City of Zachary Marketing Team Attends Destination Downtown 2023 Conference
Posted by zachary on October 05, 2023
Destination Downtown 2023 (Regional Main Street Conference) was recently held in Monroe and West Monroe, LA, on September 13-15. Louisiana Main Street, Main Street Arkansas, and Mississippi Main Street Association hosted the Destination Downtown Conference. Main Street Directors, prospective Main Street Directors, architects, planners, economic development professionals, and public officials convened together to share innovative ways to revitalize downtowns and energize residents.
The City of Zachary Public Information Officer, Sharon Phillips, Ashleigh McHugh, COZ Economic Developer, and Brandie Triche, COZ Grants Writer, attended the conference and participated in the breakout sessions that proved to be very informative. The Opening Plenary speaker, Jason Roberts, with Better Block Foundation Urban Planner, spoke about spearheading Dallas’s effort, taking blighted blocks with vacant properties and converting them into temporary, walkable districts with pop-up businesses, adding bike lanes, café seating, and landscaping. Most notably, Jason was instrumental in the Government Street Revitalization Project in Baton Rouge, transforming the area into a more attractive and accessible community corridor. The Government Street Project has genuinely revitalized the local economy. Mid-City has become home to 48 new businesses. Property values in this area have almost doubled, and residents can now see the valuable investment made through this revitalization project.
The City of Zachary recently formed a “core team” to define a transformational vision and implementable strategy for Zachary’s downtown. Through this committee, plans are underway to identify creative solutions for enhanced streetscape design and redevelopment of the existing downtown footprint.
Retail Strategies, who the City of Zachary contracts for business recruitment, compiles a custom marketing guide with updated data and analytics detailing who consumers in our community indeed are. From this information, they can analyze the retail in the market and identify opportunities for new businesses. This guide is available for viewing on the City of Zachary website here.
