At a recent City Council meeting a progress report on the achievements of the Sheboygan Squared Business District (SSBD) over the past year was presented by manager Dave Hoffman. The SSBD includes the Downtown and Harbor Centre and is managed by an appointed board that is comprised of business operators and property owners, Dave Gass is the Board President. At the beginning of the year the Board refined and strengthened the three working committees of the SSBD, Development, Marketing, and Operations committees These committees meet once every month and include both board members and business operators, each committee set up their goal and work plans.
The Operations committee for 2017 included initiatives that expanded and enhanced the Christmas decorations, and added more music along 8th Street. Other improvements were inspired by a visit to Holland, Michigan where they employed creative use of music, flowers, and lights to make alleyways more inviting. The SSBD also made a big effort to add flowers along the main streets in the Downtown, Riverfront, and South Pier. They started out by installing flower baskets on the light poles, next new flower planters and matching trash receptacles were purchased and added on the sidewalk in front of many businesses and flower boxes were also added in the alleys. There was also a major upgrade in the quality and variety of flowers to see more fully grown plants out on the street.
They also targeted alleys and underutilized spaces and continued enhancement of those areas. A partnership was developed with the John Michael Kohler Arts Center to install art in some of the alleyways and one of those finished projects was installed in the 800 block of N. 8th St. on the west side of the street adjacent to the Weill Center and that was opened up this early fall and the second installation is planned for a vacant parcel next to the Mavericks Barbershop.
The Marketing committee established a comprehensive calendar and expanded the use of social media. The partnership with the art center was strengthened and bearing fruit with the continued Levitt AMP concert series. Restaurant week was a new event started in 2017, that was very successful and will return again in January of 2018. Harvest Fest continues to be a great event for the kids and Venetian Parade will be held on the 3rd of July. The constant contact SSBD newsletter has grown its circulation to 5,500.
The Development Committee celebrates the newly constructed residential projects that are bringing new population to the central business district. The Portscape apartment development on South Pier has finished and filled Phase 1, which has attracted largely empty-nesters and Phase 2 is currently under construction. The Encore development located in the Boston Store site also opened up this fall and is filling up fast. The audience for Encore has been a more mixed group of residents with a sizable concentration of millennials. The High Pointe apartment project is under construction and will be ready for occupancy later this year. These three projects will add approximately 260 new apartments to the available housing in the SSBD.
2017 was also a great year to see new businesses open in the SSBD. New businesses welcomed include; Aim Group Insurance, Anthony Flores Fitness, Art Imig’s Off the Rack, Avent Cloud, Inc., Central Payment Wisconsin, Community Tax & Accounting, Encore Apartments, Harvest Café, Float Doctor, Lost Sheep Yarn Shop, New Life Coffeehouse, Parker John’s BBQ & Pizza, North Coast Tattoo, Portscape Apartments, Repeat After Me, Peter Haase Real Estate, United One Credit Union, Relish Cooking School, and Marine Credit Union. Oilvu 426 and Freaktoyz, two existing businesses, moved to larger locations.
Dave Hoffman who was retiring at the end of 2017 was thanked for his fine work. Amanda Salazar assumed the position of SSBD manager.