First economic matters meeting here in the chamber are myself, Alderman Savage and Alder Woman Alsip Johnson.

First off, can I get a motion to approve the agenda?

So moved.

Can I get a second?

All those in favor?

Aye.

Second, can I get an approval of the minutes from our May 6th meeting?

Can I get a second?

All in favor?

I okay.

So up first is ID 14826, the downtown business partnership update.

Please join us at the table.

So for folks' um background, in case you missed the press release, uh, we have ended our contract with the downtown business partnership.

They are still a fantastic organization in the city.

Uh we just no longer give them um direct city funding.

Is that a correct?

Yeah, yes.

Sorry, I'm getting used to the new mics here.

Um, so I uh I think the way to frame it is that previously, you know, in the past fiscal years, they had the designation as the main street program for the city of Annapolis.

They're treated as an outside agency.

Um, and now the decision was to sort of recalibrate what what a main street program looks like for Annapolis.

So what we're doing right now in the Office of Economic Development is we're bringing it in-house, we're stabilizing the program, um, and then we're long-term planning, hoping to stand up a new organization, um, you know, with with ample community participation to better define this program and um you know ensure that it's meeting the goals of this administration.

Um, meeting the goals, do we have kind of a set idea of what we want to turn our main street program into?

That's we have an idea of how to get there, let's say.

We so I've I've submitted an action plan to the city manager's office, and I put together a brief for the mayor.

Um, with that action plan, again, it would establish a significant amount of community engagement and feedback loops with those stakeholders on Main Street.

So um, you know, it's not just the businesses that are there, although they make a big part of the experience that is walking through Main Street in Annapolis.

And when I say Main Street, I don't just mean Main Street, I mean the entire designated main street community, which includes other portions of downtown.

Um we also wanted to include feedback from residents, from institutions, uh, you know, from uh other business associations that make up our downtown area because it's not just the downtown Annapolis Partnership, you also have the Interwester Association, and you also have the Maryland Avenue and State Circle Business Association that um that make up the entire ecosystem.

So we're looking at holistically, we're gathering feedback, we're gonna create those parameters, and we're gonna include that in what will eventually be a solicitation to find a partner to help us stand up this organization long term.

Okay.

Um, so you still didn't quite answer my question of what our goal is for what is our vision for the main street area.

When I say that I mean like the commercial corridors in general, so yeah, Main Street, marketplace, uh, Maryland Avenue, Inner West Street, I'm including all that in like our designated main street area.

So there are four pillars to a successful Main Street program.

Um there's also a fifth pillar that the state incorporates in its in its implementation of the program at at its level.

I guess the reason I didn't provide a very clear answer is because we don't we don't want it to be like a top-down mandate.

We want the the stakeholders to be able to help us define what those goals should be and how what a successful program looks like.

We know that a successful program includes yes programming and events, but also includes significant placemaking.

It includes a love, you know, economic vitality is one of the pillars.

So we want to see small business development come out of this program.

You see that in a lot of other main street programs throughout the state, where they take an active role in attracting and placing businesses in vacant storefronts.

So we want we want to essentially see a partner or a partner organization, one that we can work with on a day-to-day basis to um to meet the needs of our of our main street ecosystem.

So again, I'm sorry if it's not very detailed right now, but it's because we're still in a phase where we're gathering information.

We're going to be reaching out to you know these different stakeholder groups, as I mentioned, including the business community, and having their feedback help guide that, you know, guide those decisions on what the goals really should be for the program long term.

Okay, I think that makes sense, and that's a very good answer for why we should keep it more broad at this point.

Yeah.

It's still early stage.

Now, one of the main things that the downtown business partnership took care of was they uh led the charge on specific events uh in conversations offline with the mayor's office.

I understand that we're still trying to figure out who's going to be taking uh lead.

Um for me, one of the big ones is the tree lighting every year and uh the menorah lighting every year.

Um do we think that the city's going to be taking charge of that?

Do we have the capacity to make sure that that's still a successful event around the holidays?

I again it's it's too early for me to give specifics because it requires significant coordination with other departments.

I would say that based on the resources that we'll have available to us to manage the program, I don't see why that particular event would prove any prove a challenge, a specific challenge.

I think that's in fact those types of placemaking initiatives like the tree lighting, like holiday decorations or flower baskets along Main Street, might be better suited for the city to take on itself regardless because we we have the capacity to do so, you know, between wreck and parks, between public works.

Now, obviously, that all still needs to be defined, but the the ability to do so is there.

I misspoke, I shouldn't have said capacity.

I said the ability to do so.

It's just a matter of managing resources and coordinating with those other departments.

And yeah, I appreciate you getting into like resources because doing these isn't as simple as like having a creative vision, it's staff resources and time and whatnot.