Downtown Natchez Alliance

In 2023, Downtown Natchez Alliance (dna) continued its work as a Mississippi main street association (mmsa) member to implement the main street four point approach, as well as facilitating the city's Downtown Natchez master plan. Dna made a successful application to the Mississippi main street revitalization grant program (mmsrg) for a project to landscape the public park at the depot on the bluff. Also, through mmsa, successful application for two rounds of arpa grant funds was made for $161,400. The funds will be used to carry out dna's transformation strategy of placemaking with recreation of original balconies and installation of awnings on historic commercial Downtown buildings. Dna also partnered with mmsa and other Mississippi towns in a usda grant-funded for the real estate game plan and showcase with consultant joe borgstrom, to produced a possibilities and pro forma program. On behalf of the city, dna also managed the engineering/landscape design team to create a detailed construction plan for hiram revels plaza, a new public park to be located in the black history district Downtown. In addition, dna hosted seasonal events throughs the year, including: ring in spring, celebrate the blooms crepe myrtle festival, christmas in july, Downtown Natchez pumpkin patch festival, holiday host & toast open houses. The keep Natchez blooming awards for beautification were presented. Dna's 2d annual Downtown pumpkin patch festival lasted one month as a family activity Downtown. The Downtown halloween rubber duckie scavenger hunt brough hundreds of children Downtown to find the rubber ducks. Dna also produced a holiday open house on the second sunday in november, and worked with the christmas in Natchez organization on holiday season events that add value to Downtown. Other actives include "destination Downtown," dna's newspaper column, which was published weekly in the local newspaper to promote dna's mission and the community experiences that Downtown offers. Monthly merchant meetings were hosted by dna in partnership with the natchez-adams county chamber of commerce. A Downtown building inventory was created and updated to identify vacant buildings that need restoration and also locations of potential new businesses. In 2023, there was a net gain of three new businesses and three expansions of existing businesses.