Downtown Austin Alliance President and CEO Dewitt M. Peart joined the organization Feb. 2.[/caption]
New Downtown Austin Alliance President and CEO Dewitt M. Peart has received a crash-course lesson on downtown Austin that has already included his first South By Southwest Music and Media Conference.
Peart, who goes by "De," is starting his third month on the job, replacing longtime DAA leader
Charlie Betts, who worked 18 years for the organization. Peart moved to Austin from Pittsburgh where he served as the executive vice president of economic development and public affairs for the Allegheny Conference on Community Development. Through that role, he was also president of the Pittsburgh Regional Alliance and the Greater Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce, which are both affiliates of the Allegheny Conference.
He started Feb. 2 at DAA, a nonprofit organization that represents downtown property owners, residents and businesses to maintain and improve downtown Austin. The group is funded by a public improvement district that borders most of downtown. Peart said that money is used in part to maintain and protect downtown.
"It's a beautification effort, but it's also about safety," Peart said.
Peart did not need long to recognize Austin's transportation woes, an issue he places atop his priority list as the new DAA CEO.
"We need to be able to get people to work because downtowns survive by being part of the region," Peart said. "It's all about having infrastructure that supports that."
He also emphasizes the need to preserve and grow downtown Austin's limited green space, such as Republic Square Park and the parks anticipated along Waller Creek. He talked about the benefits likely to come to the northeast corner of downtown as a result the Waller Creek revitalization project and the proposed Innovation Zone, which will be anchored by Central Health's five-block campus adjacent to UT's future Dell Medical School.
"That project will attract additional businesses and jobs to the area," Peart said.
In addition, he pointed to the south-central Lady Bird Lake shoreline—where the
Austin American-Statesman headquarters is located—as a place for potential development. A dense, mixed-use project makes the most sense for the site, he said, and not a sports arena or large venue as some have proposed in the past.
He proposed the DAA and the city partner together to create an economic development corporation that could manage the proposed Innovation Zone and other large-scale recruitment and development efforts within downtown.
"[Economic development corporations] are tools commonly used in those areas that are redeveloping," Peart said. Such a group could also host programming at Republic Square Park, he said. "We would like to get something organized sometime this year."
Downtown Austin Alliance President and CEO Dewitt M. Peart joined the organization Feb. 2.[/caption]
New Downtown Austin Alliance President and CEO Dewitt M. Peart has received a crash-course lesson on downtown Austin that has already included his first South By Southwest Music and Media Conference.
Peart, who goes by "De," is starting his third month on the job, replacing longtime DAA leader Charlie Betts, who worked 18 years for the organization. Peart moved to Austin from Pittsburgh where he served as the executive vice president of economic development and public affairs for the Allegheny Conference on Community Development. Through that role, he was also president of the Pittsburgh Regional Alliance and the Greater Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce, which are both affiliates of the Allegheny Conference.
He started Feb. 2 at DAA, a nonprofit organization that represents downtown property owners, residents and businesses to maintain and improve downtown Austin. The group is funded by a public improvement district that borders most of downtown. Peart said that money is used in part to maintain and protect downtown.
"It's a beautification effort, but it's also about safety," Peart said.
Peart did not need long to recognize Austin's transportation woes, an issue he places atop his priority list as the new DAA CEO.
"We need to be able to get people to work because downtowns survive by being part of the region," Peart said. "It's all about having infrastructure that supports that."
He also emphasizes the need to preserve and grow downtown Austin's limited green space, such as Republic Square Park and the parks anticipated along Waller Creek. He talked about the benefits likely to come to the northeast corner of downtown as a result the Waller Creek revitalization project and the proposed Innovation Zone, which will be anchored by Central Health's five-block campus adjacent to UT's future Dell Medical School.
"That project will attract additional businesses and jobs to the area," Peart said.
In addition, he pointed to the south-central Lady Bird Lake shoreline—where the Austin American-Statesman headquarters is located—as a place for potential development. A dense, mixed-use project makes the most sense for the site, he said, and not a sports arena or large venue as some have proposed in the past.
He proposed the DAA and the city partner together to create an economic development corporation that could manage the proposed Innovation Zone and other large-scale recruitment and development efforts within downtown.
"[Economic development corporations] are tools commonly used in those areas that are redeveloping," Peart said. Such a group could also host programming at Republic Square Park, he said. "We would like to get something organized sometime this year."
