A MORE PERSONAL TOUCH
City plans to invest in Downtown Development Authority presence with ‘Uptown’ campaign
Mount Clemens city commissioners onMonday will consider making changes to the Downtown Development Authority that are aimed at bolstering its administrative staffing and online marketing presence.
The City Commission is scheduled to vote on an agreement that would contract the city to have a municipal representative serve as the DDA’s executive director. The agreement would also allow the DDA to have the use of city personnel on its support staff for website and socialmedia services.
“We do a nice job with events, or at least we did prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the DDA was intended to be more than events,” Mayor Laura Kropp said. “We are trying to move from being more events based to working closer with our business community and providing real enhancements to our downtown.”
According to the city commission agenda packet, the DDA’s board of directors will pay Mount Clemens— primarily Community Development Director Brian Tingley and support staff — $20,000 a year to act as the executive director. The setup is similar to one used in communities such as Royal Oak and Ypsilanti.
The DDA hasn’t had an executive director since 2012 when the board voted against renewing the contract of Arthur Mullen, who had served in the $57,000-a-year position for six years. At the time, DDA Chairman Steve Saph said the decision was a financial one as the district had lost money due to falling property values and the city sought to reclaim a portion of the revenue district that funds the DDA budget.
With Mullen’s departure, Michelle Weiss, the authority’s events coordinator, has assumed the day-to-day operations of the DDA.
Since then, the DDA district’s funds have stabilized to a degree, according to city officials.
“Now we would like to add an executive director who would provide a vision for the downtown and a roadmap of how to get there,” Kropp said.
Extra Benefits
Having a city staff member work as a part-time DDA director will provide the group with needed assistance at a significantly reduced cost, officials said.
City officials say themove will also:
• Allowfor increased collaboration and streamlined decision-making between the DDA and city administration
• Allow the marketing/ event coordinator to focus more on event planning and business outreach instead of day-to-day administrative tasks
• Allow for succession planning and retention of institutional knowledge if there is a large turnover amongDDA boardmembers
• Foster a collaboration between the city and DDA on social media, branding and marketing efforts. The DDA will pay the city $10,000 for those responsibilities, according to the contract.
Mayor Kropp said one branding effort is to make Mount Clemens known as “Macomb County’s Uptown.” She said that slogan will be used in future campaigns.
“If you talk to our longtime residents, they don’t talk about downtown, they say ‘ We’re going uptown for dinner,’” Kropp said. “That’s a term people who have lived here a long time always use.
“And to say we are the Uptown ofMacomb County brings out a positive vibe. We’re ‘going up.’ It was our City Manager Don Johnson’s idea after some brainstorming,” she said.
Future Plans
Among top priorities for the new executive director is construction of a Detroit Eastern Market-style shed in the Roskopp Parking Lot near Macomb Place and Pine Street and refurbishing the Cherry Street Mall.
Plans call for construction of a 14,000-square-foot shed that would house Farmers Market events but also would showcase other functions such cooking demonstrations and exhibits. For Cherry Street Mall, work crews recently removed dilapidated tables and benches fromthe mall near theMacomb Place fountain. Future plans call for the area to be filled with green space and plantings to make it more aesthetically pleasing.
Mount Clemens has been working with Kate Bell since June in her role as a fellow with the Community Economic Development Association of Michigan (CEDAM) to assist in some of the DDA’s projects. That includes establishing
an outdoor dining program; identifying funding for downtown public improvements including Cherry Street Mall; and developing an internal database of commercial properties within the city and the DDA district.
It’s not known when safety restrictions tied to the coronavirus crisiswill be lifted or lessened enough to allow popular public events such as outdoor concerts and gatherings to resume.
Earlier this month, the commission voted to extend the DDA’s duration. The authority’s lifeline was set to expire June 30,, 2021, but the commission moved for a 20-year extension through 2041. That allows tax increment revenues collected from a portion of businesses in the downtown district to keep capturing those funds that finance the DDA.
The move comes at a time when downtown is about to experience a resurgence of sorts following COVID-19-caused closures.
In recent weeks, a new barbers shop called Deep Cuts has opened, and the Three Blind Mice Irish Pub re-opened under new ownership. A boutique winery titled Cellar 104 is scheduled to open its doors for the first time around Thanksgiving. A newcoffee shop is also expected to open in 2021.