Welcome to our next installment of focused conversations with community personalities as we approach the third decade of the 21st century. These conversations are framed around the foundation question of: How will and should the City of Annapolis evolve, culturally and in all municipal facets? Here, we speak with Executive Director Erik Evans of the nonprofit Downtown Annapolis Partnership, an alliance of 76 businesses and services, the mission of which is “to sustain and strengthen the Annapolis business community.”
How does the Downtown Annapolis Partnership (DAP) fit with all the other organizations in the city with similar missions?
In addition to the partnership, I’m also executive director of the Inner West Street Association and the Annapolis Arts District, so there’s a great deal of collaboration. I moderate the Annapolis Business Leaders Meeting, where all the executive directors and the leadership of all the business organizations meet monthly with the city’s Economic Development Office to work on current and upcoming issues so that everyone is aware of what everyone else is doing.
I think I have a great relationship with the current leadership. At the monthly meeting, usually one or two City Council members attend. The economic development director is on our board, and she attends all the board meetings. I have conversations regularly with the mayor, and I regularly attend the economic development matters committee for the City Council, so that we can discuss issues that are coming up and if there’s a role the city can play in helping or not, or whether the impact it will have is something they want to pursue or not.
Is the downtown Annapolis economy healthy?
I do believe it is healthy. We have very few empty storefronts and many regular events. Our hotels are also regularly full. Is there room for improvement? Always.
You mentioned empty buildings, empty storefronts. To some people, that symbolizes mismanaged property or greedy property owners. Is that true?
There’s a cost of doing business, and some people aren’t paying their mortgages and taxes. Honestly, the higher the rents are, the healthier the economy is, because you’re able to charge more in a healthy economy. If you go to towns with lower rents, you’ll find they have a much smaller dedication to business traffic. So, it is a sign.
What are critical issues that your members would like to see addressed by the city?
Flooding is one of downtown’s biggest problems, and the threat is increasing. This is especially hard on the Dock Street businesses, big events like boat shows and the Kunta Kinte festival, and traffic along Compromise Street.
The second challenge is getting more people to shop in downtown Annapolis. The city’s downtown has eight main arteries that focus on shopping and dining: Main Street, Market Space, Dock Street, Randall Street, Francis Street, State Circle, Maryland Avenue, and West Street. When you look at all the businesses on these streets you will see that most are not tourist-related. A few shops are tourist-related, especially as you get closer to the City Dock. And this is to be expected in a town that has strong tourist destinations. However, I feel downtown Annapolis has more places to buy non-clothing-related gifts than the mall, and there is a higher concentration of diverse restaurants in the city verses the outside edges.
A third issue is how to improve the pedestrian experience downtown. We need to look at how to better connect Maryland Avenue and West Street to Main Street. We have what I refer to as “pedestrian dead zones” between these areas where there is nothing for people walking to see or do. This discourages pedestrians from continuing to explore all three areas.
Finally, and maybe most important, we need to make it easier to do business in the city to attract new investment.
As you well know, Mayor Gavin Buckley has ushered in an outside-the-box vision for the city. Which of his specific ideas do you support?
I don’t really think they’re out-of-the-box ideas. A lot of people are moving in the direction of “place-making” and sustainability, and much of what the mayor is talking about is in support of different modes of transportation. That’s what happens when biking comes on. Not everyone agrees on necessarily how to do that, but many people agree that we can’t just rely on automobiles. People want different options, they want things that are more environmentally friendly, and they want options for exercise. A lot of the things that he talks about are happening nationwide. We’re moving in that direction, we’re moving into a new economy, and we must do things to help prepare for that. Anytime new ideas surface, people will debate and write about the best way to do something because there’s usually more than one answer. The more people you put in a room the more opinions you get.
You hold the arts district very close to your heart. With regard to downtown infrastructure and cultural programs, is the city getting it right?
It’s hard to tell if the administration has gotten it right yet because it’s so new. There have been some hiccups along the way, in public opinion, concerning some of the things he’s [Mayor Buckley] done. Yes, he is trying to solve the downtown flooding problem, which I believe is a step in the right direction. He has the community talking about doing anything new on city dock. Should we make more of a town square, where people would spend the day? I don’t know that we’ve come up with all the right answers yet, but it’s a step in the right direction.
