Year-End Report – 2019

2019 Reflections 2019 was another successful year for the Downtown Bellingham Partnership, highlighted by an increase in community engagement, solid attendance at our core events, ongoing implementation of the City/DBP Retail Strategy and lessons learned as we continue to explore expanding our placemaking efforts within the district.

One of the largest accomplishments of the Partnership in 2019 was organizing and producing the Downtown Mayoral Forum at the Old City Hall building in June, moderated by Chris Roselli from WWU and featuring the four candidates who were running for mayor before the primaries, Seth Fleetwood, April Barker, Pinky Vargas and Garrett O’Brien. The event was highly successful, with over 225 people in attendance, giving the community the opportunity to hear from the candidates on issues directly related to downtown.

Another significant community outreach effort involved working with the City to explore integrating micro-mobility options to City residents. The Partnership applied for and was awarded a Project Neighborly grant to explore community opinions regarding e-bikes and scooters and organize a e- scooter demo by Lime Bike, a micro-mobility provider, in anticipation of a e-scooter pilot in 2020.

The City and the DBP collaborated in creating and implementing a Downtown Survey, conducted as a follow up to a 2011 City survey, to better understand current opinions about various aspects of downtown and to gather data to redevelop goals for a thriving city center. DBP was involved to help formulate the survey, worked to ensure it was disseminated to the public and participated in reviewing and analyzing the results.

Other outreach efforts included organizing volunteers to help The Leopold residents transition from their residences at the downtown senior living facility, hosting DNA meetings on topical issues including updating downtown stakeholders on the status of Hohls and Clark Feed and Seed after the fires and hosting our annual downtown celebration, the Scepter Awards, at the newly opened Makeworth Market.

DBP events were successful overall in 2019, with Downtown Sounds celebrating its 15th year anniversary and, despite rain occurring two of the five nights, the highly popular music series was still able to draw enthusiastic crowds and adapted to the weather by moving one night from Bay Street to the Depot Market Square. The series also received the Best Festival Award from the Cascadia Weekly.

The co-funded City/DBP Retail Strategy continued to evolve with Retail Advocate, Jennifer Walters, making important connections between property owners and potential new businesses, actively recruiting businesses within the region and supporting existing downtown businesses as well.

We made some headway in activating the public realm downtown by activating the Commercial

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Street plaza with an imaginative and fund art installation and fresh paint, conducted a competition for a mural that will be installed in the spring of 2020 and collaborated with a variety of businesses sharing alleys to plan for future activations that are also planned for 2020.

Internally, the DBP went through some staff restructuring, which included the addition of new valuable staff members – two within landscaping and another in events. We celebrated our first full year within our new and expanded office in the Crown Plaza building and made efforts to improve our sustainability by raising over $121K through the Main Street Tax Incentive Program, increasing sponsorships, and launch a downtown reward program – all increasing our contributed revenues by $17k from 2018.

Downtown Events Art Walk First Fridays, 6:00pm – 10:00pm The historical Art Walks continue to be a beloved community gathering and an economic driver for downtown businesses. The 2019 Art Walk season hosted a total of 95 venues with an average of 34 venues per month. These details do not include the Children’s Art Walk, which is coordinated by Allied Arts of Whatcom County with support from DBP. The 19th annual Children’s Art Walk took place on May 3rd and included 49 downtown businesses displaying children’s artwork throughout the month. Estimated Art Walk attendance throughout the year ranged from 2,000 on the slow end to 16,000 on the high end. These recurring events consistently increased foot traffic and sales for participating businesses on a monthly basis. DBP launched the rebrand of Art Walk promotional materials featuring a fresh, new logo and an artistic, modern map design. The map now includes “Premier Listing” features to prominently highlight different exhibits each month and creatively organizes the venues by categories – Galleries, Shopping, Food and Bars + Beer. Season Sponsor – Bank of the Pacific.

