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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.
[click here to read complete article.]
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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.”
[click here to read complete article.]
After five years of running her Tennyson Street bookstore, For Heaven's Sake owner Dianne Fresquez had an epiphany - to effectively market her store, she needed to get out from behind the counter and get involved in the community that comprises a large chunk of her customer base.
Little did she know when she co-founded the Berkeley District Merchants Association in January that she'd also be helping position the community for participation in a new city initiative aimed at boosting small businesses like hers.
On May 1, the city of Denver announced the Denver Neighborhood Marketplace Initiative, a pilot program from the Office of Economic Development aimed at strengthening neighborhood business districts and their surrounding communities and helping small businesses grow. One of the districts chosen was Berkeley/Tennyson Street.
"The timing of our Berkeley Merchants Association was one reason they picked us," she said. "We were organized, and we really needed to have that."
More than half the city's general fund comes from retail sales taxes on small businesses like hers, according to the OED, and many of the retail establishments are in smaller business districts outside Denver's downtown core.
The city chose five districts to participate in the pilot program, using a set of performance criteria that categorized each district's current state of development as somewhere along the spectrum between challenging and thriving, said economic development administrator Bo Martinez.
The criteria were based on several factors, including property value trends, lease rates, vacancy rates, sales tax trends, private investment and private sector leadership. The goal was to get a good mix so that the districts might also help each other.
For example, Cherry Creek North has an established Business Improvement District and a thriving retail base. The district also has gone through growing pains, from parking issues to dealing with change as some long-established independents were replaced by more national chains, Martinez said. With these experiences under its belt, Cherry Creek North might prove a mentor for younger, less successful districts.
Between now and the end of the year, most of the effort will be on gathering information and neighborhood input, and creating neighborhood marketplace profiles featuring background information, demographic data, information on the mix of existing businesses and data on commercial development, Martinez said.
The city is also partnering with Social Compact, a Washington-based nonprofit that will help Denver develop a plan to be used to attract investment in neighborhood development. Finally, the city has formed a Business District Alliance to represent the city's diverse group of small-business operators and property owners in the various districts, Martinez said.
City Council members Rick Garcia and Jeanne Robb had been pushing for such a program for about two years as a way to help small neighborhood businesses grow and thrive, Garcia said. The Denver initiative is loosely modeled on a similar initiative in Chicago, he said.
One of the initiative's key goals is to foster and support the entrepreneurship that exists in small neighborhood business districts throughout the city, he said.
"I really believe that there has not been a focused economic development agenda," Garcia said. "This has been one of the first examples of giving small business a leg up, and I think we finally have something we can look at and say this is a program that shows City Council is supporting small business development."
Also as part of the initiative, the city reorganized staffers within the Office of Economic Development, assigning a point person to each council district. Each assigned staffer will become an expert on his or her district so as to better understand and address the issues each district faces, Martinez said.
The Berkeley/Tennyson Street District, which sits in Garcia's council district, already has some success stories, Garcia said, including demographic changes to the neighborhood in recent years that have brought in higher-income residents who enjoy the ability to walk to shops and restaurants, and to participate in events like the First Friday Gallery Walk.
As the city's initiative progresses, Fresquez said, she hopes it will result in more joint marketing promotions as well as address potential stumbling blocks to growth.
Number one on her issues list is parking, she said. She also wants the city to help during a planned street improvement project that could result in temporary drops in business. She's more optimistic now that, with the initiative, her concerns will be addressed.
"It's really nice to see the city come together as a single, focused organization," she said. "They've made themselves available and that's comforting. They're meeting us on the street level and showing they care about what happens in the community. I feel like I'm the customer for a change."
