Welcome to “A Vibrant Chapel Hill, Today and Tomorrow!” a monthly interview series with Chapel Hill’s Economic Development and Parking Services office, exclusively on 97.9 The Hill WCHL & Chapelboro.com.
Every month, you will get updates from department staff and learn about initiatives the town is taking to ensure a Vibrant Chapel Hill, Today and Tomorrow.
This month’s guest: Katie Bowden, Economic Development Manager for Town of Chapel Hill Economic Development.
Listen to the full conversation with Aaron Keck or read the transcript below, which is lightly edited for clarity.
Aaron Keck: Good morning. Tell us about yourself, for folks who don’t know. What’s your background?
Katie Bowden: Personally, I am a recent transplant to the area. I moved with my family from southern California about four years ago. I bounced around a lot as a kid, though I did attend and graduate high school in Raleigh. I started my career as a downtown planner and eventually went to work for a real estate developer, working on some really fun redevelopment projects. And during that time, I learned that I really like the implementation side of things more than the regulatory side. And that’s how I started to make my way into economic development. So not quite a linear path, but that’s kind of where I was, and how I came to be in North Carolina.
Keck: What do you like about Chapel Hill?
Bowden: I really enjoy college towns. Particularly from an economic development point of view. There is just so much happening with the sharing of ideas, the knowledge base and the talent pool that a college town provides. And when town and gown can come together in the way that the town of Chapel Hill and UNC has, that’s really where the magic starts to happen. Another thing that I love about Chapel Hill is how the town has invested in consultants that have worked with staff to shape some truly exceptional plans for the town’s future.
Keck: What is your role with the office?
Bowden: A little bit of everything. Generally economic development is concerned with the strengthening of the local tax base. Business attraction, business retention, growing jobs, and strengthening the economy, and that paints with a pretty broad brush. So we ask ourselves, what makes a business want to start or grow here? It’s not just the cost of doing business or proximity to talent, it also comes down to quality of life and creating a place where people want to be. I’ve been involved with the clean and green efforts in downtown, which, by the way is another example of a joint effort between the town and UNC as well as the downtown partnership, to make an attractive clean front door to the university. And the new downtown Innovation District. You may have noticed less trash on the streets, more frequent power washing and some new and beautiful street planters and trash enclosures. That’s all part of the clean and green work. And that continues through alley improvements and evaluating some new way-finding options.
Keck: The alleys look fantastic.
Bowden: Yes. And we hope to continue to improve them. I also help with business ombudsman services. Which means I’m basically your official problem solver. If you’re a business having difficulties navigating the town’s building and development processes, I’m here to help. I cannot change the rules. So don’t call me asking me to negate the rules. I can’t do that. But what I can do is try to help find an amenable solution.
Keck: We’ve got a lot going on in downtown Chapel Hill. You mentioned the downtown Innovation District, which is going up (current construction between E. Franklin and E. Rosemary Streets.) How is the economic development office handling that?
Bowden: The Downtown Innovation District is an outgrowth of the downtown innovation strategy. And the idea is that we’re creating this downtown Innovation District that will result in retaining and attracting more startups and innovation-oriented businesses. There’s a lot of activity happening downtown, particularly on that 100 block of E. Rosemary. And the construction is an inconvenience, but I think it’s going to be totally worth it. Obviously, for what we have coming down the pipeline, the amount of redevelopment that’s happening along Rosemary and Franklin Streets is confirmation. We vote with our dollars. This is confirmation that others are also buying into this vision for downtown, but it is a balancing act. And we also need to retain small local businesses that are crucial to the fabric of our community. We heard from downtown businesses that are struggling with relocation pressure as a result of redevelopment. And we designed a grant program to help mitigate those impacts. My colleague Sarah Potter talked about that program a little bit on last month’s edition (of A Vibrant Chapel Hill.) We’ve now closed our application window. We accepted applications for a period of two months. Over the summer we received nine applications with a lot of additional inquiries. We’re carefully reviewing and evaluating those applications and we think we’re on schedule to announce recipients probably in early October. What’s been great by going through this process, we recognize that a lot of businesses don’t know what other funding and financial support programs that are out there. Our department is putting together a comprehensive list of resources based on interest-topics and resources for things ranging from energy efficiency to job creation and more.
Keck: What’s coming up this fall that folks want to know about
Bowden: The Garden Spot. This is our new vendor market downtown. They kicked off their first series of markets over the summer. They’ll be back this fall on Fridays and Saturdays from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. and those dates will co-occur with Festifall. That will be the second, third, and fourth weekends of October. This is an incredible program aimed at introducing food entrepreneurs to the Chapel Hill market by providing free brand exposure, kitchen space, and storage and business advising opportunities. 100% of the vendors participating in last cycle were BIPOC or women-owned ventures. And we have some activity coming out of Launch Chapel Hill. They’re helping to activate the new Innovation Hub in downtown Chapel Hill with some programming, including a lunch and learn series they’ve cleverly coined “Launch and Learn,” and some fireside chats. The next “Launch and Learn” then will be Friday, October 6th, “Storytelling for Entrepreneurs, Startups, and Small Businesses.” These are great events for business owners, students and community members at large. Really anyone interested in checking out the new Innovation Hub in downtown Chapel Hill and growing their network.
Keck: Katie Bowden, thank you so much.
Bowden: Thank you.
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