December Art Walk – Friday, December 6 The December Art Walk continues to be the most popular Art Walk of the year, hosting 44 venues in 2019. Highlights – Make.Shift’s annual holiday art and craft sale, Make.Sale, hosted at four different venues: Make.Shift, Café Velo, Icing on the Cake and Runaway Press. Featuring a variety of vendors, goods and activities. | Grand opening of Refind Creations located at 301 W Holly Street. | 40th Anniversary of Allied Arts’ Holiday Festival of the Arts featuring over 100 local artisans. | Art Walk debut of Old99 Barbershop. Estimated attendance was about 3,000 on the slow end and 10,000 on the high end. December’s map enclosed.

Happy Hour Thursdays! Thursdays in March, 4:00pm – 7:00pm DBP coordinated a second year of the Happy Hour Thursday’s promotion with the goal to showcase downtown’s restaurants and bars during a slower time of year for the hospitality industry. The concept was a cohesive Downtown Happy Hour featuring 24 restaurants and bars promoting a variety of food and beverage offerings at similar prices. Participating businesses: Bayou on Bay,

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Bellingham Bar & Grill, Black Sheep, Brandywine Kitchen, Cosmos Bistro, Culture Café at Kombucha Town, El Capitan’s, The Firefly, Goat Mountain Pizza, Herb’s Cider, Honey Moon, Horseshoe Café, Jack’s, Miller’s Backdoor, MIX, Old World Deli, The Orion, The Racket, Redlight, Rook & Rogue Board Game Pub, The Shakedown, Uisce Irish Pub and Vinostrology. Happy Hour Thursdays was marketed through posters and an engaging social media campaign featuring vibrant imagery within the participating businesses. While we struggled to get the busy bars and restaurants to engage with us, we did have several participating locations do a great job with their promotions. The event overall was a marketing success, reaching over 9,000 people on Facebook organically, and reaching over 10,000 people on Instagram. Still, DBP will most likely discontinue this promotion in 2020 and discuss partnering with Bellingham Cocktail Week instead.

Spring Wine Walk Friday, May 10, 5:30pm – 9:00pm DBP produced its 5th annual Spring Wine Walk in 2019. A well-known and popular occasion for downtown, the Spring Wine Walk drew over 700 people to the downtown core for wine tasting at 22 different shops and venues. General Admission tickets were $30. Each attendee received 10 tasting tickets, a commemorative tasting cup, an event guide and a Co-op tote bag. In addition to the general tickets, the new and improved VIP experience, at $50, included everything that came with a general ticket, plus access to a VIP-only reception at Vinostrology, early check-in to skip the lines, a complimentary glass of red, white or rosé wine, a free bag of popcorn and three additional tasting tickets. General Admission check-in took place in the Commercial Street Plaza, activating the space with people, music and décor. The VIP check-in and reception took place at Vinostrology. DBP continued its partnership with Seattle Uncorked to secure the wineries and coordinate logistics with the wineries. Title Sponsor – Community Food Co-op; Supporting Sponsors – Greenhouse, Bank of the Pacific, KAFE 104.1 radio. Participating Businesses: Apse Adorn, Argyle Salon, Babygreens, Backcountry Essentials, Bellingham Wax Studio, Bison Bookbinding & Letterpress, Brazen Shop + Studio, Community Food Co-op (Title Sponsor), Downtown Emporium, Elk’s Building Pop-Up: Bellingham Handmade, Fringe Boutique, Gold Comb Salon, Greenhouse (sponsor), Ideal, Makeworth Market, Quinn and Foster, Social Fabric, Sojourn, Third Planet, Wandering Oaks, WinkWink and Wise Buys.

