By: Dave Deiters
Chair of the Avondale Estates Downtown Development Authority

Hello, and welcome to the second post of the DDA Dish blog, which discusses the evolution and development of our downtown. 

The first post covered some “Civics 101” basics about what the Downtown Development Authority (DDA) is, its state legislature-mandated mission, as well as a brief history of how it is funded. Check out that post if you are interested.

As promised last week, I’d like to spend a few minutes on what it means to invest in our downtown and why it is important. 

Why Should We Invest in Our Downtown?

As an introduction, I’ll paraphrase the language the Board of Mayor and Commissioners (BOMC) used when they created the Tax Allocation District (TAD) for our downtown in 2007:

In its first 80 years, our city has not invested at all in the downtown…

So, it is easy to understand why our downtown was in the shape it was in 10 years ago. As a result, the commercial district provided very little tax revenue to the city. In fact, when I joined the DDA roughly 10 years ago, taxes from the commercial district accounted for only 3% of the city’s tax revenue, with the remaining 97% falling on the residential side. This imbalance placed an unsustainable financial burden on our residents, and this situation was my main motivator for joining the DDA.

Work was needed to reverse this imbalance. While some initial groundwork was laid over the years, we needed to attract new businesses, create more attractive spaces, encourage visitors to support our businesses and generally revitalize our downtown in order to increase the commercial tax base. This is difficult, long-term work that takes time for the results to show. It also takes investment. 

Placemaking as a Form of Investment

A term we frequently use is “placemaking.” The Dale, our new retail/restaurant development that abuts the Town Green and will be opening soon, is a great example. No developer would ever have used the quality materials or design that have gone into this building without significant help, which the DDA provided through a low-interest loan to the project, creating a public-private partnership. The Town Green is another perfect example of an investment the city has made that is already paying dividends. It has created a beautiful gathering space for our residents and visitors alike, and has been catalytic by attracting new businesses to come to and invest in our city. 

Benefits of a Thriving Commercial District

We’ve clearly made some progress and there remains work to be done, but the momentum is real, and our city is clearly on a path to financial sustainability.   I am absolutely convinced that the only way to maintain SUSTAINABLY low residential property taxes is through a healthy and vibrant business district. And, we get closer to that goal every day, but it takes time for the tax revenue to catch up. We WILL get there – and, oh by the way, a healthy and vibrant business district means more that financial stability. It means that we can all walk to great shops and restaurants and enjoy great entertainment right here in OUR city.

Thanks for reading. Next time, we’ll imagine getting into a time capsule about seven years ago and hopping out in our current downtown… would you recognize it?