Downtown Wilmington performances bring people, generate business

It’s Friday night, Oct. 12, on Market Street about 7 p.m.

Soon, crowds will be sorting themselves into audiences for comedy games with celebrities in "Whose Live Anyway" at The Playhouse, for Lucky Chops and a night of brassy funk in the baby grand, and for DJ Issa State Live at The Queen.

Even though there is not even a show in The Grand’s premier venue, Copeland Hall, Market Street still hums with energy and people, lots of people.

Chelsea Tavern across from The Grand has a full house, as it usually does on Grand show nights. It’s two deep at the bar in nearby Stitch House Brewery, with patrons waiting for the latest beery treat from brewer Andrew Rutherford.

Tonic Bar and Grille, over on 11th Street, is also packed with comedy patrons eager to start their night on the town.

The arguments for jump-starting downtown revitalization with a vibrant cultural community are many and compelling. The positive impacts on a city’s quality of life and education are well documented in one national study after another.

Even the strength of the arts as an economic driver is demonstrable.

The Arts & Economic Prosperity V Study, conducted nationally by Americans for the Arts, shows that the state arts sector contributes $150 Million to Delaware’s economy every year, and supports more than 4000 fulltime-equivalent jobs. Three-quarters of that comes directly to Wilmington.

But the true measure of the arts’ critical role can be best experienced at the street level. Downtown businesses near Wilmington’s entertainment venues see it every day.

Stitch House Brewery comes to Market Street in Wilmington

“If the arts venues did not exist, neither would Chelsea Tavern or Ernest & Scott Taproom,” asserts restaurant owner Joe Van Horn. “The financial influx amounts to a 50% increase in business for our locations.”

Stitch House Brewery, which opened in the 800 block of Market in the spring, has shared the same experience.

Co-owner Dan Sheridan says, “While we were under construction, we watched Market Street come alive as if it were Broadway or Nashville when Trey Anastasio played. I remember thinking that we really missed out on an opportunity not being open that night, but much to our surprise, there are many nights like that on Market.”

Veronica Jester, business development manager for Tonic Bar and Grille, says the arts patrons also spur employment.

“When the venues have events, we have to staff up the restaurant," she said. "We get people both before and after the shows that want to make Tonic a part of their night out.”

One indication of the changing downtown picture: The Grand offers a restaurant discount program, the Stage Door Pass, for its series and MyChoice buyers. When launched nine years ago, there were six participating restaurants. Last season, there were 16. This year, the program features 20 dining venues, all within several blocks of one of The Grand’s three theaters.

Martin Hageman, executive director of Downtown Visions, recalls when he was interviewed for his position with the downtown improvement district 20-plus years ago. He said the best solutions to the ills of downtown Wilmington were residents and the arts.

All these years later, the two are finally coming together, and Hageman sees the difference.

Downtown Visions, Hageman says, exists to encourage and promote downtown business, including restaurants, retail, and parking.

“Our job would be impossible,” Hageman says, “without the positive impact the various arts have on our downtown. The arts venues have been and continue to be the anchor for the livelihood of all downtown.”

The impact is also felt with the many new residents in the Market Street corridor.

“Nothing beats the buzz of Market Street on arts-rich evenings,” says Sarah Lamb, vice president of Design and Marketing for Buccini Pollin Group. BPG has numerous residential properties within blocks of The Grand and Queen, and is opening a new food hall and more residences in the building that also houses The Playhouse.

“We love getting emails and calls from the tenants the next morning raving about the crowded restaurants, the people on the street,” she says.

Although many of the arts venues in and near the downtown serve an audience from the surrounding area, some of them also draw from a wider region.

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Sarah Willoughby understands that “the performing arts and cultural venues in downtown Wilmington and the Riverfront play a big role in attracting visitors” providing “a growing alternative to larger neighboring cities.”

The city administration also understands the importance of the arts to continued progress downtown.

“Downtown streets bustling with people is important to a lively flourishing city, says Wilmington Mayor Mike Purzycki, who previously was head of the city boosting Riverfront Development Corp. "Good food and good times are powerful people magnets."

Wilmington Police Chief Robert Tracy, who has been involved in law enforcement in larger cities such as Chicago and New York, understands the public safety deterrence of having many people walking the streets between theaters and restaurants and parking garages.

“Market Street,” Tracy says, “is thriving, full of energy and safe.”

This is not a phenomenon that is applies only to Wilmington.

The Brookings Institution, a respected Washington DC research group, published a brief in 2005 laying out 12 steps to downtown revitalization. Step 7 was simply Create an Urban Entertainment District, explaining that “the most important benefit of entertainment is to get ‘feet on the street,’ especially at night.

Just as a crowded restaurant is the best recommendation that it is a good place, crowded sidewalks recommend downtown, signaling a safe environment, and providing an excitement and spectacle that draws people to the area.”

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania – less than 300 miles to northeast of Wilmington – started to apply this attitude 30 years ago. According to The Atlantic magazine, the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust has “managed one of the city’s most vivid transformations, turning a large part of downtown into a lively, safe and attractive district.”

Writer John Tierney goes on to say, “Pittsburgh is not unique in looking to the arts as an economic catalyst. Cities across the country, small and large, realize that a vibrant arts scene can attract people downtown and spur the opening of restaurants and other supportive amenities.”

Though the sidewalks of Market Street are not yet always crowded, there are certainly more people strolling around than there were a decade ago, and those people are seeing new restaurants and bars, new residences, new businesses and busy entertainment venues.

“Wilmington is more of a city when there is a show at The Grand or The Playhouse or the Queen,” Van Horn concludes. “There’s a change in the vibe on Market Street that only bustling human beings can provide.”

Behind the Scenes is an occasional column written by Delaware arts leaders. Mark Fields, executive director of the The Grand Opera House, wrote this one.