Downtown Sounds Wednesdays – July 10, 17, 24, 31 & August 7, 5:30pm – 9:00pm on 1300 Bay Street & Prospect Streets Bellingham's favorite music series celebrated its 15th year on Bay and Prospect Streets in the heart of Downtown Bellingham for five consecutive Wednesdays. Each night featured two performances by popular bands, food vendors, a Beer + Wine Garden featuring local beer, cider and exclusive wines from Haggen Food & Pharmacy and a Family Alley area featuring WECU’s Game Zone plus engaging and unique activities provided by Play Lab and Fancy Face by Bailey. DBP partnered with WECU to develop an authentic, engaging sponsorship that genuinely strengthened the quality of the series. WECU staff were onsite each week, wearing Downtown Sounds/WECU branded shirts, engaging with

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attendees by handing out WECU swag and a different seasonal treat (La Croix, ice cream sandwiches, coffee, etc.) The sponsorship between DBP and WECU was very symbiotic and contributed to a genuine, successful series. Unfortunately, Downtown Sounds experienced inclement weather during the first two weeks which presented big challenges for event staff. For safety reasons, staff was forced to cancel the anticipated Polecat set on opening night which resulted in heavy disappointment amongst attendees and performers. The cancellation also resulted in a huge loss in sales in the Beer + Wine Garden. Despite the weather, over an estimated 2,500 people stood in the rain determined and hopeful to see Polecat perform. The second concert on July 17th presented more challenges. With similar weather in the forecast, event staff pivoted, relocating the entire event to the Depot Market Square. With incredible support from the City of Bellingham, other event partners and the WSLCB, staff was able to pull off a successful venue relocation and attendees showed up in full force. The remainder of the series, back on Bay and Prospect Streets, continued to break attendance and sales records each week, resulting in an overall very successful 15th Anniversary of Downtown Sounds. Estimated overall series attendance: 25,000.

2019 Schedule: Date Headliner Opener Genre July 10 Polecat Polecat + Friends Americana; Bluegrass July 17 Rebirth Brass Band Raincity Brass; Funk July 24 Orchestra Zarabanda Bilongo Quintet w/ Salsa; Cuban; Latin Sabrina Gomez July 31 Sepiatonic Analog Brass Vaudeville; Electronic; Brassy Funk August 7 Monophonics Willdabeast Soul; Funk; Electronic

Other Details: Cash Sponsors: WECU (Premier Sponsor), Haggen (Beer + Wine Garden Sponsor), Freeland and Associates, Wild Buffalo, Corwin Fergus (silent donor).

Partners: City of Bellingham, Groove Merchant Northwest, Boundary Bay Brewery, SPARK Museum, Bayou on Bay, Wild Buffalo.

In-Kind Sponsors: Boundary Bay Brewery, Best Western Plus Heritage Inn, SPARK Museum, Groove Merchant Northwest, Cascade Radio Group (92.9 KISM), Haggen Food + Pharmacy, Aslan Brewery Co., Chuckanut Brewery, Kulshan Brewery, Wander Brewing, Structures Brewing, Lost Giants Cider Company, Bellingham Cider Co., Herb’s Cider, Bayou on Bay, Black Sheep.

Volunteers: Volunteer shifts included set up, beer and wine pouring, ID checking, cashiering, and take down shifts. Total logged volunteer hours = 625.50. Total intern hours = 29. Total number of volunteers: 74.

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Paint B’ham Blue for WWU Wednesday, September 25th, from 5:30pm – 9:00pm at the Depot Market Square DBP continued its partnership with the Western Alumni Association to present the 4th annual Paint B’ham Blue for WWU, an event that welcomes new and returning students to downtown. The celebration started with a student precession from campus to the Herald Building where students were greeted by alumni, faculty, and staff. Students signed the Paint B’ham Blue banner on the side of the building then gathered at the Depot Market Square to enjoy the rest of the festivities. Festivities included live music, pop-up shops, giveaways, a Sensebellum light show and a firework display from the roof of the Herald Building.

DBP supported the event by securing pop-up vendors and food trucks for the main celebration at the Depot and recruited businesses to offer discounts to students from that Wednesday, 9/25 to Sunday, 9/29. Participating pop-up shops and organizations at the main event: Babygreens, Third Planet, Wise Buys, Bellingham Flag, Glitt3r Lyfe, Lucky Locks, El Capitan’s, Quicksilver Photo Lab, Community Food Co-op, The Wild Oat Café, Make.Shift, Cascadia Weekly, Bellingham Symphony Orchestra, Ruckus romm Arcade & Fun Center, Rook & Rogue Board Game Pub, Makeworth Market. Estimated attendance: 2,700.

