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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2021-06-28 - MinutesFayetteville Advertising and Promotion Commission Minutes from June 28, 2021 Fayetteville Town Center Commissioners Katherine Kinney, Chair, Chrissy Sanderson, Elvis Moya, Present: Sarah Bunch, Todd Martin Commissioners Andrew Prysby and Matthew Petty Absent: Staff: Molly Rawn, Chief Executive Officer; Jennifer Walker, Vice President of Finance; and Hazel Hernandez, Vice President of Marketing and Communications Chairperson Kinney called the meeting to order at 2:01 p.m. Old Business A. Commissioner Bunch motioned to approve the May 2021 minutes with Commissioner Moya seconding. The minutes were unanimously approved. III. New Business A. CEO Report, Molly Rawn Hotel occupancy up 74% in May 2021 versus May 2020 and is up 20% YTD compared to 2020. Restaurant collections for May have nearly doubled from last year. April was a good month for Fayetteville with 13 home Razorback baseball games. This HMR data does not include regionals or super regionals but does capture the Oz Trails Pro Cup presented by Experience Fayetteville. Visitors in Visitors Center: 685 for May, which is down from 2018, however, at the end of May we opened back up on Saturdays. We sold more than $1,000 in Pride merchandise in May; all of these sales will go to NWA Equality. Additionally, we've heard estimates of 22,000 people at the Pride Parade. Our sales team, Tina and Julie, brought Lace, Grace and Gears, a women's motorcycle event, to Drake Field. The Fayetteville Town Center hosted 27 meetings/events in May. We continue to operate at 2/3 capacity for events and hope to offer you a sneak peek at our next meeting of some ballroom renovations. Two full time openings at Fayetteville Town Center have been filled. Griffin Stroupe has been hired to be our Sales Manager and Madison Hurley is serving as our Event Services Manager. The town center has many events scheduled for the fourth quarter. Upcoming events: We are partnering with Latinas en Bici for the Tour de Frida, a cycling event on July 17 to honor Frida Kahlo's life and the anniversary of her passing. The route goes along many pieces of public art. The Joe Martin Stage Race and Experience Fayetteville Criterium is August 26t" to 29' and the Spartan Trail Running Championship is October 31st Commissioner Moya asked when we planned to go back to full capacity events at the town center. Rawn answered we currently have the ability to do so, but the events being booked are below our full capacity. We continue to evaluate booking requests as they come in. B. Financial Report, Jennifer Walker, Vice President of Finance Our target for budget is 42% for the end of May. Our revenues are at 39% and expenditures are at 35%. Looking more specifically at HMR tax revenue, we are exceeding our YTD budget by 1 %. On our balance sheet, you will see that cash and investments are just over three million dollars. We have now expended all of our PPP funds, with a breakdown included in the meeting packet. We are working on the loan forgiveness application and might have that for commission's review at an upcoming meeting. C. Marketing Report presented by Hazel Hernandez, Vice President of Marketing and Communications Through May our website numbers are up significantly from last year. Especially our landing page views, up 107% which shows the efforts of our increased advertising. Interesting website traffic trends: 89% of traffic to the website are new visitors, with increasing percentages of international site visitors. This is to be expected as cyclo-cross is very popular in Europe. Hernandez showed the top content draws from our website thus far with /visitfayetteville being the highest, followed by /46-things-to-do, /guide, /experience/events and then /eat. We served 56,000 paid search impressions in May with 5,358 clicks to the Experience Fayetteville website, for an overall CTR of 9.5%. Top search phrase was "Festivals Fayetteville." D. Vote. Approving a quote from Multi -Craft Contractors for replacement of a Town Center roof top HVAC unit. Rawn shared that we've been working since 2017 to replace each of the 7 RTUs at the town center and are on track to do that. The quote of $45,760 is from Multi -Craft Contractors. As the commission approved a maintenance contract with MCC, giving us competitive pricing, we do not seek multiple bids. Commissioner Moya made a motion to accept the bid with Commissioner Martin seconding it. It passed unanimously. E. Presentation on the Dickson Street Art Court from Jordan Garner, Tyson Family Foundation Rawn introduced Jordan Garner to discuss the 227 Dickson Street art project, formerly known as the Dickson Street Theater. Garner showed a picture of the outside and the inside, stated that this is an adaptive use project, utilizing existing elements when possible to create an experience for the public. Garner stated that they are asking to enter into a three-year partnership with Experience Fayetteville on this project to attract even more people to downtown. Rawn continued the discussion by commending Garner and the foundation for doing this project. This yet -to -be named space will be a short-term basketball space with Experience Fayetteville providing daily maintenance, oversight, and promotion. As the city looks to do more programming in the Cultural Arts Corridor space, this is a good test to see what works and how it works. We have found that people are looking for outdoor activity space. Rawn asked for questions. Commissioner Bunch asked how the building's structure would be changed. Rawn said that three walls would remain with the front wall being open and the front courtyard will be completely redone. Commissioner Moya asked about the open-air concept as it relates to how security will be handed. Rawn answered that we intend to have a gate to secure it and do not plan for it to be open all night. Commissioner Bunch asked Jordan Garner how the concept was decided upon. Garner replied that this idea came up from the Project Public Spaces conference and referenced the Pigalle basketball court in Paris. Commissioner Moya asked if Rawn envisioned new staff members coming on board. Rawn answered that it may create opportunities for more part time or contract team, but not additional full time. Commissioner Sanderson asked what the completion timeline is with the answer being hopefully this fall. Rawn continued that this will open as a space that is not formally programmed; she wants to see how the space is used before we layer in anything more formal like reservations or events. F. Vote to accept a grant for $236,566 from the Tyson Family Foundation over a three-year period to support communications and operations of the space. Experience Fayetteville is asking the commission for permission to accept the funds so that we can go forward with planning, marketing and working with the partners on this project. Commissioner Bunch made a motion for Experience Fayetteville to accept the funds for the intended use and Commissioner Moya seconded it, it passed unanimously via a roll call vote. G. CEO Rawn closed out the meeting with an announcement that she has been asked to chair a subcommittee of the city's Economic Recovery and Vitality Steering Committee which will focus on revitalization of the hospitality industry. She and Tyler Wilson are assembling a group to talk about pertinent issues, including third party restaurant delivery providers. Commissioner Sanderson is on the steering committee and Rawn plans to ask Commissioner Martin for input. H. Commissioner Kinney adjourned the meeting at 2:37pm. Minutes submitted by Amy Stockton, Director of Operations, Experience Fayetteville.