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The Berkley District Merchants Association Garners Media Attention
“We’ve got to work together,” says Dianne Fresquez, owner ofFor Heaven’s Sake and Chair of the Berkeley District Merchants Association.
Reprinted Courtesy of the North Denver News
Tennyson Street Denver:
Tennyson Looks Forward
When Denver voters approved the public works bonds last November, they also approved $2.5 million in improvements for Tennyson’s commercial district, contigent upon the creation of a maintenance district to levy a tax for upkeep of those improvements. For City Councilman Rick Garcia, getting the funding for Tennyson was a battle. At various points in the process of identifying projects for the bond issue, money was in, then out, and then restored.
The improvements are viewed as key to the health of neighborhood business districts; 32nd Avenue at Lowell has long had such a maintenance district to support lighting, snow removal, street trees and the like.
Garcia recently convened a meeting of property owners, and he terms the support for the district as definitive. A petition will be circulated, and if owners of 35% of the area’s property value sign, then a district will be created, and the $2.5 million will be available for spending. Garcia says there will be broad participation in the design of the project, One possibility involves raising the sidewalk in front of Chavez Park at 41st and Tennyson, and adding head-in parking along the park. The additional parking would be a boon for Tennyson, which currently has a parking nightmare at peak hours. The maintenance district would be overseen by a board of property owners and businesses, to be appointed by the Mayor.
New Business Association
After the lack of success of several Tennyson Merchant Associations in recent years, merchants on Tennyson Street and at the boutique shopping district at 50th and Lowell are coming back together and organizing a new venture. Bringing together merchants from as far south as 35th and Tennyson, and as far north as 52nd Avenue, and not confined to just Tennyson Street, the group seeks to pool marketing resources and form one voice, to more effectively reach out to the community and advocate for the business interests of merchants across the Berkeley area.
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Still, while Tennyson has the name, nearly all the above, and more, makes a home nearby in the smaller shopping areas of 50th and Lowell, 44th and Lowell, along 38th Avenue, even 52nd and Tennyson. Part of the wisdom of the emerging merchants group may be an appreciation that all of these locations and businesses are pieces of a whole, and that stitching them together with cooperation, better communication, joint marketing and clever events makes that whole even stronger.
Tennyson Lowell Loop
Berkeley Merchants Begin to Think Bigger
By Ed Mickens
Reprinted by permission of the North Denver Tribune
February 7-20, 2008
BERKELEY/REGIS – More than two dozen local business owners gathered in mid-January on Tennyson Street to get to know each other, share concerns, and figure out ways to take charge of their collective future. It was the second meeting of the not-yet official Berkeley District Merchants Association, and the vibe was good.
“The merchants are hungry for connection,” says Dianne Fresquez, owner of For Heaven’s Sake bookstore and healing center, who organized and hosted the get-together. “We recognize the need to not only sustain ourselves, but to attract new business and new businesses” to the area.
An earlier, first-attempt meeting quickly sorted out the scale of the vision the participants wanted to employ. “Originally, there was some disagreement about how we defined ourselves. Some wanted to limit ourselves only to Tennyson Street. Some were interested only in focusing on an arts district. Some of those people left and didn’t come back.” What energized the core of the group was to think big. Explains Fresquez: “What is our mission? To include, not exclude.”
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