Downtown Trick-or-Treat Wednesday, October 31st from 3:00pm – 5:00pm The annual Downtown Trick-or-Treat continues to attract families from a variety of neighborhoods into downtown for a positive, safe and unique experience. This year’s event featured over 130 registered downtown businesses and an estimated 2,500 attendees. Title Sponsor – Bellingham Frameworks; Supporting Sponsors – City of Bellingham, Greenhouse, Black Drop Coffeehouse, LJ’s Handyman Service, Restoration Foundation, Zervas Architects, Rook and Rogue Board Game Pub, WTA, Wally’s Barber Shop, Camber and Shake-and-Shine. The event was promoted through social media, posters and a digital map. DBP is no longer utilizing balloons as venue markers for this event. Estimated attendance: 3,000.

Holiday Wine Walk Friday, November 8th from 5:30pm – 9:00pm DBP produced its 3rd annual Holiday Wine Walk in 2019. A festive, popular occasion for downtown, the Holiday Wine Walk sold out at 600 tickets while driving attendees to the downtown core for wine tasting at 21 different shops and venues. The holiday edition of this event is intended to put downtown on the map as a holiday shopping destination. General Admission tickets were $30. Each attendee received 10 tasting tickets, a commemorative tasting cup, an event guide and a Co-op tote bag. The VIP experience, at $50, included everything that came with a general ticket, plus access to a VIP-only reception at Vinostrology, early check-in to skip the lines, a complimentary glass of red, white or rosé wine, a free bag of popcorn and three additional tasting tickets. General Admission check-in took place at the SPARK Museum. The VIP check-in and reception took place at Vinostrology.

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Title Sponsor – Community Food Co-op; Supporting Sponsors – Greenhouse, Bank of the Pacific, KAFE 104.1 radio. Participating Businesses: Apse, Babygreens, Backcountry Essentials, Betty Lou’s Downtown Emporium, Bison Bookbinding & Letterpress, Brazen Shop + Studio, The Comics Place, Community Food Co-op (Title Sponsor), Greenhouse (Sponsor), Historic Elks Building, Ideal, Makeworth Market, Moon Alchemy Wine Lounge, Quicksilver Photo Lab, Quinn and Foster, Social Fabric, Third Planet, Topaz Salon & Gallery, Wandering Oaks, WinkWink and Wise Buys.

Shop Small Saturday Saturday, November 30th, from 10:00am – 6:00pm An annual promotion that runs on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Attendees are encouraged to visit downtown and go big by shopping small. Dozens of downtown's best shops, boutiques and galleries are stocked with amazing gifts and unique finds and run sales and promotions throughout the day. DBP staff provided retailers with branded imagery and marketing language to promote the event. We also used the promotion to highlight the holiday edition of the downtown retail map. The Retail Committee confirmed a busy, successful day and reported that overall, sales had increased from last year.

Downtown Holiday Festival Saturday, December 7th, from 6:00pm – 9:00pm at the Depot Market Square After seven years of hosting the Tree Lighting Ceremony at the Depot Market Square, DBP and the City of Bellingham took this growing event to the next level in 2019 by establishing the celebration as the Downtown Holiday Festival. This expanded and reimagined gathering included increased programming, the closure of Railroad Avenue and the City’s investment in a 28-ft. sustainable holiday tree. Additional programming featured the lighting of the tree with Mayor Kelli Linville, an artisan market of 14 arts + crafts vendors, photo opportunities with Santa, hot cocoa, cider and cookies provided by Woods Coffee, a 21+ beverage garden featuring Boundary Bay Brewery and Chuckanut Bay Distillery, food trucks, make-and-take craft tables with Gabriels Art Kids, dance performances by students at Harper&I Dance Center, caroling with The Mount Baker Toppers, holiday sounds with local DJ Boombox Kid and more. The Holiday Festival was sponsored by Judd & Black Appliance, Boundary Bay, Woods Coffee and was in partnership with the City of Bellingham. DBP Board of Directors helped Executive Director, Alice Clark, set up and staff the beverage garden that welcomed attendees in its cozy atmosphere featuring a fire pit, outdoor heaters, glowing lights, a festive archway and more. The Holiday Festival was a big success and we look forward to making the event a festive tradition in downtown for years to come. Estimated attendance: 4,000.

