Downtown business leader to step down

Mitter, the former owner of The Great River Company on B Street, led the merchants’ group for five years as it embarked on a new marketing strategy for downtown and also helped to revamp its annual wine walk.

Misty Megia, of the PlayNTrade video game store on B Street, called Mitter "absolutely the foundation of our DSMA.”

"He has an excellent mind for business and is such a people person. He made us feel like a family, there were always lots of laughs,” said Megia, who sits on the DSMA board.

Mitter and his wife of eight years, Mary Jane Elliott, will move to North Carolina in a few months to start a new life near Winston-Salem. The couple have already bought a home in Elliott’s home state and Mitter intends to spend some time fixing it up. The home was purchased, needless to say, for much less than real estate sells for in the Bay Area.

Mitter worked in sales and sales management before opening his fly-fishing specialty store in San Mateo. Mitter started out as a volunteer for the DSMA and became more involved in the organization over the years before being named executive director in 2005.

The organization suffered from a lack of consistency as it had three presidents in three years before Mitter took over the position.

Former executive director Jeannice Fairrer Samani was fired from the post in September 2004 after just less than six months on the job.

"He improved the relationships with the city and chamber tremendously,” said San Mateo Mayor John Lee. "We will deeply miss him.”

Mitter helped the 750 downtown businesses develop a new marketing slogan "All the Ingredients” and has started to develop a new funding strategy that will lead to a cleaner, more vibrant downtown.

"We have to find someone who is as good as he is to continue what he has started,” Lee said.

Mitter, who just turned 50, closed his fly-fishing store after never fully being able to recover from the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, he said. The Internet also impacted his business as well as more and more customers turned to the Web to make specialty purchases. Peet’s Coffee now occupies the old fishing store.

Megia, who is secretary for the DSMA, said she would prefer the next executive director to have a vested interest in downtown.

"Hopefully they will already have knowledge of our organization and have a strong passion for the work we have started already,” Megia said.

Bill Silverfarb can be reached by e-mail: silverfarb@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: (650) 344-5200 ext. 106.