Now is a time when many look back and reflect on the past year. Here are just a few of the things we accomplished in 2014 in Downtown Indy thanks to the support of our members.
A Refreshed Brand: Indianapolis Downtown, Inc. changed its name and updated its brand to better align with the product it represents. The process included months of strategy, creative development and execution leading to the reveal of “Downtown Indy” a brand that all of us can be proud of.
A New Website Launched:The new Downtown Indy website represents 18 month’s worth of work including a completely new internal database now working in sync with the public-facing website. The mobile-responsive site had 72,309 visits its first month resulting in 160,000+ page views. The website is helping the community find what’s happening, where to go, how to get around and living opportunities.
Dwell Downtown Debuts: To better engage those who live Downtown, Dwell was launched to offer important consumer information, incentives, discounts, deals and other benefits. The new program, called Dwell Downtown, already boasts of 250 members and 25 partner businesses. Find out how your business can participate in Dwell Downtown – participation is FREE for Downtown Indy Members.
New Public Events: A new summer events series was launched that included Workout Wednesdays, Food Truck Fridays and Friday Night Happy Hours. Overall event attendance climbed 38 percent in 2014 over 2013, event rentals doubled and Downtown Indy events grew by 65 percent. We hope to see you at the inaugural Downtown Indy’s New Year’s Eve brought to you by The Indiana Union Construction Industry.
Strong Partnerships: Downtown Indy Staff provided leadership for a multitude of collaborative efforts including CHIP and the Know Outlets campaign, Big Ten committees, the buskers campaign with Indy Fringe, TechPoint’s high-tech talent recruitment campaign and Indy City Futbol.
Volunteers Were Engaged: The number of volunteer projects as well as those involved far exceeded expectations. A database of volunteers now exists. Projects including plantings, neighborhood clean-ups, event assistance and mural paintings engaged 800+ volunteers in 2014 and helped beautify Downtown Indy.
Real Estate Was Hot: Downtown Living Tours debued in 2014 highlighting the growing variety of Downtown living options. The Downtown multi-family residential product is growing at an average 10 percent rate while occupancy remains in the 96-97 percentile.
Safety Was a Priority: One of the greatest member benefits is a visit with the Downtown bike and walking patrols that resulted in 3,120 total visits which include patrolling the canal and Cultural Trail. Downtown remains safe accounting for only 3 percent of the city’s crime stats.
Kept the Velocity Going: As the first of five years concludes for Velocity, 2014 resulted in branding of Market East, approved funding to plan a new Downtown “Canalscape” playground on the Canal, new residential tours, groundbreaking for the new IndyGo Transit Center, a City County Building Plaza design competition, new neighborhood pocket parks, increased homeless outreach and more.
2015 is set to be another amazing year. Keeping Downtown clean, safe, beautiful and vibrant takes the dedicated support of our community. Thank you to our many members whose ongoing efforts have truly transformed Indianapolis into a world-class city.
All of us at Downtown Indy hope you have a fruitful, happy and healthy new year.
Sincerely,
Sherry Seiwert & the Downtown Indy Staff
