Members of the Southampton Village Board and business owners within the village have launched a new group, the Southampton Village Partnership Committee, with the goal of finding ways to ensure that businesses in the village are sustainable throughout the whole year.

A successor to the Business Revitalization Committee, the new committee includes Village Trustees Rob Coburn and Roy Stevenson, along with a team of local business owners and figures, including John Betts, the owner of Shippy’s restaurant, Dede Gotthelf, the owner of the Southampton Inn, and Besim Cukaj, the owner of Besim’s Fine Cigars and a member of the executive board of the Southampton Chamber of Commerce.

“We’ve got a really good group, and the idea, of course, is to somehow help our community have a thriving business district, which includes not only businesses, but all of our cultural institutions,” Stevenson said. “And all of us will do better if we can somehow figure out a way to get people to come to Southampton and partake at those institutions, not just in the summer.”

While Stevenson said that the Southampton Chamber of Commerce has done good work, he and other business owners wanted a group that was more specific to the village, as the chamber focuses on the entirety of Southampton Town.

Stevenson, who owns Stevenson’s Toys & Games, said that while “there is no better place to own a business or a cultural institution or museum than Southampton in July,” winter has proven to be a tougher season. Many pop-up stores are only in business during the summer, with storefronts on Jobs Lane and Main Street staying empty in the winter, which Stevenson said makes it harder for surrounding year-round businesses.

“We have no illusions that Southampton in January and February is going to have the kind of activity in July and August,” he said. “But if we could just get the fall and the late spring to be a destination, that would be really good for the village.”

Stevenson said efforts by Westhampton Beach and Greenport to increase business activity in the offseason have been an influence for the committee, including holding events or taking other efforts to encourage summer residents to visit more often.

“If you can just do that, it becomes incremental,” he said. “As it slowly begins to build, maybe that causes a store to stay open instead of closing for the winter because they can get enough business to pay for the employees.”

Events that Stevenson mentioned that have been used to bring more business to the village include SouthamptonFest, an annual fall festival that has been held for the past 13 years, and the Parade of Lights that kicks off the holiday season in late November.

A key focus for the committee this year will be finding ways to benefit from this year’s US Open golf championship, which will be held at Southampton’s own Shinnecock Hills Golf Course in June. Stevenson said that “our hope is that we can get some golf-related publicity and interest in the village in the weeks and months leading up to the Open,” including working with the Southampton History Museum and Southampton Playhouse to get some golf and history-related programs there.

One idea that the committee is looking into is designing a website that would serve as a guide to the village and include information about where to shop and eat, notes about the village’s history and a calendar of events happening at different venues in the village. Stevenson said that although Southampton’s cultural institutions do well spreading the word about their events, there isn’t a single source that has all of these, which the website would feature.

The biggest roadblock for the committee right now is funding. Stevenson said that the village is in support of its efforts but “it’s not the village’s business to provide the funds to help all these institutions advance themselves.” As such, funding will need to come from donations, though Stevenson mentioned the idea of businesses paying a small fee to be featured on the website, which would go toward the committee.

The committee meets once a month; Stevenson encouraged business owners to reach out to him and Coburn if they are interested or have ideas, emphasizing the goal of bringing them together to collaborate.

“We all feel on this committee that a rising tide can lift all boats,” he said. “We’re trying to create a situation where we can all work together and we can cross-reference each other.”