January 19, 2007

David Corliss, City Manager

City Hall

P. O. Box 708

Lawrence, KS  66044

Re:  2006 4th Quarter DLI Report

Dear David:

Downtown Lawrence, Inc. has just completed a busy 4^th quarter working to keep Downtown Lawrence the Heart of the City and a profitable location to attract more businesses. 

A central tool to achieve both ends is the simplest: more customers who spend money downtown.  To this end we have expended substantial resources in time and money to draw more shoppers to the area from Lawrence and the surrounding communities through a new downtown map, direct mail, downtown events, promotional advertising, and the attractiveness of downtown. 

More specifically, we completed production of our new Downtown Lawrence Map and Guide, have distributed it to locations throughout downtown and elsewhere, and will use it in a direct mail piece in the next couple of months to keep Downtown Lawrence in the front of people’s minds.  The holiday lighting festivities and Santa’s visit continue to draw shoppers to the area for the kick-off to the shopping season, and the Christmas Parade did a good job of bringing crowds downtown.  For each event, we have worked with businesses to change their hours to take advantage of the crowds, and we have worked with groups to extend the festivities to different areas in downtown and to also extend the time of these festivities. 

We have also begun to identify ways to directly recruit new businesses for downtown and have started working with members who own shops in neighboring communities to find out if there are retailers in those communities that might have an interest in expanding into Downtown Lawrence.  We will be looking at successful operations, and these would be local or regional stores.  We will also be working with local developers and others to market Downtown Lawrence to local businesses or entrepreneurs in an effort to lure them into the area.  We feel that producing a marketing plan that effectively promotes Downtown Lawrence as the premier shopping, dining, tourism, art, and entertainment center in the area will assist us with finding new businesses with a desire to be a part of the community.

The focus has not been just on the immediate financial benefits to DLI members.  Events such as Get Downtown have been initiated and partnered by DLI, and we are looking to expand the family atmosphere to other times throughout the year.  Preparations have also been made to begin the work on the Downtown Lawrence Business Plan.  A survey was prepared and is now in the hands of all of our members.  This will assist us with beginning to set priorities as we begin work on the business plan.  A committee of DLI members has been formed to undertake this task and we will strive towards the goal of presenting a final report to the City at the end of 2007.

We are looking forward to a very productive year in 2007 and are eager to work with all of our members, City leaders, and the downtown community to achieve the goal of keeping Downtown Lawrence the Heart of the City.   We have attempted to give a general overview of activities and planning in which we were involved over the past 3 months.  We will also be submitting our detailed annual report along with our financial reports by the March 31, 2007 deadline. 

Thank you for the continued support given by the City Commission and the entire staff.  It is greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,

Chris Burger

President

Board of Directors

Downtown Lawrence, Inc.

cc:       Debbie Van Saun