Downtown Business Alliance of Wilmington April 13, 2015 General

Downtown Business Alliance of Wilmington April 13, 2015 General Membership Meeting Minutes
Mission: To unite, promote & support downtown Wilmington businesses, merchants & Commercial Property Owners
Board Members present: Jim Bitto opened meeting- Executive Board Members - Joan Loch, Mike Loch, Doug Springer,
Chris Andrews, Terry Epsy, Eric Laut & Kristi Sullivan were in attendance.
Members present: Anne Revell- CloudWyze, Mark Gansor- Mark Gansor Decorative Painting, Ed Wolverton-WDI,Inc,
Betsy & Jim Knowles-The ArtWorks, Mike Dickey-Lanier Parking, Alex Odum-All About Alphis, Chad Hankinson-Outdoor
Equipped, George Gardner-Grace Methodist Church, Valerie Bahena-Groove Jet Salon, Peggy Mahan-Occasions, Melissa
Crete- Wilmington Downtown App, Diane Upton-Wilmington Water Tours, Joe Pawlik-ROW, Bobby HammelburgFinkelsteins, Richard Gehron-Cape Fear Film Network, Margi & Doug Erickson-CW Worth House, Helen GrubbCloudWyze, Ed & Maureen Oeters-Wilmington Water Tours, Mirian Oehrlein-New Elements Gallery
Guest Speaker - Shane Fernandez, director of the new Humanities and Fine Arts building spoke about current
construction and provided an opening date of October 3, 2015. Ticket sales for the scheduled shows will start in June
with the announcement of performances at that time. This is a state of the art facility that will bring national
performers. Students will work at the center and they will employ additional 150 crew members for performances.
Citizens and businesses can have their own seat dedicated to someone according to Shane. Keep informed by visiting
their facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/capefeararts
Sylvia King Kochler with ROW presented a beautification idea for the area on 2nd St between Chestnut and Princess St at
the back of the Post office. Their idea is to plant several palm trees and the overall cost is $7,000. This will be instant
gratification to the city and the community will see where their money went. They are enlisting the help from
downtown businesses to contribute to the costs. Please donate directly to ROW. www.rowilmington.org
Joan Loch spoke about the executive board’s strategic planning sessions that are now in progress.
Chris Andrews-Event updates-**Reminder-He is helping to bring people to your door so invite them in**
May 15-17 Rims on the River and he needs volunteers the morning of the event. Contact Chris at
citybuddha@hotmail.com
Terry Epsy let us know that HGTV will be filming in July at the Old Firehouse on Castle St.
Alex with All About Alfies will make sure to mention this to the Castle Street association.
Valarie Behena updated us on the Holiday Event steering committee that Valarie, Jim and Sylvia are a part of. The event
will be December 11 & 12 and they will be looking for volunteers. This is a large concerted effort by ROW and DBA to
provide a weekend branding downtown with a walking and festivity filled holiday event.
Ed Wolverton discussed:
-Sundown Concert series will run May 22-Sept 4. WDI, Inc who runs the series has started a Kickstarter campaign to
raise the $9000 extra they require due to the displacement of the concerts to the Water and Princess Streets location .
-Ed reminded businesses that when advertising make sure to use “Bring it Downtown” as this helps with the required
match for the program as a city requirement to continue to receive the marketing money.
-A company has been selected to work on the Water St Deck project. It includes 190 residential units, 30,000 sq feet of
retail space, a park and 550 parking spaces.
-Construction has been delayed on the River Front Park
-Merrimon Kennedy, long term owner of New Elements Gallery who recently celebrated the gallery’s 30th anniversary
has sold to a local artist and her husband.
-Cape Fear Museum is under construction for an outdoor learning center.
Valarie Behena and her daughter Brandy are hosting the next ‘Meet your Neighbor’ Event on Monday April 27 from 5:30
to 7:00 at Groove Jet Salon. Valerie hopes to build this quarterly networking opportunity this year.
The May 11th meeting will be held at The ArtWorks, 200 Willard St
Meeting Adjorned
Meeting was adjourned at 7:25pm
Submitted by: Kristi Sullivan, Secretary