Downtown South Bend (DTSB)

DTSB hosted 11 ribbon cuttings and welcomed 13 new business openings. 69% were women or minority-owned with an estimated 42 new jobs created in 2023. We provided opportunities for 400% more local businesses at first fridays markets. We planned, promoted, and implemented 76 total events in 2023, engaging over 90,000 attendees. We facilitated 2,000+ hours of dedicated Downtown safety patrols. We partnered with mural mania to beautify our city center with 8 new murals. We catalyzed 600k+ in new investment via our exterior enhancement grants, with 9 grants awarded in 2023 and 3 projects completed from 2022. We expanded riverfront liquor license boundaries to help more small businesses. We worked with small- scale developers to advance the revitalization of 15 long-vacant buildings. We infused life and color Downtown with 6,271 annual & perennial flowers & plants. We promoted Downtown events & businesses to 723,500 people via social media channels & our website. Street-level solutions through the ambassador program clocked over 5,882 cleaning hours, 434 safety hours, 309 special event hours, 560 seasonal project hours, 145 delivery hours, and 166 snow removal hours, and removed 197,679 pounds of trash, performed weed removal in 177 blocks, watered flowers using 44,641 gallons of water and performed 20,645 hospitality assists. Our outreach ambassador provided life-changing and life-saving outreach to the homeless and engaged in 1,078 interactions.