Dear Downtown Friends:
We’ve been busy in Downtown Morehead City! There is a renewed spirit of pride that has been adopted by engaged business owners, professionals and residents. We’ve listed below some of the accomplishments that the Downtown Morehead City Revitalization Association is very proud of. But we’re not just sitting around congratulating ourselves. We’re dedicated to restoring Morehead City to a vibrant economic, historic, social and recreational center and, with your help, that’s exactly what we’re going to do!
- In May, the DMCRA staged the Crystal Coast Boat Show, a family-friendly, free event that brought more boats than ever on display, vendors, music, an antique automobile show and (in conjunction with the Arts Council of Carteret County) the ARTrageous art event. Our marketing campaign (and great weather) brought the biggest Boat Show crowd to downtown ever!
- Starting in April this year, the DMCRA hosted the Alive at Five free concert series taking place at Katherine Davis Park every month through Labor Day weekend. The bands that played this year were Killin’ Time, Central Park Band, the Doerfels, the Band of Oz, Liquid Pleasure and Spare Change. This is a family friendly event designed to increase awareness of downtown and to bring people downtown and, by only playing until 8pm, having crowds of people take advantage of our terrific shops, art galleries and restaurants.
- Both a Downtown Business Survey and a Shopper’s Survey have been completed. Conducted in June and July and compiled in August, this was the product of the DMCRA Economic Restructuring Committee. The information collected from these surveys has been released to public, city officials and the press. The DMCRA plans to post the results on our website. The information will also be used to help recruit compatible and sustainable businesses to our downtown.
- The DMCRA helped the city bring Amtrak’s Thruway buses serving Morehead City and connecting passengers to the Amtrak train station in Wilson.
- The DMCRA helped move the Jib Property Project forward after being stalled since 2009. The project involves the creation of a ‘town square’ complete with a stainless steel blue marlin fountain (supplied by the Big Rock Blue Marlin Tournament). At this time, an architect has been commissioned to design the two phase project and grant money has been promised.
- Three DMCRA façade grants have been awarded to downtown businesses to improve and beautify the exterior of their buildings.
- The DMCRA continues to produce a weekly Downtown Happenings newsletter sent to hundreds of email addresses in the region. The list continues to grow and if you’re not on our list but would like to be, send me a quick note at dmcra@embarqmail.com.
- In July, the DMCRA staged the Morehead City Fireworks display on July 4th drawing thousands of people downtown.
- In December, the DMCRA staged the Chowder and Cheer Crawl and the Christmas Parade. In conjunction with the Arts Council of Carteret County, the DMCRA hosted the holiday ARTwalk. In conjunction with Crystal Coast First Night, the DMCRA coordinated the fireworks display on New Year’s Eve.
We are the liaison for both residents and businesses in Downtown Morehead City with the Chamber of Commerce, the Economic Development Council, the Crystal Coast Hospitality Association and the Crystal Coast TDA. We represent and act as an advocate for Downtown Morehead City with the municipal, county and state governments. We try to keep you informed when there are things going on downtown and things that might affect downtown, both positively and negatively. We actively solicit and seek out compatible, sustainable companies to come downtown to do business. Our job is to constantly undertake projects that will improve the business climate and the quality of life in Morehead City.
We are the voice of Downtown Morehead City. But we can’t do it alone. We’re a non-profit, 501c3 organization partially funded by the city, fundraising events and sponsorships but to continue operating and instituting new projects to improve Downtown Morehead City, we need your continued help. The DMCRA endeavors to help all of Downtown (indeed, all of Morehead City and the Crystal Coast) and as such we don’t have memberships. We do have partners. You’ve been our valuable partner and we’re asking you to continue your DMCRA partnership. Below, you’ll see partnership levels. Please fill out the attached partnership form and mail it back to us (or stop by the office here at the train depot…I always have a pot of coffee on).
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$50 |
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$100 |
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$250 |
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$500 |
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$1000 |
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$2000 |
Please consider offering your invaluable support for Downtown Morehead City!
Thank you!!
Tom Kies
Executive Director, DMCRA