Downtown development organizations discuss 2023 goals

By Faith Hatton, posted Feb 16, 2023 on BizFayetteville.com

Business owners, residents and property owners of Downtown Fayetteville all gathered together to hear about the latest developments in a quarterly downtown meeting hosted by Cool Spring Downtown District and the Downtown Alliance.

President & CEO of CSDD Bianca Shoneman presented data for early quarters in the 2022-2023 fiscal year.

According to Shoneman, currently, the downtown district is seeing more than $250,000 in investments and has 860,000 square feet of construction taking place.

Bianca Shoneman presents development data to meeting attendees.

Among those developments are impacts from the $25,000 Duke Energy Grant which was broken down into microgrants and awarded to 12 businesses, with each receiving $2,500

to be used for cosmetic improvements.

“...Everyone who applied was awarded money. I'm really pleased to say that. What we did was, we asked for that amount, we gave you that amount and then we took the money and we divided it evenly amongst all the applicants and that seemed like the fairest way to do it,” said Shoneman. “So, as a result you'll see some new patio furniture, you'll see some new signage, and these checks were just distributed about, what, two weeks ago or so. So, this is just getting underway, we're pleased to have those monies out in the world.”

Shoneman also announced the plans to launch a new Ambassador Program for the downtown area. These Ambassadors will serve as an extra set of eyes and ears on the street, maintaining cleanliness, helping guests and helping with events. The 12 month program will be managed based on a number of Key Performance Indicators which ensure quality standards are met, and will be monitored on a weekly, monthly and quarterly basis based on the category.

“They serve as the concierge of the street, if you see someone sort of stumbling or looking for something, there'll be experts in wayfinding to direct you to good places that you can enjoy and shop. And so, we're pleased to say that in the next 45 days, we aim to have two people hired to serve as the Ambassadors of the Cool Spring Downtown District,” said Shoneman.

She also added they were in the process of finding golf carts for the future Ambassadors to use.

Shoneman also shared some of the numbers for event attendance in the past year. Cool Spring Downtown District tallied up event attendance and estimated that 77,000 people came to the downtown area due to the 76 events that were held.

Following the success of CSDD’s most recent event: Night Circus: A District New Year’s Eve Spectacular, Shoenman said they are looking to jump back in with 4th Fridays set to kick off again in March, with the goal of increasing the number of vendors and performers.

“At the beginning of the year, we averaged about 30 vendors, we're up to about 80 now on average, so that's a 166% increase in the number of vendors, performers, food trucks, things like that. And that just creates that vitality, that sense of community,” said Shoneman.

The 4th Friday events are expected to grow in the summer of 2023 and organizers are working to include streets that don’t see as much activity by potentially closing Franklin Street and adding more for guests including live music, and a beer and wine garden.

“The intention really is to begin to lean into our Downtown Master Plan, to expand the footprint to add vitality to show off the buildings and properties that are on those sort of side streets. [We] really want to expand that presence to allow for the downtown to begin to grow and expand as it should. And so, we will do another Cultural 4th Friday and then of course IZombie Walk is our crescendo, we stop there and then our partners come in with Black Friday programming and then New Year's Eve,” said Shoneman.

A collection of downtown business owners, residents and property owners attended the meeting to get updates for the new year.

During the meeting the Downtown Alliance announced their goals for the year which include increasing member support, advocating on behalf of member businesses and working to connect more with the community among others.

The DA also released their Downtown Calendar which is published on the Merchant page online. The calendar includes planned events from February to December and some new potential events that may appear downtown in 2023.

The CSDD and the City of Fayetteville are also working together in asking for public feedback on the state of the downtown area through the Downtown Satisfaction Survey.

The goal is to prioritize the services and improvements and also issue Request for Proposals for the delivery of services and improvements in the district.

That survey is available online here:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/DwntwnSurvey

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