WDI Elects 2012-2013 Board of Directors and Officers

Release Date: Thursday, July 5th 2012

Press Release
For Immediate Release
July 5, 2012

Wilmington, NC - Wilmington Downtown, Inc. (WDI) held its Annual Meeting and quarterly Downtown Networking Series at the downtown Roudabush building on Wednesday, June 27. New board members elected are Celeste Glass of The Fortunate Glass; Ryan McAlister of End to End Land Concepts; Colin Tarrant of Smith, Moore, Leatherwood and Todd Toconis of Town & Country Real Estate.

Officers elected for the FY 2012-2013 year are Cathey Luna of Phoenix Rising Group - Board Chair; Clark Hipp of Hipp Architecture - Secretary; Donna Gurganus of First Bank - Treasurer; Robert Rosenberg of Monarcares.com - Vice Chair of Planning; Celeste Glass of The Fortunate Glass - Vice Chair of CBD Services; Lara Landgraf of Service Transfer, Inc. - Vice Chair of Economic Development and Andrew Gray of TayloeGray - Vice Chair of Fundraising/Development.

David Spetrino, Jr. formally retired at the opening of the meeting after serving as board chair in both FY 2010-2011 and 2011-2012. He was presented with a gift for his service and commitment. The new board also adopted a budget and plans to restructure the organization's standing committees.

President & CEO John Hinnant gave a brief economic report on downtown Wilmington, stating that office space occupancy has increased by a 63,260 SF net gain since the 2010-2011 FY. Hinnant also explained that 170 net new jobs have been created and 41 commercial leases have been signed, nine of which WDI directly assisted with. WDI also closed three loans totaling $45,000 for downtown businesses last fiscal year.

WDI plans to focus it's attention on business retention and expansion, tracking job growth in downtown, marketing for business attraction, attending tech-oriented trade shows with attention to tech-savvy young professionals and entrepreneurial growth and development for the upcoming year.

Contact:
Ashley Hanners
Operations Manager
Wilmington Downtown, Inc. (WDI)
ashley@wilmingtondowntown.com
(910) 763-7349

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