by Liz Daube
Staff Writer
As Downtown Vision, Inc. approaches its sixth anniversary, the nonprofit that aims to revitalize Downtown Jacksonville will focus more on creating educational and memorable experiences by partnering with local, personality-based businesses.
“When Downtown Vision first started, our number-one mandate was cleanliness and safety,” said Terry Lorince, executive director of DVI. “Our charge moving forward is we’ve got to provide more experience.”
Lorince said about half of the nonprofit’s budget continues to go to the ambassador program, which keeps a small staff of friendly faces patrolling and cleaning up Downtown streets. Lorince said those basics will continue to be a priority, but DVI wants more of a push on marketing, one that will focus on small events and ongoing promotions.
In the last three years, for example, the monthly Art Walk has grown from a sparsely attended event with less than 10 venues to a regular draw of more than 35 artists and hundreds of attendees. What DVI needs now, Lorince said, is a variety of small street events to bring people Downtown on a regular basis.
“What we really need to focus on is activating the street,” she said. “We can provide the music. We can provide the cultural amenities ... You have to create that experience, and that experience often has to do with food and culture.”
DVI wants to partner with small, unique restaurants and businesses to put those events together, Lorince said. She and the rest of DVI recently heard about downtown retail marketing from Steve Moore, president and CEO of the Washington, D.C. Economic Partnership. He spoke about promoting local merchants as celebrities at DVI’s annual meeting.
“Ten years ago, it (pressure) was on every downtown to get a Nordstrom’s,” said Lorince. “Now it’s about small retail that’s needed. People’s shopping patterns have changed.”
She said consumers have grown bored and weary with the cookie-cutter mall experience, and convenient online stores have made ordinary shopping feel like a chore. Storeowners who make personal connections with their customers can make shopping interesting again, Lorince said.
When she took Moore on a Downtown Jacksonville tour, Lorince said he was impressed with Laura Street business owner Jeff Davis, who happened to be grilling hamburgers for clients and friends on the sidewalk.
“He (Moore) loved the quirkiness of Legal Art Works,” said Lorince. “He saw the energy of a young business doing this funky event.
“And over-the-top people? Jerry Moran (owner of upscale restaurant La Cena) is that. He’ll call customers up and say, ‘I just got the best mussels in.’ ”
Lorince said events could include small concerts, wine tastings and cooking demonstrations.
“My conversation with restaurants is a lot of them are interested in doing events and specials,” she said. “Let them showcase their culinary skills.”
Davis said he doesn’t have any public events planned, but he likes working in a fun, creative environment.
“I think we’ve got quirky covered,” he said. “It’s not even anything I do to try to increase business. It’s just a natural way of making things fun. If you’re going to work all day, everyday, you might as well have fun.”
Moran said La Cena is definitely “a personality restaurant” that is advertised solely by word of mouth.
“People know me,” said Moran. “They know my idiosyncrasies, and I know theirs. I say and do what I want.”
Moran said he’d be willing to do whatever Lorince might request of him, but he doesn’t think restaurants have the responsibility to teach and educate customers so much as serve them. He prefers “the type of promotion that is going to encourage people to come back” – and for Moran, that means a city government push for cleanliness and safety.
The owners of Chew, Jonathan Insetta and Jason Parry, said they’re hoping their upscale-casual niche will prove popular. With ingredients like shitake mushroom “bacon,” the recently-opened restaurant has an exotic menu in comparison to most Downtown lunch spots.
“It (a unique business) gets people out,” said Parry. “It’s ‘Let’s go there because we’ve heard it’s good’ instead of ‘Let’s go there because it’s close.’ ”
Insetta said the popular Food Network “has people more excited and educated” about gourmet products. Parry agreed, adding that a “destination” business offers an experience alluring enough to draw in people from the suburbs. That’s what the owners of Chew are betting on, at least.