Turlock Downtown Property Owners director Travis Regalo credited the organization’s partnerships for its ability to provide better services for the downtown business owners and events for the community at large during a presentation to the Turlock City Council on Tuesday. Regalo also gave a break down on the improvement district’s financials during the annual report to the council.
The Turlock Downtown Property Owners Association (TDPOA) is a property-based improvement district (PBID), which means the property owners in a specific area (in this case the downtown area) choose to pay a special assessment to fund extra services and improvements.
Regalo gave a brief update on different programs and areas of service provided by the association.
The downtown’s Clean and Safe program is being renamed to DUST (Downtown Upkeep Service Team) to “fit what the program actually does now,” according to Regalo.
“Downtown Turlock is safe and we work very hard to keep it clean so that the ‘service team’ felt more fitting,” he said.
The TDPOA spent $31,000 with a partnership of the City and Helping Hands nonprofit for supplement city services for downtown businesses.
“This program is intended to supplement city services, not replace them. It gives downtown more responsive service focused specifically on issues affecting the district and businesses as a resource for businesses directly,” said Regalo.
During the last fiscal year, the TDPOA invested $102,000 in direct maintenance, which includes approximately $40,700 in regular maintenance, $41,400 pavers and grates sidewalk repair and nearly $10,000 in tree pruning, along with investments in irrigation and flower pots.
The TDPOA also put in a few more light poles in the downtown area.
“We’re working with the city to address issues proactively…We spent the last three years at this PBID catching up on all that deferred maintenance,” said Regalo, who shared that all that work is starting to pay off.
Helping to create a vibrant atmosphere in the downtown corridor are the giant flower pots on the corner along Main Street. The TDPOA partners with the Turlock Garden Club to maintain the pots.
“They help us design and plant the pots twice a year. Each planting costs about $1,000 to $1,500. That’s with our partnership. We just pay for the products, and we get to keep downtown looking great,” said Regalo.
The TDPOA put a lot of money and effort into promoting and hosting events this year, according to Regalo.
“We like to see our downtown used as a venue, so we’re excited that the community is recognizing that the space is a community space to gather. We just love hosting those events,” he said.
The TDPOA invested approximately $80,000 in promotion this year, which includes events, banners, general promotion and holiday programming.
Along with the TDPOA’s expenses they also leveraged business and government partnerships to help with community events. One example is the $70,000 in cash and in-kind services the TDPOA secured to make the Independence Day celebration a success.
“To me, this demonstrates something important about the PBID model that the property and business owners’ assessments gives us a foundation to put on these events and work off of, but by continually working to turn that foundation into substantially more through partnerships throughout the community and sponsorships and outside resources, we’re able to get a lot more done,” said Regalo.
He said the priorities for the upcoming year include regular maintenance, sidewalk cleaning, pavers, tree grates, tree trimming, irrigation, continuing the flower pots program, dust services, parking maintenance, downtown marketing, business recruitment and retention, a downtown directory, banners and beautification efforts.
“Our goal is to have the district full, thriving with businesses with resources available to them,” said Regalo.
