The Fountain Square fountain with downtown Evanston buildings behind it. