from Staff
The International Downtown Association (IDA) is comprised of hundreds of downtown organizations throughout the world. Each month, the association recognizes one Downtown organization that has “demonstrated success to which other Downtowns aspire.”
Downtown Vision Inc. (DVI) was selected for the award in April in recognition of four new events created in the past year. The initiative began in August with “Eat Up Downtown,” a week-long dining promotion that extended dinner hours for many lunch-only restaurants and offered several prix fixe menus.
In September, the quarterly networking night for young professionals known as the “Downtown Get Down” debuted, followed in December by the inaugural Downtown Historic Church Tour.
The fourth part of the initiative will begin Friday evening when the first installment of the “Movies in the Park” series presented by JaxParks hits the silver screen at Treaty Oak Park.
“Downtown Jacksonville has made major strides in the past year in terms of its schedule of exciting events, which draws more people to this increasingly inviting, clean and safe Downtown,” said David Feehan, president of the International Downtown Association.
The new programming introduced last year added 16 days of events to the schedule that includes the monthly First Wednesday Art Walk and weekly Downtown Market every Friday in Hemming Plaza.
“DVI has been working steadily this past year to fill an event niche between larger events like the Jazz Festival and the Jaguars’ games,” said DVI Executive Director Terry Lorince. “We have formed many strong partnerships that have made these events successful for Downtown.”