Mayor pushes for “Buy Coral Springs” campaign to help businesses during pandemic

Coral Springs, Florida – Coral Springs Mayor Scott Brook: it’s time to “buy Coral Springs.”

Brook wants to develop a campaign to encourage city residents to shop, eat, and buy from city-based stores, restaurants, and other companies as a way to help them get through the pandemic, which is showing no signs of ending anytime soon.

“I think now would be even more appropriate than maybe before because some businesses may be continuing to struggle,” Brook said at a recent city commission meeting.

Brook said he wants the city’s economic development staff and Coral Springs Coconut Creek Regional Chamber of Commerce to launch initiatives to bring more foot traffic and online commerce to businesses operating in the city.

The idea came up earlier in the pandemic, but city and business officials decided to work closer with Broward County efforts to promote a more regional buy local campaign, said City Manager Frank Babinec.

“The county’s ideas really weren’t aligned with the local ideas,” Brook said. “It certainly wasn’t what I had in mind when I was talking about buy Coral Springs.”

Brook added that Coral Springs did a buy local campaign years ago, and it’s time to bring it back again, even though the city hasn’t seen a spike in business closings in recent months.

“While more businesses have opened in Coral Springs than have closed, which we’re fortunate for a lot of reasons, I definitely want to do whatever we can to put forth a great buy Coral Springs campaign,” Brook said.

Babinec said his staff will bring ideas on starting a local campaign during a January commission meeting.