Community Outreach and Support

Storefront Improvement Grant DBP initiated the 2nd Storefront Improvement Grant application process in October 2018 and had 12 applications from downtown businesses seeking support to do exterior improvements. These ranged from new signage to plantings and lots of good ideas in between. At the end of the vetting by the DBP Design Committee, a project was chosen that was submitted by BAAY (Bellingham Arts Academy

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for Youth) for a new eye-catching marquee that aimed to enhance the entertainment district on State Street. Project completion was scheduled for July 2019. DBP’s Events Director, Lindsey Payne Johnstone and staff lead for the Design Committee, convened the BAAY staff along with the committee in Quarter 1 of 2019 to refine BAAY’s proposal and discuss BAAY’s project timeline. We convened again in Quarter 2 to meet the artist/welder for the marquee sign. Unfortunately, late summer 2019 we learned that BAAY were nowhere near the completion of their project. Funds were supposed to be reimbursed in July, and DBP allowed for some flexibility, but then it became apparent that progress had fallen behind to the point where the project was unfeasible to complete within the scope of the grant. We wished we would have been kept in the loop more about the roadblocks they were facing. DBP will restructure grant criteria in 2020 to ensure the success of this program in the future.

Scepter Awards The 3rd Annual Scepter Awards took place on December 9 and were hosted by Makeworth Market on State Street. Close to 100 people attended, which was down a bit from the event last year, which was held at Goat Mountain Pizza. Ticket prices doubled from $10 in 2018 to $20 in 2019, so there was some debate regarding how that might have impacted attendance. Awards were given to The Leo, Max Higbee Center, Ragfinery, Pure Bliss, Pickford Film Center, Makeworth Market, Bellingham Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and the Homeless Outreach Team. The event included appetizers from a variety of downtown eateries and a silent auction from local businesses and artists. We plan to do some modifications in 2020 to ensure ongoing success of this year-end celebratory event.

Downtown Bellingham Mayoral Forum The Mayoral Forum took place on June 19th, with over 220 people in attendance at the Old City Hall. The event started with a pre-forum reception of 40+ guests, including current DBP donors and other friends of the organization and the forum itself, which was open to the public, was packed with an engaged citizenry. The candidates (Pinky Vargas, Garrett O’Brien, Seth Fleetwood and April Barker) answered questions from the public for just over an hour and the event was recorded by BTV. All in all, we felt that the forum was a huge success and many who were there expressed appreciation that we made it happen. The link to the video recording can be found here - https://bit.ly/2xFUBoW.

BHAM SOUP DBP staff and board worked with several other community members to produce Bellingham’s first Bham SOUP event, a crowd-funding dinner for downtown projects. There were 8 applications submitted and 4 presenters were chosen to pitch their ideas at the January 21st soup dinner at Goat Mountain Pizza. Alex McLean was awarded the donations taken in at the door ($975), which he used to construct more of his handcrafted bike racks for downtown. We planned another SOUP event in April, however after not receiving any application and several of the core group of volunteers getting busy with other things, we decided to postpone resurrecting SOUP until we have more resources in both time, money and volunteers and/or interns to do so.

Alley Support Partnership staff continued to work with a variety of downtown businesses to help improve the safety and cleanliness of alleys within the district. This included following up with work done with the Horseshoe Café, Daylight Properties and others that share the alley between JJs and Horseshoe Café on Holly Street and troubleshooting solutions with businesses sharing alleys along Chestnut and

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Grand Streets.

