IF Downtown Development Corporation (IFDDC)

Idaho Falls Downtown Development Corp. board meeting was held May 1, 2018 in the Syringa Networks Board Room (460 Park Ave) at 8:30am Attendance: Brandi Newton, Greg Crockett, Jill Hansen, Derek Christiansen, Kevin Cutler, Tasha Taylor, Steve Fischbach, Antonio Meza, Shanon Taylor, Jake Durtschi, Jim Francis – city council member, Dana Briggs, Lisa Farris, Brent McLane, Brad Crammer and Jonathan Gallup from Resin Architecture. Staff: Catherine Smith, Mala Lyon Minutes for March 6, 2018 were reviewed – Derek motion to be approved; Jill second and board approved Financial report – we are doing well. Events are bringing in money that we can use that for more projects. Greg motioned they be approved; Shanon seconded; board approved. Jonathan Gallup was welcomed and introduced – co-owner of Resin Architecture with Graham Whipple and Greg Croft located at 520 Shoup. Brad – ‘The Broadway’ has the elevator tower in place and walls will start going up soon. We are still discussing the parking management. The Bonneville renovation is on schedule for September. The Redevelopment Agency will end December 31st of this year. The money they have left will go toward one more project. The project they are looking at has the deadline of May 17th and if it doesn’t come thru they will be looking for a different project. Project proposals will need to come from the IFDDC not Brad. Possible projects - two downtown building owners to have them buy, a hotel on Lindsay is asking for help (Ball Ventures), ‘The Broadway’ landscaping and sidewalks. The group that comes with the best planned out/ready to go project will have a best chance of getting the money. Greg asked if the Bonneville will have to create more parking? Brad said no, but there will only be half the number of apartment units. The next RDA meeting is May 17th . Any presentation will need to have the vision clearly outlined, rough estimate of costs with specifics to get the RDA to look at it. Catherine – Planter box project chaired by Kevin Cutler. He will get a bid and selection of a contractor for the pavers. We will coordinate with the city the demolition of the old planters, install new sidewalk and gutters at the intersection of A Street and Capital. ‘The Broadway’ will have lots of pavers and we will match what they use. Awesomeness of Autism fundraiser - we raised $1,800 from the donations from the merchants and restaurants. We will be delivering the checks to the schools the end of this week. SpringBrew - $5,100 profit - Krisi Staten was the event director again. Without her we would have to rent a moving truck to haul everything. MCS created a wonderful billboard for us. You could hear the music all over downtown. An event planner makes these events go well. We need to make sure our events are a positive, well run, quality experience every time. Jake said that having a well run event adds value to our downtown community and people remember a good experience. Jill suggested we link with the ‘Rock & Gem’ show next year as that brings lots of people downtown. Parking –3 days with Max Clark from Boise. He said we don’t have an emergency need here for parking, so we have time to plan, strategize and manage it well. He has invited Catherine to come to Boise he will take her to Caldwell, Nampa and places in Boise to talk with more people about parking. Book “The High Cost of Free Parking” is an excellent resource and says you can’t compete with free. Jake has agreed to be the chair for the parking committee. We will be looking at our vision and mission statement for our parking plan. Max is willing to come back to Idaho Falls if we need him. Beautification projects – (visual presentation) Shoup & B Street – 29 new pots we purchased are being placed. ‘4 Seasons Landscaping’ is going to plant flowers in them. They also cleaned up all the planters. . Marketing – We are using FaceBook to advertise and keep people informed about things like the new street lights that are being swapped out. We are using the #BeADowntowner and others are picking up on it. We posted about the ‘Pugsslane’ alley art project and the Post Register picked up on it and ran a story. We are doing a time lapse series of pictures about ‘The Broadway’. We have about 4,000 followers and hope to get 10,000 soon. ‘Idaho Gives’ is this Thursday and The Celt is donating $1 for each of their Tap Take-over drinks sole that day, so we are advertising that. We have just started Instagram and need everyone to send pictures of cool things they see and do downtown. On the Local News 8 website under marketplace we have a page that can link people to our website http://www.localnews8.com/get-downtown It has our downtown video and we will get 25,000 banner ads. We will try this for one year and see if there is value in it. Idaho Falls Magazine is working with Lisa Farris and doing stories on the façade grants – before and now type of articles. Public Art Committee met last week and made the final picks of art for the traffic cabinet box wraps. Waiting to hear from CHC about the grant money. It will take $13,000 to do them all and we have $4,000. Sign Pro will be doing the wraps. The ARTitorium had an art contest for kids to create the wrap art for the traffic boxes by them. Murals in private alleys - We have permission from Dave Nygard to place one in his alley off Park Avenue and the Villa Coffeehouse. The Museum of Idaho is planning on doing a mural on the back of their building. Once we get these done we will create a ‘walk’ that will include the art benches, murals, vinyl wrap art and the Pugsslane alley. Landscaping – New rock along the trees in the center of Yellowstone Highway. Yellowstone sign has a new top sign and posts will be painted a gray color. Current Priorities are: Public Art; beautification, marketing – social media; parking strategies with a smile. Lisa – we are in the 2018 process; meeting on May 10th and Catherine will need to be there to discuss the amount of money given to the downtown. Our allocation should be announced any day and we are anticipating a possible 10% increase. Tony volunteered to help distribute the new brochures and has gained a real appreciation of our work and efforts. He suggested all the board members look for ways to help us out. New door stickers for the downtown gift certificates and the ‘we validate’ stickers. Meeting was adjourned at 9:30am. Our next board meeting will be held June 5, 2018. Respectfully submitted by Kevin Josephson, IFDDC secretary and Mala Lyon