New nonprofit aims to build unity among Ann Arbor's business districts

Ann Arbor’s State Street District recently announced the launch of the Downtown Ann Arbor Partnership (DA2P), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit committed to community development and inclusivity across Ann Arbor's downtown spaces. DA2P intends to work with stakeholders across the city, including the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority as well as residents, business owners, and employees, to promote cooperation and inclusivity for those visiting the city as well as those living and working downtown.

"We have a lot of amazing organizations downtown that are very focused on their own missions, which can limit their ability to go after funds that could benefit all of downtown," says DA2P co-founder Angela Heflin. "We’re exploring ways to actively support businesses, and provide services to support equitable opportunities and sustainable growth."
courtesy Angela HeflinDA2P co-founder Angela Heflin.
Heflin explains that DA2P’s mission is to promote the wellbeing of existing businesses and organizations throughout Ann Arbor’s downtown by determining needs they currently face. She hopes to bring together individuals and organizations across Ann Arbor to promote unity between the city's business districts, which could potentially lead to larger-scale changes throughout the city.

"Our vision is to support who is already downtown, to amplify and maximize what’s there, then fill in the gaps," Heflin says. "Things like addressing affordable housing and pedestrian safety concerns are important, but this nonprofit can help provide a comprehensive view of all of those needs and how they impact each other."

Heflin says the young nonprofit's first step will be to work with stakeholders to gather information about what is and isn’t currently working across the Main Street, State Street, and Kerrytown districts, which are all represented by distinct business associations, and the South University district. Both Main Street Ann Arbor and the State Street District operate as 501(c)(6) organizations, which Heflin says can make it difficult to procure certain kinds of funding due to their limitations in applying for grants and accepting donations. She explains that DA2P's research isn’t intended to cause direct change in and of itself, but to "identify the gaps" that individuals and organizations are experiencing, with the hope of connecting them with other potential resources and funding further down the line. 
Doug CoombeMain Street in downtown Ann Arbor.
"Our research isn’t about telling people how to do their jobs or interfere with what works," Heflin says. "We want to highlight facts and provide a resource that summarizes all of the key areas of need for our downtown spaces."

Heflin says that collaborating with so many different individuals and organizations is "important" to DA2P’s success, but also presents unique challenges, with each partner "having different goals." She says it's possible for a nonprofit like DA2P to develop "efforts to help a community that can inadvertently lead to harm" when those initiatives are not properly supported by community leaders and members. However, she says DA2P’s goal is not to directly identify solutions to downtown-specific issues but rather to identify the issues themselves and how they impact downtown. Therefore, DA2P hopes to drive a sense of unity among the districts and make it possible for the city and business organizations to develop and implement solutions that improve the downtown experience for everyone.

"I’m not sure if it’s possible to make everybody happy, but that isn’t the compass to guide us," Heflin says. "It’s important that we hear anybody who wants to engage and use that information with our quantitative data to determine what to focus on."
Doug CoombeState Street in downtown Ann Arbor.
Although the DA2P is only about one month old, Heflin hopes the nonprofit will also be able to hold its own independent community events in addition to its work with existing downtown businesses and organizations. In the meantime, she says the nonprofit’s main goal is to develop its board and conduct the preliminary research to ensure its position as a beneficial asset for downtown Ann Arbor.

"We have to be smart about our capacity so we don’t grow too fast without the right structures in place," Heflin says. "This has to be done in the right way, responsibly, and adapt to what the community needs."

Rylee Barnsdale is a Michigan native and longtime Washtenaw County resident. She wants to use her journalistic experience from her time at Eastern Michigan University writing for the Eastern Echo to tell the stories of Washtenaw County residents that need to be heard.

Downtown Ann Arbor photos by Doug Coombe. Angela Heflin photo courtesy of Angela Heflin.