Business Resource Guide DBP staff completed its first version of a Business Resource Guide, which includes information from starting a business downtown to contacts within the City for various aspects of running a business and other resources. The guide is now posted on the Downtown Bellingham website and postcards were created to share with downtown businesses, which were handed out in person and sent through the mail to newly opened businesses. In coordination with this effort, DBP staff also worked to delegate zones within the downtown district to each staff member, who have been making headway in meeting with each business owner to share this resource as well as touching base in general in the process.

Micro-Mobility Outreach In 2019 the Partnership applied for and received funding from the Whatcom Community Foundation’s Project Neighborly grant to support an outreach effort to gain insights from the downtown community regarding their thoughts about how an e-bike or e-scooter program might benefit (or not benefit) the district. The DBP contracted with Christine Grant, who has over a decade of experience developing programs and marketing campaigns on issues that relate to transportation, energy, and sustainability. Christine currently teaches energy policy at WWU with the Institute for Energy Studies and serves on the City of Bellingham's Climate Action Task Force. She was highly motivated to move either an e-scooter or bike program forward and although the pilot was not able to take place in 2019, the grant and her work with the funding helped us do outreach to businesses and get a better understanding of the reservations and excitement about having more micro-mobility options downtown. Hosting a e-scooter demo was a fun way to get people interested in the options for transportation and opened up the conversation.

Downtown Neighborhood Association meetings The Partnership held two official Downtown Neighborhood Association meetings in 2019 in lieu of three as we held the Mayoral Forum instead of holding a separate June meeting. Topics included a short Alley Activation 101 presentation, the e-scooter pilot, updates from City and Fire Department post-fires of Hohl and Clarks on Railroad and introductions of new Police officers for downtown.

Downtown Insiders In February of 2019, DBP launched a new recurring donor benefits program and marketing tool we named Downtown Insiders. Locals who sign up for an automatic, $5, $10 or $25 donations receive a membership card that grants them access to special discounts at participating Downtown businesses and tiered benefits linked to the amount they give. See attached for the full list of benefits, a list of discounts and other promotional materials. A launch party hosted at Makeworth Market on Art Walk in April was promoted as a fundraiser and sneak peek at the then, not yet open coffee shop and mercantile. Over 100 people attended and many signed up to give.

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Insiders receive a monthly newsletter as part of a receipt for their gift. It informs them of new discounts, VIP opportunities for Insiders and ways in which their contribution has improved Downtown. At the end of 2019, there were 101 recurring donors up from 4 at the beginning of 2019. $15,075 was given in 2019through Insiders and to date, the DBP receives gifts that range from $5 to $500, totaling at over $2,000 in revenue each month. The program costs little mostly in printing and marketing expenses but does require staff time to maintain. In 2020, we intend to continue to grow the program and the discounts offered. Insiders who give $25 or more each month will receive free tickets to Bellingham Cocktail Week’s 2020 A Cocktail Odyssey Gala at Hotel Leo in February which will also round out the first full year of the program.

Beautification In 2019, DBP utilized funds raised through the Main Street Tax Incentive to purchase hanging baskets for the Retail Improvement District. We hired our first ever seasonal, dedicated Watering Assistant to tend to flower beds in the summer months and later hired a dedicated year-round part- time Landscaping Assistant position and hired Zack Brown-Davis who came with experience from the City’s Facilities Department. DBP were also fortunate to recruit Caanan Cowles as Landscaping Supervisor in August. Interviews of 4 highly qualified candidates took place in July. An offer was made to Caanan Cowles, formerly of the City of Bellingham’s Public Works Department. Caanan brought with him a diversity of relevant experience including landscaping and plant knowledge and a good working relationship with the Parks Department, Facilities Maintenance and other divisions of Public Works. Canaan has also brought a great deal of energy and attention to detail to his role. The DBP has used this opportunity to assess and update a communication plan and general agreements about nuanced details of the scope of work that are not specifically laid out in the City contract with the contract administrator, Planning Specialist, Katie Franks to great success. In 2019 DBP began to utilize a policy of priority zones to provide an increased level of service to the Retail Focus Area and the blocks closest to it. In our 2020 Landscaping contract, DBP has formalized this arrangement with the City’s Planning Department. Beds and hardscape will receive more regular attention in a central zone based around the Retail Focus Area with outer sections of the neighborhood receiving less frequent service. Please see the attached map for details.

