Downtown Denver Partnership Annual Report

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An Outdoor Downtown As a result of the work of the Partnership and the BID, Skyline Park is a destination for locals and visitors alike throughout the year. Beginning as a hub for family-friendly Summer in the City events, the park is home to Skyline Park Games, popular lawn games and a nine-hole miniature golf course featuring iconic Downtown attractions, Summer Movie Series and more. As the weather turns colder, Skyline Park is transformed into Southwest Rink at Skyline Park, sponsored by Southwest Airlines, where a record 48,986 ice skaters enjoyed the rink in its fifth season. The rink hosted bands, broomball and other events to continue to promote Downtown as a premier winter destination. Ensuring that parks and plazas remain prominent places for events and activation, the Partnership secured a contract with RTD to begin permitting events at Wynkoop Plaza, the welcome mat of Denver Union Station, and is co-funding and co-managing Denver’s Outdoor Downtown plan with the City to support the development of this parks and public spaces master plan.

Re-Thinking Alleys Alleyways are important connectors in Downtown, and through unique visioning from the Partnership and City, are also the newest, pedestrian-friendly public spaces. The Partnership hosted alley activation events, including creating a demonstration alleyway on 16th Street between Champa and Curtis Streets, complete with semi-permanent, festive lighting and artwork through a partnership with the BID, OneWall Project and four local galleries. These efforts change the character of an alley to support re-thinking and use as public spaces. Eight alleys in the core blocks of the Mall, and additional alleys off the Mall, also received lighting upgrades through $100,000 of funding from the Partnership. Signature Events One of the best ways to engage people with the strategic vision for Downtown is to help them experience all that it has to offer. More than one million people came Downtown to enjoy the Partnership’s signature events, including the 31st annual A Taste of Colorado, 40th annual 9NEWS Parade of Lights, Grand Illumination and New Year’s Eve Fireworks. The two-night Parade of Lights featured a bright new Mighty Mouse balloon, and a 42-foot-long, 15-foot-tall new snow tiger balloon sponsored by American Furniture Warehouse. Fireworks at A Taste of Colorado and a diverse collection of bands added additional excitement to the weekend’s festivities.

Connecting Everyone to Everything Creating a Bicycle City Building a premier environment for both bicycles and pedestrians is an important element of the Partnership’s place-based economic development strategy to make bicycling more convenient, and Downtown more attractive to its future workforce and residents. The Partnership is a strong advocate for building a robust bicycle transportation network that includes more protected facilities within and through Downtown, including ensuring the successful installation of protected bike lanes on Arapahoe and Lawrence Streets, scheduled for completion in late 2015. The Partnership secured $120,000 in funding for protected bike lanes and led a successful crowdfunding campaign to raise an additional $35,000 from more than 200 donors, including property owners, businesses, employees and residents. To support providing clear bicycle connections into and through Downtown, the Partnership maximized its effectiveness as a Green Lane Project city by participating with key City and business leaders on a study tour of innovative bicycle infrastructure in Copenhagen. This trip inspired advocacy efforts that led the City Council to pass an ordinance allowing cycling in the 16th Street Mall transit lanes on Saturdays, in addition to the previously-allowed Sundays, which took effect in May. Enhancing Streetscape Designs and Transportation Options The Partnership joined with regional partners to celebrate the opening of Denver Union Station, and continued to focus its efforts on ensuring Downtown remains the region’s largest, most comprehensive and convenient transit district. The Partnership provided significant funding for the 21st and Wynkoop Streetscape Plan and the Civic Center Transit District Plan, helping to select the consultant teams and serving on the project management teams and stakeholder advisory groups for both initiatives. After working closely with the City to convert one-way streets to two-way streets to support greater walkability and retail development, 18th Street was converted to a two-way street in Lower Downtown in November. Plans also progressed to convert 19th and 20th Avenues to two-way streets in 2016.

Building a Premier Organization Grow and Engage a Community of City Builders Denver becomes the epicenter of city building through signature programs produced by the Partnership, including the Rocky Mountain CitySummit and CityBuild Denver. This year’s fifth annual Rocky Mountain CitySummit drew record attendance of 650 business and civic leaders from across the Rocky Mountain West to Downtown Denver for a daylong program focused on creating vibrant center cities and spanning topics including inclusivity, culture, public spaces, walkability and economic competitiveness.

CityBuild Denver, the Partnership’s initiative to engage Downtown’s next generation of leaders, drew 1,000 people to events that promoted A Love Affair with Denver, provided transferable skills and specific outcomes through rapid prototyping at the DenverUp Scrimmage, and fostered collaboration, connections and activating public spaces through CollaborEAT, an outdoor dining experience in Arapahoe Square. The dialogue continued online through CityTalk, a community engagement gateway that is a place to share and develop new ideas, discuss community challenges and inform the public on programs and initiatives. The online engagement platform drew more than 2,300 people to the site to view or submit 400 ideas on topics ranging from the vision for the redevelopment of Arapahoe Square to the best holiday traditions in center cities. Leadership and Engagement The Partnership engages its members to strengthen their collective voice through a variety of opportunities for involvement in boards, committees, councils and task forces. In addition, Partnership efforts to create a valuable member experience resulted in a record number of new members, membership renewals and sponsorships, as well as more guests than ever - 1,050 attending the 54th Annual Downtown Denver Awards Dinner to recognize seven outstanding city building initiatives.

2014 Downtown Denver Award Winners: Denver Public Library 125th Anniversary Mile High United Way Morgridge Center for Community Change Renaissance Denver Downtown City Center Hotel Emily Griffith Campus and Downtown Denver Expeditionary School Stout Street Health Center and Renaissance Stout Street Lofts Regional Transportation District’s Free MetroRide Denver Union Station

2015-2016 PROJECTED FINANCIALS FY 2015/16 REVENUE SOURCES Earned Income

Grants and Sponsorships

38%

12%

Membership Contracts for Services

15%

32%

A Taste of Colorado (Net)

3%

Leadership

Administration

21%

27%

Connections

2%

Environment

The Downtown Denver Leadership Program, an intense immersion in urban issues, policies and practices for more than 100 leaders, saw the 2014 class transform Downtown spaces into places through its efforts to Reimagine Your Downtown, and the 2015 class begin to tackle how to create a 24/7 city by growing Downtown’s residential population. The Partnership also led nearly 110 public, private and non-profit leaders on the Urban Exploration trip to San Francisco. Attendees focused on San Francisco’s complex yet progressive multi-modal transportation network, activation strategies of parks and public spaces, rich culture of innovation and entrepreneurship, as well as how it addresses social issues and serves its homeless population.

PEOPLE Downtown Denver Partnership

FY 2015/16 ALLOCATION OF BUDGET EXPENDITURES TO PRIORITIES

PLACE

2014-15 ACCOMPLISHMENTS CONTINUED

13%

Economic Development

6%

Experience

31%

Downtown Denver Partnership, Inc.

Annual Report

BUSINESS

2014-2015


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Downtown Denver Partnership Annual Report by The Downtown Denver Partnership - Issuu