Latest / Rick Outzen: (we don’t) color on the dog / Florida Downtowns Comes to Pensacola
Transcript
- Rick Outzen: Welcome back. I'm Rick Altson. This is Rick's Blog Live. You can follow us about anywhere, ricksblog.bizinweekly.net, Instagram, TikTok. You know, and if you see us on YouTube, it's We Don't Color on the Dog. Please like and subscribe to That helps us with the algorithm and we can keep doing more shows like this. There's a conference Pensacola's this week, it's hosted by the Downtown Improvement Board. It's Florida Downtowns. And to tell us about it, we've got Walker Wilson, who's the executive director of the Downtown Improvement Board. Walker, thank you for joining me. Tell me about Florida Downtowns. Walker Wilson: be back Rick. Yeah, so this actually was an organization that had started previous executive director of DIB here, Lisa Dees, who's now at the city, had signed Pensacola DIB up to be a a member of Florida Downtowns. that was six years ago. Six years ago yesterday was my ⁓ start date. so kind of crazy full circle now they're back here or coming here for the first time really many of them have never been to Pensacola so It's just a group of my peers from around the state and we're all different in how we're funded. size of our budget, you've got us, ⁓ And our budget's a little over ⁓ point one, one point two million dollars this upcoming fiscal year ⁓ to DDA ⁓ or district ⁓ there, which is their DIB at twenty-two million dollars. Wow. and you know, we've got Orlando coming into town, St. Pete, Delay Beach, ⁓ Fort Lauderdale, Jacksonville. ⁓ Orlando and really is just kind of a chance to pick each other's brains and, know, see what kind of processes we might have in place in our organizations that we might try and mirror in what we're doing in here in Pensacola. And they do the same around the state with their organizations. And it also gives a chance to follow what's going on in Tallahassee and ⁓ if there's some coming through that somebody's been made aware of that might affect special districts. ⁓ 'cause many of us are special districts. So we were created in Tallahassee in nineteen seventy three. the D I B here was. so we kinda keep an eye on that and ⁓ just a good to get together, share ideas and ⁓ and kind of how we can help each other through d different issues as we pr get to Rick Outzen: How is the DIB is it different than Visit Pensacola and different from the city's CRA, Community Redevelopment Agency? How are you s how are you different from those? Walker Wilson: Yeah, so your visit Pensacola is gonna be funded a lot through your bed tax that's collected when people come and stay here for a trip, go out to the beach or stay up by the airport. Your are actually funded that doesn't create any new property tax being paid. CRAs are collecting money from taxing entities, the county, the children's trust, but not the trust anymore, I guess, city of Pensacola D I B. ⁓ ⁓ the D I B is actually a separate taxing authority of the county, outside of the city, that got about five hundred parcels within the D I B district. All those property owners pay an extra two mills on their property tax each year, and that's how we're funded between that and the Powx Market, which is a separate kind of ⁓ revenue stream we have. Rick Outzen: So what can the what can the funds be used for? What are the type of projects that DIB can do? Walker Wilson: Yeah, so really w able to spend them on what the gives us direction to to spend them on, and as well as a city council because we are dependent on the city as a special district. So city council can certainly give us a of ⁓ leverage on their opinions of how they think ⁓ our our funds be you know, tonight I've got to go, they've got to approve our budget tonight down at City Hall. but the big focus is always safety. ⁓ so we hire extra police officers to be in in the downtown area keep it clean. biggest ticket item on our ⁓ our every year is for cleaning ambassadors to be downtown. Since I've six years ago, we've been able to increase the number of we have in downtown Pensacola. We had one and a half, and a half employees on that contract. We're now at ⁓ five full-time employees on contract. And we've also moved that from an outside ⁓ the area company to a local business here in Pensacola which was a huge help. And also, you know, work to to give a reason to come downtown and support our businesses and market the area and and let people what's going on, whether it's an event that we're doing or an event that somebody else might be doing, like you'll see some of the shops do their sippin' shops. Right. Rick Outzen: Now with the conference here, what are some the topics that we covered at the conference? Walker Wilson: Yeah, so we'll we'll our kind of our formal business meeting and over lunch. would talk about kind of what we see in the upcoming year, if anybody's seen anything legislatively that might have changed this past year ⁓ that affect us or if they're hearing any rumblings of something that might be coming forward. and then it's really a showcase of Pensacola. So we're gonna ⁓ go eat some at good restaurants in downtown. We're gonna do a tour of the port and kind of what that's meant for economic development in downtown and and we've a lot of job creation going on at the port right now. we're gonna tour the Powell Fox market on Saturday and before they all get out of town. And we're also check out the Wahoo and kinda do some walking tours around downtown of different development that's that's occurring and and and just kind of give a an idea of what downtown is all about. Rick Outzen: Is there a a downtown imp group or district that you look at as ⁓ model for you to follow? Walker Wilson: Yeah, I think that Pete does a really good job. ⁓ Saint Pete is much than us. They're not ⁓ they're ⁓ funded by property tax. It's ⁓ mostly a member organization, so imagine a chamber, but they a a very good job of putting events on, their downtown clean working with their city on improving the parks in their area. ⁓ that's one of their big focuses and I think that's one thing you'll see from us this year moving forward is the board really wants to put an emphasis on Plaza Ferdinand getting that park kind of back up to at least, you know, that everything's working in there and then how can else can we improve it moving forward. And so we're kind of lean on them on on some stuff for the the park improvements that they've done in downtown St. Pete where they had a lot of issues with just Rick Outzen: It's an older downtown also. There's some challenges with that. Yeah. Walker Wilson: ⁓ and we we did have Tallahassee was was in the group. They've kind of had some issues over the over the years with just some organization stuff and and with the city of Tallahassee. but they were about the same size as us as a comparable organization. are certainly much smaller everybody else, but it's still good to be able to hear from what everybody's doing and and maybe take snippets from their larger projects do as as something that we could pull off here in Pensacola. Rick Outzen: How many people will you expect? Walker Wilson: We'll have ten to fifteen with us kind of in and out. we've got some that can come for one day or some that are gonna stay all the way through Saturday morning to check out the Powell Fox market. and we've got we've got one that's leaving Friday afternoon and her her husband's coming in, they're gonna go to New Orleans and go check out New Orleans for a couple of days. So it's it's worked out well. you know, they're excited to come to Pensacola and like I said, I I don't know that many of them have have been here before. Rick Outzen: Well, one of the cool things is ⁓ your attendees will be able to check out the new hotel downtown, Hotel Margot. That's right. Which is where Soleil Inn was previously. and that's it Walker Wilson: be our second hotel in the inside the DIB district, right? So we've got the the holiday in there on Main Street and then Hotel Margot opening up. been very gracious to to kind of get things ready for us so that they can stay there. And then you know you've got ⁓ the Hotel Tristan that's gonna be coming online and the new ⁓ that's that's by the Hilton down south of Maine where the New World Landing and Scopelos were. Rick Outzen: So well, think it's great that this is happening. It's great. It's a high mark for y'all for the DIB to be able to host this event. And I really appreciate you coming on. ⁓ we are very, very happy to growth happening in downtown. We had Quentin Studer with the Community Maritime Park, Walker Wilson, ⁓ seeing happened downtown since we built the park ⁓ and lot of the growth that we see downtown. That the was the catalyst for it. There's no doubt about it. You can talk business owners, you can Walker Wilson: Yeah, thanks Rick. We'll do it. Rick Outzen: Anybody who was used to downtown can see the difference. Anyway, we'll take a break, we'll play we'll pay a few bills, we'll be right back. I'm Rick Outson. This is Rick's Vlog Live.