Questions below refer to the following article and memo.
Edgartown Faces Big Changes
AP: Once a thriving community, Edgartown, NJ is experiencing a precipitous decline in the value of its commercial and private real estate. Small businesses have been failing at ever higher rates the past several years, housing in the town's center and outlying areas is increasingly not sold, and development projects are essentially nonexistent. One reason for Edgartown's misfortune is that its younger population has been steadily leaving for better opportunities in bigger cities. Another is that many of the older residents cannot be convinced to invest in saving businesses or starting up new ones. One can hardly blame them, as there are so few indications that the town will be able to reverse the downward spiral. Outside financial investment is lacking in part from the belief that the remaining local community would fail to make such investment a good risk. Such an assumption means that Edgartown will likely diminish past the point of recovery within a few years.
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To: Maxwell Burns, Chief Financial Officer
Fr: Dana McIntyre, President
Re: Edgartown Investment Opportunity
Date: 2/12
Max,
Please review the attached article and plan to meet with me about it later this afternoon. I grew up in Edgartown and was one of those who left to pursue better career opportunities. I have been successful in that effort, and want to consider possible ways in which we might invest in the town. Though I knew that Edgartown had changed greatly over the past two decades, I did not realize just how difficult times had become there. I would regret not making an attempt to help in its revival. I'll need you to visit there and prepare a report on which commercial properties may be worth acquiring and keeping operational. Also, I'd like us to offer business loans to various locals with the qualifications to manage shops and provide services, so check on the feasibility of that. Once you have gathered the basic information, we'll bring in an expert to sort through it and advise us on the next steps. I'll see you in my office at five o'clock.
Dana