DHI’s 2023 Recap

By Abigail Harrison, DHI Communications Coordinator

Downtown Huntsville, Inc. is proud to reflect on a phenomenal past year, filled with exciting events, impactful initiatives, and strategic progress. We are incredibly grateful for the unwavering support of our partners, members, and the entire Huntsville community. Together, we are shaping the future of downtown Huntsville and creating a vibrant, thriving, and welcoming destination for all.

Through collaborative efforts, unwavering dedication, and a shared vision for a thriving downtown, we have achieved significant milestones that have transformed the heart of Huntsville.

Refreshed Signature Events
In early 2023, we conducted a community perception survey to determine areas of interest and ways to improve downtown. The survey was launched on our social media platforms and received over 1,000 responses. We used the information to identify strategies to improve our signature events.

A majority of participants said they would like to see more music events in downtown. From this feedback, we reevaluated our signature events and added a musical component to each one, resulting in increased attendances for each event.

DHI also consolidated food trucks and trailers into one Food Truck Rally event and concentrated the foot print to the eastside of Big Spring Park to give the event a more connected and vibrant atmosphere. Event attendance increased over 40% from last year, with an average of 4,500 people attending each rally.

This year's season of Movies in the Park was moved to October and relocated to Big Spring Park East. The increased footprint allowed for us to add food trucks, vendors, and entertainment before the movies. The shift from Summer to Fall created the opportunity for Halloween and Fall themed movie nights. Attendance increased from 200 people to over 800 per night, with the two Halloween movie themed nights hosting over 1,200 attendees each.

We also created a new placemaking event, Downtown Lunch Lounge, a vibrant outdoor dining space with live music, games, and seating that encourages downtown employees and visitors to enjoy their lunch breaks. The event provided over 15 opportunities for local musicians to perform.

Elevated Tinsel Trail
The 2023 Tinsel Trail season provided an opportunity for DHI and the Huntsville Museum of Art to partner on an initiative called Rockin’ Around the Rocket City. This partnership focused on creating synergy between Tinsel Trail and Skating Park, which resulted in a 23-foot custom designed Christmas Tree called the Rocket City Tree. This tree and partnership has the potential to grow year after year and continue to be the focal point for families coming downtown for their holiday traditions.

The enhancements resulted in a 47% increase in attendance in 2023 compared to 2022. According to data collected by Placer.Ai, a foot traffic data provider, Tinsel Trail drew over 135,000 visitors between November 25 and December 31. The Rocket City Tree Lighting and Tinsel Trail Market gained over 11,200 attendees, making it the largest free event in Big Spring Park.

Advocated for Office Development
DHI hired ValueTech Realty Services in May 2023 to study market demand, opportunities, and challenges facing the downtown office market. The report revealed there is only a 5.1% vacancy of office space, meaning there is not a lot of available room for businesses who want to move to or expand their space in downtown. With an identified demand of 300,000 additional square feet of office space, DHI is advocating to develop more offices to help recruit and retain new businesses. These efforts will help grow the daytime headcounts which are critical to supporting and growing our food, beverage, and retail establishments.

Since the release of the office study, DHI’s next steps include having ongoing conversations with developers and brokers to encourage office development, advocating for city incentives for downtown office projects, modeling different incentive options to determine their effectiveness and feasibility, and researching case studies and other programs that could be modeled to encourage office development.

Supported Small Businesses
DHI remained committed to nurturing the growth and success of downtown small businesses in 2023. We launched a blog-form member profile series that helps increase and raise awareness of downtown businesses. These profiles are pushed out through DHI’s weekly newsletter and social media platforms.

We also added workshops and seminars to our membership briefings. This year's workshops focused on social media and leveraging it as a tool for success during the holiday season. DHI plans to grow this series in 2024, with topics ranging from taxes, design, to window activations.

We partnered with One Man’s Vintage to bring the first vintage market to downtown. These markets provide local and regional businesses with the opportunity to bring their products and collections to the market without having to travel to markets in Nashville, Atlanta, or Birmingham. These markets have grown from 1,500 attendees at the first, to nearly 2,670 attendees at the second, and to over 3,200 attendees at the third.

DHI partnered with retail establishments on Clinton Row and Downtown Storage to host Saturday Sidewalk Sales. These shopping events provided retailers in the Downtown Storage building to merchandise the sidewalk outside of the building to give those retailers an opportunity to increase their exposure. We also hosted five Art Walks, which provided over 200 opportunities for local artisans and makers.

Looking Ahead
As we move into the new year, DHI will continue to make a profound impact on downtown Huntsville. We are excited to keep bringing signature events to our community and helping downtown businesses thrive. Thank you for your continued support of our organization and stay tuned to see what we have in store for 2024.