Jul 18, 2019 8:30 AM

With just 11 days on the books as mayor of Southampton Village, Jesse Warren has proposed a plan to help make the many vacant storefronts along Jobs Lane and Main Street a little more inviting.

During a Village Board meeting on July 11, Mr. Warren said he would be reaching out to building owners with vacant storefronts to see if they would be part of an art exhibit—each displaying a piece of art in their empty front windows. While the details of the exhibit have not been hammered out, Mr. Warren said it would be a great idea to introduce a free artwork program that families or friends could walk through as they enjoy the historic streets of the village.

“We’ve reached out to the arts center … about a problem we are experiencing with a few landlords that, for whatever reason, they can’t find a tenant or are unwilling to do so,” Mr. Warren said on Tuesday, referring to the Southampton Arts Center. “We want to give landlords the opportunity to work with the community.”

He explained that he wants to reach out to the landlords of vacant storefronts and ask why they are vacant, and then see if they would like to be part of a villagewide art exhibit. If the art in the store’s window sells, the building owner would get a portion of the sale as an incentive.

“We’re trying to give them incentive, but we’re also trying to show that we are willing to work with them,” Mr. Warren said.

Southampton Arts Center Artistic Director Amy Kirwin said the idea of a villagewide exhibition is still being discussed, noting that cohesion and a theme would be the best way to approach the project.

Because the village is part of a beach community, she said, there may be a theme that ties into what Southampton Village is as a place.

“I think that does help to create more of an experience, and it becomes a sidewalk exhibition or window exhibition, like what you would see at Bergdorf’s, or something, where you have these amazing windows that are done up for the holidays,” she said. “This is kind of an opportunity to do the same sort of thing with artists. Perhaps some works are finished and installed, and others might be works in progress, and you see them being worked on.”

Getting the building owners to become involved is going to be the challenge.

Summer resident Greg D’Elia, who lives in West Palm Beach for a portion of the year, said at the Village Board meeting last Thursday that he liked the idea of a curated art exhibit, but he noted the Village Board likely will have to require stores to do it. He said in West Palm Beach, one of the business districts requires vacant stores to put paper in the window with old sketches from the 1940s and 1950s.

“I think you need to change the law here, that it’s a requirement,” Mr. D’Elia said. “We need to change this so there is uniformity with how these stores look. They have got to be required to do it.”

Mr. Warren said if the building owners are not willing to work with the village, that would be a problem. And while he doesn’t have a plan “B” that he is ready to reveal, he said he is going to allow the landlords’ response to dictate any legislation that the Village Board may want to consider.

“The goal is not to make anyone do anything they don’t want to do, but is to collaborate and work with them,” Mr. Warren said on Tuesday.

Ms. Kirwin said it was important for people to talk about the vibrancy of the village and how it is not as vibrant as it once was, because of the vacant shops.

That is not to take away from the existing shops, the arts and cultural centers and the events that the Chamber of Commerce puts on, she said.

“Seeing so many empty storefronts is really depressing,” she said. “This project is something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time, and I’m really excited about the possibility of being able to do that here—even though it’s unfortunate that those shops are empty.”