Jul 7, 2009

Downtown Denver Partnership to focus on retaining businessBy Ed SealoverBizJournals.com

Downtown Denver Partnership officials will put a new emphasis on attracting and retaining businesses in the coming year, going as far as communicating with every significant office whose lease is up for renewal.

The new initiatives, announced at a breakfast Tuesday by partnership president and CEO Tami Door, also include creating an appreciation week for downtown employees and improving the quality of vending carts on the 16th Street Mall.

“Cities across the country rush to define themselves by catchy logos and marketing, but we believe a city is defined by what kind of experience you have when you are there,” Door said at the partnership’s 2009 annual meeting.

The goals she laid out were both extensive and new and could represent one of the largest pushes to define the pedestrian mall since its 1982 inception.

They will start with an effort to keep businesses downtown despite the lure to move out to cheaper suburban sites during an economic downturn. Partnership staffers will contact all companies that occupy at least 10,000 square feet before their lease is up and talk to them about staying in place, Door said.

Officials will also use downtown workers as spokespeople for the area by sponsoring Downtown Denver Employee Appreciation Week from July 27 to Aug. 2. Though details of the events are still coming together, the idea, Door said, is that “if companies think about leaving and their employees push back, we have a better chance of them staying here.”

Those same officials also will look to increase the retail diversity of the mall by reaching out to at least 20 prospective retailers a month, Door said. These efforts will reach all the way down to enhancing the vending program in order to promote the mall as a destination marketplace, she said.

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