What is your vision forAnnapolis?
I live downtown, I’ve had retail businesses downtown, and I help oversee many of the events downtown. I think it’s good to remember that this town is for locals as well as for tourists, and we need to look at ways to make it easier for people to get around downtown, so that we would become friendlier for pedestrians and for people of different economic backgrounds.
Locals love to talk about the days when we had Rookies grocery store downtown and how we miss our hardware store. As a downtown resident who lives and works there, I wish we had both. Today, most of the vehicle traffic on Main Street is commuter traffic that never stops in downtown. It is locals headed out of town to work or shop. Shopping habits have changed, and most people go to a big grocery store versus a small community store. You can still get some groceries downtown at the Market House, CVS, and Annabeth’s, and the First Sunday Arts Festival tried to revive a Farmers Market this year. If we all tried to buy some of our groceries at these businesses, they would look for ways to expand their grocery offerings. Otherwise, they will adapt and carry other products.
The same can be said of the downtown hardware store. This building [now housing Mission BBQ] is still in the same family, which is also still in the hardware business. However, the consumer has chosen to drive out on the edge of town to a big-box hardware store, which made the economics of a hardware store downtown no longer work. As individuals, we vote with our dollars every day on which businesses we want to keep in our towns and which ones we wish to close. Every time we choose to shop at a store outside of the city or order from an online warehouse, we are increasing the chances of having a new vacant storefront in our community. Government is doing the same by giving larger handouts to attract Amazon warehouse workers verses investing in our new Main Street entrepreneurs. The organizations that I work with all promote “shop and buy local.” That is the only way to protect the businesses that make our community unique and special.
The organizations I work with help our businesses become stronger with the training programs we have done on social media, website design, and helping businesses understand trends. We have also created events that support local entrepreneurs and increase foot traffic downtown. The City Economic Development Office and the County Economic Development Office also offer business classes, loans, and grant programs to help improve our business community.
Today’s younger consumer is experience-oriented, preferring farm-to-table versus traditional fried bar foods, and wants craft brews verses multinational brands. They are more likely to participate in an organized run, kayak, paddle board, or zipline events than golf. They are also quick to buy, review, and make decisions based on information from their phones and prefer to live in a higher-density mixed-use community where they can go downstairs from their condo and purchase their necessities and hit the gym. Retail is seeing more and more popup stores and specialty boutiques versus big-box stores. As trends are identified, we can all help businesses adapt and seek out new businesses and events to replace ones that could not adapt. Identifying the trends and business needs and finding solutions requires the cooperation of many groups working together. Trends are also sometimes at odds with older consumers, and that brings to life the stories we frequently hear about the good old days that each generation tells a bit differently. These current trends are good for Main Streets and downtown areas where I expect you will see more consumer demand to live, shop, and play than the suburbs and their strip centers and shopping malls.
Functions of the Downtown Annapolis Partnership
Manages and promotes Midnight Madness for 3 nights every December
Decorates and funds the Downtown Annapolis Holiday decorations
Promotes Small Business Saturday
Manages Annapolis Restaurant Week promoting 40+ restaurants
Beautifies downtown Annapolis during the summer months, providing and watering the hundreds of flower baskets
Promotes May Day indowntown Annapolis
Has training classes forbusiness owners
Markets to and works with potential new business to locate in Annapolis
Markets DAP members through email newsletters and social media
Works with City on multiple levels to try and lessen the impact of new city legislation aimed at businesses
Worked to have over 40 unlicensed publication boxes removed fromdowntown sidewalks, many abandonedor not maintained.
In 2018, raised $20K to improve biking in downtown Annapolis and $3K to improve recycling in downtown Annapolis
Worked with City to create special parking rates at outer parking garages during Midnight Madness and New Year’s Eve
Worked with Harbor Master to create welcome bags for boaters
Worked with the City to get new expanded circulator route to also include St. Johns, Statehouse and State parking garage