Placemaking DBP continued to focus its placemaking efforts on alley activation strategies. Potential strategies discussed included murals, interactive art, lighting and other enhancements that would draw people through alleys to increase the feeling of safety, increase connectivity and create a lively urban destination. DBP staff member, Lindsey Payne Johnstone, and former staff member, Mason Luvera, had the opportunity to attend the International Downtown Association’s Placemaking and Placebranding Summit in Huntsville, AL in May. This conference provided many opportunities to learn new tactics

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that the DBP can implement here in Bellingham. Key takeaways for alley activation: lighting is key; identify champions and “alley keepers” (neighboring businesses); programming is a must (once you revitalize a space, don’t leave it); if you’re doing multiple alleys, make sure they are close in proximity. The conference was inspirational and motivational, and we are excited to continue this work in 2020. A grant from the City of Bellingham’s Mayor’s Office for $5,000 was awarded to DBP for alley beautification. DBP issued a Call for Artists on our Facebook page seeking proposals from artists and creatives to install a vibrant urban mural on a building facade within the Commercial Street Alleyway in Downtown. In September, DBP staff and members of the Design Committee juried over 20 proposals. DBP Events Director, Lindsey Payne Johnstone, notified the winning artists and met with them to go over project details. The artists expressed concern regarding the inconsistent weather forecast, so the Mayor’s Office granted a timeline extension into 2020. Lindsey will circle back with the artists in Quarter 1 of 2020 to finish the install of the mural. DBP applied for the Whatcom Community Foundation’s Funds for Whatcom County Grant Round for its “Art Alley” placemaking project. The project entailed adding colorful paint to the rear exteriors of buildings within the alley, integrating improved lighting and a variety of other elements to increase vibrancy and safety. We were notified at the end of November that we did not receive funding for this project. Staff will re-assess funding options in 2020.

As part of DBP’s plans to activate the Commercial Street Plaza, staff spent months strategizing a creative placemaking project for the painted surfaces of the plaza. We concepted a design that would add geometric, brightly colored paint installations to the white pillars and blank walls of the surrounding parking garage structure and secured grant funding to help pay for the project. Staff installed the paint design in late August. The new paint designs were done alongside freshly painted planters and have helped transform the space into a desirable public gathering place. The DBP is noticing increased engagement in the area and will continue to expand the paint installations and programming the plaza area in 2020.

Economic Development Progress related to economic development included ongoing implementation of the Retail Strategy, by supporting the work of our Retail Advocate, Jennifer Walters. Several tangible results of her work in connecting the right businesses with property owners were evident in the opening of Makeworth Market, Bellingham Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Just Poke, all of which were assisted by Jennifer making connections and advocating for the businesses to the property owners. Each business owner offered praise and appreciation for the personal care and passion that Jennifer brings to her position.

In addition, in collaboration with the DBP Economic Vitality Committee, Jennifer led an effort to highlight some vacancies downtown, with one open house coming to fruition at the old Elks Building on Cornwall. Unfortunately, the event was not well enough attended to warrant continuing the concept. A business series that was planned for the year also experience low attendance at its first session in January and that, combined with a lack of sponsor income, made the series come to an end. The Partnership is regrouping the committee with new goals for 2020, which will involve supporting the businesses within the Retail Strategy focus area to improve their exteriors and doing a more in-depth retail study involving in depth interviews with select business owners.

