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New BID director sets sights on boosting downtown residency

Date: 11/16/2009

By G. Michael Dobbs

Managing Editor



SPRINGFIELD -- Donald Courtemanche, the new executive director of the city's Business Improvement District (BID), did his research on Springfield before he left his position as the head of the BID in New Britain, Conn.

What he found, he told Reminder Publications, was a city with "a lot of opportunities for us to chase."

Courtemanche is spending his first 90 days on the job reviewing the organization's budget, programming, events and contacts. He said the BID is now 10 years old and it's appropriate to look at what the BID does and how it does it.

Courtemanche was named to the position last month. He succeeds Jeff Keck, who left the organization in March.

Courtemanche served nine yeas at the New Britain BID during which time he helped recruit more than 80 specialty retailers and helped bring an $8 million LaQuinta Inn & Suites to the city's downtown.

He sees the role of the BID as the "glue" to tie the downtown elements together.

In the past, the BID has focused on programming directed mainly toward two groups: downtown office workers and out of town visitors.

He said, "There is room for growth and tweaking to enhance [the audience.]"

"A lot of the BID's energy has been attracting visitors once or twice a year," he said.

The BID hasn't been paying enough attention to real estate, which he sees as the eventual rebirth of the area.

Courtemanche agrees with the findings of the Urban Land Institute report, which stressed that downtown's success will be based on increasing the number of residents in the neighborhood.

"Downtown residential development has largely been ignored," he said. "Downtown can work as a neighborhood. To my knowledge, no one is shopping it [downtown] around as a place for market rate housing."

Right now, he said, Springfield's downtown is "a 12-hour downtown." Courtemanche would like to increase that to a 24-hour downtown.

He said a lot of the service businesses needed for a neighborhood are already in place -- banks, dry cleaners and convenience stores, to name a few. He sees the number of restaurants and bars as "at saturation" for the current number of patrons.

"We can not support more [restaurants] without more apartment and office space," he said.

He predicted the customer base would become so diluted it would hurt the existing eateries if more restaurants were brought in at this time.

Promoting the entire downtown is his goal, not just the entertainment district. As it stands today he doesn't see Springfield's downtown as an "authentic brand."

He does see property development versus increasing residency as a "chicken or the egg" argument.

"We will go after both incrementally," he explained.

He said the moving of the School Department personnel to the former Federal Building will help downtown even though those workers have been part of what people consider as downtown at the location of State and Maple Streets.

Courtemanche explained that now those employees would have walking access to a number of retail services they did not have at the former location.

He is aware of the problems that surround the perception of whether or not downtown is safe and Courtemanche said on his second day on the job he met with Police Commissioner William Fitchet.

He said BID and police officials are looking at adding security cameras and re-orienting existing cameras.

He is also looking at developing a program to improve fa ade lighting.

Increasing the number of downtown residents is a central goal for him.

"Getting people living downtown will be its salvation," Courtemanche said.