Development tools Next year, the city will ask for other districts to get involved and give them a chance to compete to be part of the program. Participating districts will have access to the following:
* Creation of special districts such as Business Improvement Districts or Community Improvement Districts
*Technical assistance (real estate, district formation, marketing) from city staff, community development corporations, other nonprofits or consultants
*Local access to Denver's Business Support Offices and the Business Assistance Center
*A citywide Business District Alliance
*Home and Community Development Block Grant funds
*Small-business lending
*Streetscape improvements
*Work force recruitment and training
Program's five districts
Denver's Economic Development Office chose five neighborhood business districts in different stages of development and levels of success for the pilot program of the city's new Denver Neighborhood Marketplace Initiative:
* Morrison Road (Morrison Road, from Knox Court to Sheridan Boulevard)
* Welton Street Corridor (Welton Street, from 20th Street to 30th Street)
* Bluebird District (Colfax Avenue, from York Street to Colorado Boulevard)
* Berkeley/Tennyson Street Corridor (Tennyson Street, from 38th Avenue to 45th Avenue)
* Cherry Creek North (district boundaries include First Avenue to Third Avenue, and University Boulevard to Steele Street)
"I really believe that there has not been a focused economic development agenda," Garcia said. "This has been one of the first examples of giving small business a leg up, and I think we finally have something we can look at and say this is a program that shows City Council is supporting small business development."
Rick Garcia, City Council
2008 MED WEEK COLORADO Retail Firm of the Year: FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE - NEW AGE, INC.
Pictured on left: Dianne Fresquez accepting award for 2008 MED Week Retailer of the Year. Pictured on the right: Greg Moss of 9NEWS, Angela Norris-Hawkins of Qwest Communications, MEED Board Chair, is thrid from right.
Winners for 2008 include the following:
Advocate of the Year: JOSEPH SERNA (DAWA ENTERPRISES)
Construction Firm of the Year: B & M CONSTRUCTION, INC.
Corporation of the Year: SAFEWAY
Service Firm of the Year: NCCHECK SOLUTIONS, INC.
Supplier/Distributor of the Year: FAISON OFFICE PRODUCTS
LifeSpark Cancer Resources 303-425-5670. Catch Donna and Dianne's picture at their recent breakfast benefit: http://lifesparknow.org/Events-Touching-Tomorrow-08-Fundraising-Breakfast.html
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEDATE: May 26, 2009
DATE: May 26, 2009Hania Consulting of Denver Selected by Tennyson Alliance to Provide Services for
Denver Neighborhood Marketing Initiative
DENVER, CO -- The Tennyson Alliance (comprised of the Berkeley District Merchants Association [BDMA] and the Berkeley Regis United Neighborhood [BRUN]) announced today that Hania Consulting LLC has been selected to provide consulting services on behalf of the Tennyson Street corridor.
The Tennyson Corridor is one of five Denver area neighborhoods selected by the Denver Office of Economic Development (OED) to receive funding to increase business and foster job growth through strategic marketing and events.
Tennyson Alliance chairs Dianne Fresquez of For Heaven’s Sake and Chris Coates of American Capital Financial cited the longstanding and well-recognized work of Hania Consulting LLC in providing organizational management and marketing services. The Tennyson Alliance will utilize funding provided by the OED’s Denver Neighborhood Marketing Initiative.
Two events are slated for fall 2009 by the merchants association (BDMA): Art in the Park and the second annual Tenn Low Turismo, a scavenger hunt.
Hania Consulting President is Keller Hayes. Hayes is a past president of the Colorado Women’s Chamber of Commerce, an organization that she propelled from 400 members to 1,600 members in a few short years. Hayes has managed Colorado’s Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day Annual event and Savor the Night (an annual event hosted by the Denver Performing Arts Complex which featured eclectic cuisine from Denver’s LoDo restaurant district).
Among numerous honors, Hayes received a U.S. Congressional Tribute from Representative Diana DeGette. Denver mayor John Hickenlooper designated July 15 as “Keller Hayes Day in Denver.” Mayor Hickenlooper declared: “Keller Hayes is a role model to other women, encouraging them to achieve more than they thought possible.”
For more information, please contact:
The Tennyson Alliance:
Dianne Fresquez
Dianne@forheavensake.com
or
Chris Coates
303.831.9636
tennysonalliance@gmail.com
4383 Tennyson Street, Denver CO 80212 info@forheavensake.com
Psychic Line (phone readings): 720-881-1720
Mon.-Sat. 10 to 8 l Sun. 11 to 5
303.964.9339
