Downtown Raleigh Alliance

The Downtown Raleigh community engagement, safety, and social services outreach program fosters a welcoming and safe environment in Downtown through the efforts of 16 ambassadors, as of june 30, 2023, who patrol the public realm within the municipal services district seven days a week. The safety ambassadors also provide a strong, uniformed presence elevating a sense of safety with their patrols of the municipal-owned parking decks and lots. Clad in highly visible, blue uniforms and equipped with hand-held radios, the ambassadors serve as supplementary "eyes and ears" for the Downtown division of the Raleigh police department. In addition, the ambassador team continues to increase interactions with the community by providing ongoing informational and safety presentations for businesses and stakeholder groups, preparing new employees moving into Downtown Raleigh, and through monthly meetings with the Raleigh police district captain to strategize ways to lower crime. In fy23, the Downtown ambassadors provided the following number of business and hot spot checks, safe walks, hospitality assistance including dining recommendations, directions, and motorist assistance: -business check-ins: 7,980 -hot spot checks: 14,131 -safe walks: 487 -hospitality: 301 -directions: 740 -motorist assists: 100 -safety ambassadors deck patrols: 12,958 logged patrols of the municipal- owned parking decks and lots.

The balanced activations program serves as the face of the organization to the community. In fy-23, Downtown Raleigh Alliance hosted 41 outdoor events attracting 50,000 attendees. Moore square market is a 20- week market series held each sunday at moore square to enhance the quality of life for Downtown residents and the community at large, and offers ebt benefits for those in need to be able to shop and purchase fresh food. During this fiscal year, moore square market saw an increase in customers and vendors. Other activations around Downtown, such as the flannels & frost, and first fridays drew heightened attention and interest among the community.

The primary goals of storefront development program are to contribute to Downtown Raleigh's economic success by attracting new businesses to vacant storefronts, provide market data to attract new investment and employers, and provide new opportunities and resources to diverse set of businesses and entrepreneurs. Dra monitors six pedestrian counters in Downtown to measure foot traffic to help attract tenants and aid land use decisions. Dra continued its upfit grant with the goal of creating an incentive to attract new retail or aid in the expansion of existing retail in Downtown Raleigh. Dra awarded 8 grants in fy-23, totaling 56,150. In partnership with the city of Raleigh's economic development office and the planning department, our economic development staff actively works with retail brokers and landlords to fill storefront spaces in Downtown. In fy- 23, 53 new storefront businesses opened, adding new jobs and expanding tax revenues. Dra continued its partnership with wake tech to provide pop-up space for minority- and women-owned retail businesses. Dra also held five (5) small business workshops, including one (1) workshop focused specifically on minority- and women-owned business support. The economic data and analysis tracking each year is then translated into dra's state of Downtown report. The report includes market trends, population data and projections, data on Downtown development, and overviews of everything Downtown. The report compliments our state of Downtown annual event, attended by over 500 of Downtown's top business leaders and members of the community. Dra's marketing platform serves to engage our stakeholders, influencers, and the public to heighten visibility of our organization and recognize Downtown as a vibrant and vital urban center. The Alliance produces 15 communication campaigns and 14 stand-alone program websites. The we are Downtown video series, which highlighted over a dozen small businesses and their owners, served to connect Raleigh's community as the covid-19 pandemic grew. Dra's annual restaurant week, ig live, and shop local campaigns served as further outreach. In addition, the organization has attracted close to 192,000 followers through its facebook, twitter, instagram, and linkedin accounts for organizational and individual program accounts. The Downtown app was downloaded by 1,006 individuals. The dra events calendar averaged 3,000 page views per month due to the impacts of covid-19 and associated quarantine phase. Over 200 businesses were promoted through dra's communications channels including social media accounts and newsletters with a combined more than 15,000 subscribers. Dra's newsletter average open rate is higher than the industry average at 22%. Dra also began implementation of a robust update of the website devoted to covid-19 resources. These ranged from a comprehensive listing of restaurant status updates, curbside pickup zones, how to help, small business support information and small business resources.

The beautification and connectivity program provides public art and beautification projects such as murals, along with initiatives to improve accessibility and connectivity in Downtown, related to bicycle, pedestrian and parking infrastructure. In fy-23, dra also added 1 mural to beautify areas throughout Downtown. Dra also provided community meetings and support for improvements in accessibility, changes to Downtown parking and advocacy for new bike lanes in Downtown. The primary goal of the advocacy & sustainability program is to bring together over 2,000 stakeholders and members that support dra's municipal services district to collaborate for the benefit of the city. Dra brings these groups together through town hall meetings, large corporate events, and by providing strategic resources to encourage growth in Downtown Raleigh. Dra held 4 virtual town halls called Downtown rundowns.