Mount Vernon Downtown Association

In 2023, the MVDA continued its ongoing work of supporting our community by providing opportunities for social connection and generating civic pride through a robust calendar of events in the district that we either solely produced or partnered in production. That calendar included 22 community events as well as our three-day Tulip Festival Street Fair, which brought an estimated 35 thousand visitors to our district in April. As the first outdoor event in our region during the calendar year, the Tulip Festival Street Fair provides a much-needed influx of tourism revenue for our businesses. All events except for two ticketed fundraising events were free and open to the public. We continued and further developed partnerships with other community organizations, such as the Mount Vernon Chamber of Commerce, Public Hospital District #1, the Mount Vernon School District, the City of Mount Vernon, the Economic Development Alliance of Skagit County, and the Center for Inclusive Entrepreneurship, and others. We continued our economic ecosystem development work through operating our small business incubator space, The Pop-Up Mount Vernon and our retail art gallery/gift shop, the LIDO Collective. The LIDO Collective is a creative microenterprise incubator that strengthens the local arts economy by providing area artists and artisans with a year-round sales outlet, rendering them less dependent on seasonal events, and strengthens our downtown business environment by adding retail interest and creating more foot traffic, serving to draw commerce from our popular food Co-Op out into the downtown. The LIDO Collective provided the retail outlet opportunity to over 60 local and regional artists in 2023. The Mount Vernon Downtown Association also served the district through non-event promotional activities, such as two shop-local punch card campaigns and the continued production and distribution of glossy marketing materials like our Downtown Dining Guide and shopping guides, as well as maintaining our website and multiple social media pages on Facebook and Instagram. We continue to provide information and connections to resources for our businesses. In June, we again hosted an event celebrating Washington Main Street Week, bringing elected representatives and visitors from the states preservation community into the district to see our communitys progress under the Main Street program. As in previous years, we continue to partner with our city in the beautification and maintenance of the historic downtown through our hanging basket program, a lighted street tree program during the dark fall and winter months, streetscape improvements, community clean-up events, and hanging banners. We advocate for the interests of our business and property owners at the local, state and federal levels. We provide information and connections to many resources for our business owners. We work with business and property owners as requested in property and business ownership and leasing transitions, and work assiduously to both recruit and retain businesses in our historic commercial district.