28th Street Metro Cruise gains Foremost Insurance Group as 2010 title sponsor
Published: Thursday, February 04, 2010, 7:06 AM Updated: Thursday, February 04, 2010, 7:18 AM
Grand Rapids Press File PhotoVisitors to the 2008 28th Street Metro Cruise look at a 1957 Mercury in Rogers Plaza Town Center. The 2009 event was plagued by cold, wet weather.GRAND RAPIDS -- Though it comes with no guarantee of better weather, new title sponsorship has organizers of the 28th Street Metro Cruise optimistic about this year's sixth annual event.
Caledonia Township's Foremost Insurance Group today was to be announced as the lead sponsor of the late-summer gathering that in 2008 drew an estimated 300,000 people and 15,000 cars, before rains watered down last year's numbers. A new cruise logo also was to be unveiled at a press conference coinciding with today's opening of the Michigan International Auto Show at DeVos Place. (Complete coverage of the show.)
"Unless we have people step up, we can't provide everything we have provided" in the past.
J.C. Taylor, a Pennsylvania-based company that insures specialty automobiles, is a Foremost affiliate. Foremost was a cruise sponsor last year, but the event organized by Wyoming-Kentwood Area Chamber of Commerce has lacked a title sponsor since AT&T Inc. in 2007.
Hughes said this year's cruise, scheduled Aug. 27-28, will maintain many features from past years, though last year's beer tents will not return.
"Last year, when we did try it, we had some difficulty with the weather in promoting that activity," she said. "There are plenty of businesses and restaurants along 28th Street that do provide those types of services."
Bob Lomonaco, owner of Park Center Lanes, 2222 28th St. SW, said his business again plans to set up its own beer tent. The bowling alley, which features a summer carhop service, also intends to put up spectator bleachers and screen an outdoor movie.
"We try to get into the spirit of the event as much as we can," he said. "For us, (Metro Cruise) has been the big finale for the carhop thing every year.
"The only thing that's been lousy about it has been the weather. Last year everything was kind of a wash."
Steve Harkema, part-owner of Fruit Basket Flowerland, 765 28th St. SW, said Metro Cruise traffic hurts his business that weekend because "car guys are thinking about cars, they're not thinking about plants." But the added exposure pays off long term, he said. "In the big picture, I think it's good for the area," Harkema said. "Anytime that I can get a customer in our door or in the neighborhood, I feel that it benefits us in the long run."
Marge's Donut Den , 1751 28th St. SW, puts up an outdoor tent, hosts a live band and makes car-shaped cookies during the cruise.
"I've heard good and bad about if it's good for business, but it's up to the business owner to promote their own business," owner Marge Wilson said. "It's what you make it. You certainly have a lot of people from outside of town that are there to spend money.
"Every year the same people come back and they bring somebody else with them. Even if you don't sell anything that particular day, if you promote your business, you'll get more business later on."
A Cruise official last month said the event was pulling activities out of Centerpointe Mall, but Hughes said that has not been solidified.
"We're still negotiating and putting the event together with our venues," she said. "It has been a difficult economy and we're still in process and seeking sponsors."
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