train store, and T.S. Cornerstones, a book shop and café.

“It’s not just your typical coffee at the bookshop,” Cialella said. “People are thinking outside of the box.”

Thinking outside the box and putting personal spins on shops are helping Bristol remain unique among the larger chain stores.

The business community is growing as well. In 2015, the BBBA had eight new members. In 2016, that number is up to 22 new members.

The invigoration of Mill Street and a vibrant town is something that Bristol Borough: Raising the Bar has been working for since its creation. Bill Pezza is the president of Raising the Bar and has worked closely with business owners coming in.

New business owners are excited to get started, but according to Pezza, the entire community is excited by the new developments going on in the borough.

“Others [borough mainstays] are feeling a resurgence of energy, that they are really part of something,” Pezza said.

In 2016, the restaurants in town came together with the aid of Raising the Bar and created a restaurant association, which hosted its first restaurant week. Mentioning a well-known phrase, Pezza said the effort to revitalize town is a community effort and that more traffic coming into town will help everyone in the borough.

The year has been capped by the exciting news that Deluxe Corporation has moved Bristol to the shortlist on its Small Business Revolution competition and TV series. The list originally held 14,000 nominees and is now down to eight towns.

The small business program will be making a visit to Bristol on January 10 and 11 to decide if Bristol makes it to the final four. If it does, a short video on the town will be produced and the entire nation will be able to vote for the final winner, which includes a grand prize of nearly $500,000 to help grow local businesses.

“We’ve already won,” said Pezza, who has been working with business owners and residents to prepare the town for the visit.

According to Pezza, being in the top eight out of 14,000 has reinforced the image of Bristol as an up and coming town in the region and already helped to bring more people into town.

“We want to stress that even though it is called the ‘Main Street Small Business Revolution,’ it will really help the entire town,” Pezza said.

The new year is set to start out in excitement with the visit from the Small Business Revolution folks, but that isn’t where the optimistic outlook for the year ends. Councilman Greg Pezza of the East Ward, his wife Dana and a few business partners are working to bring a brick oven pizzeria and bar to the street.

“It’s going to be a great year,” Greg Pezza said. The focus of the new institution will be on unique small plates and quality craft beers and wines.

“We decided it would be a good opportunity for us to further expand on one of our dreams,” he said.

Noble Earth, owned by Joe Rakowski, is another new business coming to town in early 2017. Focusing on holistic wellness, the shop will offer a kombucha bar with in house brewed kombucha, an organic kitchen area where shoppers can get organic spices and other things for cooking and wellness services including yoga and massages.

Having grown up in the area, Rakowski moved to California for school, and returned when he needed to help his family. When faced with the choice of returning to California or staying in Pennsylvania, Bristol played a role.

“I saw how Bristol was coming along and that it was finally reaching its potential,” Rakowski said. “It’s really only getting better.”

A brew pub us also eyeing Bristol to open a location and a set of luxury condos along the Delaware River at the Stocks Building at the base of Mill Street.

Looking to open within the first few months of the year, the new businesses, docks, construction of condos on the waterfront and the Small Business Revolution coming to town look set to be another strong year for Bristo;.