ROCK ISLAND, ILLINOIS (October 4, 2023) — The Rock Island Downtown Alliance’s early successes and future ambitions were put on full display during the place management organization’s official launch party Tuesday, October 3, 2023, at Huckleberry’s Great Pizza and Calzones. With dozens of downtown workers, business-owners, residents, and property-owners present, Downtown Alliance Executive Director Jack Cullen highlighted the organization’s recent achievements and priorities moving forward, including a new capital-improvement grant program, a clean and safe program, and small-business promotions during the coming holiday season.
The Downtown Alliance recently unveiled its new logo and branding, which reflect the organization’s growing capacity to pursue its mission of providing services and activities for the City of Rock Island’s Downtown Special Service Area that enhance public spaces, encourage private investment, and improve quality of life in downtown Rock Island.
“With our expanded team in place, we’re ready to deliver the work we’ve been planning the last two-and-a-half years based on input from downtown stakeholders,” Cullen said. “We’re grateful for the efforts of the downtown business community, the City of Rock Island and our Board of Directors for enabling this level of attention and resources the downtown deserves.”
In September, the Downtown Alliance secured a big win when it added to its workforce with the hiring of Operations Manager De’Andre Robinson. In his role, Robinson will lead a crew of Cleaning Ambassadors and help manage partnerships with the City, law-enforcement and social-service providers. Residents and visitors alike can expect to see Robinson and the uniformed street team using a freshly-branded Downtown Alliance utility vehicle and mobile cleaning-carts as clean and safe efforts get off the ground.
All work in the field will be supported by a new mobile software application that tracks daily boots-on-the-ground activities, from the number of trash bags filled and graffiti tags removed to businesses assisted and engagement with members of the street population. The data will be tracked in real-time to measure progress and show the impact of the organization’s work across the roughly 65-block area served by the Downtown Alliance. Data will also help inform the Downtown Alliance Board of Directors and influence future priorities, work plans, and budgets.
With these new additions in personnel, equipment, and technology, the Downtown Alliance is primed to achieve its primary objectives this fiscal year, which include:
- Assist developers, entrepreneurs, and small businesses seeking downtown space or an improvement/expansion to their current space;
- Create a capital-improvement grant program to incentivize exterior-property investments and supplement City financial-assistance programs;
- Implement a “Clean and Safe” program to provide quality-of-place services, such as litter-pick-up, weed-abatement; and mobile safety patrol, in the public realm;
- Break ground on the City’s $7.4M Rebuild Downtown Rock Island streetscaping project;
- Produce downtown business promotions and special events to boost visibility and sales; and
- Work closely with the City on code-enforcement, signage-regulations, and right-of-way beautification and maintenance issues.
The Downtown Alliance is working with the City of Rock Island to fine-tune a $7.4 million capital-improvement project in the core downtown area, which will launch major streetscaping and placemaking improvements in the Downtown Rock Island Historic District, primarily between 1st and 3rd Avenues and 17th and 21st Streets. The proposed scope of work calls for total reconstruction of multiple blocks, along with the addition of decorative lighting, landscaping, signage, outdoor dining structures, greenspace, public art installations, and pop-up vendor stalls. The project’s centerpiece is the transformation of the 2nd Avenue pedestrian mall into a curb-less festival street to accommodate both pedestrian and vehicle traffic.
Moving forward, the Downtown Alliance is set on achieving its vision of making downtown Rock Island a vibrant, welcoming and prosperous place to live, work, play, dine and shop.
About the Rock Island Downtown Alliance
The Rock Island Downtown Alliance formed in 2023 as a joint effort between the public and private sectors to strengthen livability and quality-of-place in downtown Rock Island. The Downtown Alliance, an affiliate of the Quad Cities Chamber, partnered with the City of Rock Island to staff, manage, and implement Downtown Special Service Area (SSA) programs.
The establishment of the Alliance and the SSA was the outcome of a two-year effort led by downtown stakeholders to explore the creation of a dedicated place-management organization and sustainable funding model to improve, maintain, and program the commercial district undergoing revitalization.
The Downtown Rock Island SSA was established in 2022 to help address the unique needs of downtown property-owners, business-owners, and residents. Property-owners pay an additional property tax to fund improvements and enhanced services within the district’s boundaries, roughly the area between 1st and 7th Avenues and 13th and 28th Streets. These services supplement those provided by City government and general property owner responsibilities. A thirteen-person Board of Directors helps govern and guide the use of the funds generated by the SSA.