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Marketing & Communications The Marketing and Communications strategy for 2019 was primarily focused on expanding marketing efforts in order to increase economic activity in Downtown Bellingham. Throughout the year DBP staff worked towards this goal by creating new, relevant, valuable content for the community. Some of the following goals helped contribute to our marketing efforts: • Use the website to showcase businesses downtown In 2019 we created a digital dining guide that consolidated every restaurant, café, or nightlife destination into one location. Since it was added to our website in May, the dining guide has received almost 10,000 views. The map is constantly updated and revised, so that even the newest restaurants shared in the exposure. Combined with a strong “Eat | Drink” page on our website, downtownbellingham.com is one of the highest ranked pages when google searching dining in Bellingham. In 2019, DBP staff also added the quarterly Retail Map to the “Shop | Explore” section, which was the fourth most visited section of the website during the year, to promote retail businesses in the city center. • Increase communication with stakeholders To increase communication with our stakeholders, in 2019 the Downtown Bellingham Partnership created a regular monthly newsletter. The newsletter creates a platform to share important information and topics of public interest. These topics included the 2019 Mayoral Forum, the 2019 Downtown Survey results, community call for proposals, the City of Bellingham bike plan award, community e-scooter demos, and more. Furthermore, it also served a dual purpose to showcase DBP events and staff as well as promote local businesses and events happening downtown. • Year-round social media engagement DBP’s social media presence grew significantly in 2018. To encourage more growth in 2019, DBP staff focused on creating fresh and intriguing content, including hosting the popular travel bloggers @letsbe_us. DBP staff worked with the travel bloggers to showcase and promote the businesses and culture of downtown by creating a short video about the city center. The video post on Instagram was one of the highest performing posts from the year, garnered 8,000 impressions, and was shared over 50 times. DBP also profiled local businesses on social media, including Rain Ceramics. Rain Ceramics is a microbusiness launched by a WWU student who sells his ceramics at apse and Brazen Shop + Studio. The story was well received and offered a “behind-the-scenes" look at downtown retail. Overall, the social media efforts throughout the year led to a net increase in followers, with a Facebook following of 10,700 and Instagram of 9,100.

A Look at 2020 The Partnership conducted a staff/board retreat in September 2019, which resulted in a core of our work plan for 2020. Below is a summary of the primary goals.

We will continue to invest time and energy into placemaking and alley activation by expanding our resources to ensure success. This will include both monetary resources by applying for grants and

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seeking sponsors for specific projects as well as seeking out interns to help implement our goals.

Related to the above is the goal of creating a cohesive intern program for the Partnership that will include processes, job descriptions and other aspects so we can enlist the help we need to fulfill the work laid out in the 2020 work plan. We envision interns not only supporting our placemaking efforts, but also economic development and events work as well.

We will be celebrating 20 years as an organization and plan to highlight this by both bringing attention to the work of the Partnership as well as the evolution of Downtown Bellingham as a city. This will include bringing attention to the businesses and people from the past and celebrating the progress that has been made in making our city the vibrant place it is today.

We’ll continue to implement the Retail Strategy by supporting the work of the Retail Advocate as she helps connect potential businesses with brokers and property owners, does outreach to potential businesses around the region and works with current operators to elevate their businesses.

We want to more actively advocate for those issues we feel are important to downtown – supporting residential density, supporting the use of alternate modes of transportation and more. To support this effort, we plan to create a library of position papers on various topics important to downtown, that can be shared in a variety of ways with the public.

We will continue to produce our time-tested events like Downtown Sounds, Wine Walk and Art Walk, while continue to refine some events, like our Holiday Festival, for maximum results.

Lastly, we look forward to assisting the City with its plans for 2020 by helping with the communication and logistics related to the e-scooter pilot, supporting any Climate Action Plan goals related to downtown and collaborating with other projects as we are able. We are really looking forward to 2020 and further strengthening the City/DBP partnership.

DOWNTOWN BELLINGHAM PARTNERSHIP

114 W. Magnolia St., #503 • Bellingham, WA 98225 // 360.527.8710 // downtownbellingham.com