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Dec. 12, 2008 (MINNEAPOLIS) – Today, the Minneapolis City Council and Mayor R.T. Rybak unanimously approved the creation of the Downtown Business Improvement District Special Service District. Commonly known as the Downtown Improvement District (DID), it is designed to make Downtown a better place for residents, businesses, visitors, and workers. Through the DID, Downtown property owners will contribute an estimated $6.5 million a year to make Downtown cleaner, greener, safer and better.

For many years, the downtown business community and the City have discussed the idea of creating the DID to further enhance the vitality of downtown Minneapolis. The Minneapolis Downtown Council championed the effort to gather support among the business community for the new district, successfully petitioning commercial property owners to agree to pay additional service charges as an investment in Downtown. By agreeing to contribute more, especially in this challenging economy, business leaders reaffirmed their commitment to, and confidence in, Downtown Minneapolis as the region’s premier business district.

The DID is a public/private partnership that will provide enhanced services to the Downtown area above and beyond what would normally be provided by a City, or what is currently done as basic City services. Some of those services include enhanced sidewalk cleaning, landscaping installation and maintenance, repair and maintenance of enhanced streetscape fixtures, and retail recruitment activities and programs. Other services will include creating new Safety Ambassadors for Downtown, as well as providing security coordination between the public and private sectors.

“After more than a decade of work, creating this district is an enormous break-through for Downtown,” said Mayor R.T. Rybak, a long-time champion of the DID. “Many people have done an incredible amount of work to make this happen, and we owe tremendous thanks to all the businesses and property owners for helping make our Downtown an even stronger economic engine for the region. People will see tangible improvements to our city as a result of this effort.”

“Today marks a historic milestone in the private/public partnership between the City and downtown property owners and businesses with an infusion of $30 million over five years by the private sector to provide for a safe, clean and green downtown on over 125 blocks,” said City Council Member Lisa Goodman, who represents the Downtown area, and who worked to bring make the DID a reality. “As a downtown resident and worker I am so thankful that in this very difficult economic time so many in the business community have come together to invest on our City.”

The district will begin providing some enhanced services in 2009 in the area bounded roughly by 2^nd Avenue North, 2^nd Street South, Chicago Avenue, and various streets along the southern edge of Downtown. The area includes approximately 650 assessable properties that will contribute to the enhanced services annually. Residential properties that are within the district cannot be assessed by law, but are able to opt in if they choose to do so.

The City ordinance that creates the DID calls for the City to enter into a contract with a non-profit organization that will provide all services within the DID. The organization, yet to be created, will be an affiliate or subsidiary of the Downtown Council that will be governed by a management board of approximately 20 members including property owners, business owners, and others who represent organizations within the DID. The City will oversee the contract as well as review and approve the proposed annual operating plan and budget for the DID. All costs for services will be recovered by annual service charges to the DID.

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Minneapolis takes huge step toward making downtown cleaner, greener, and safer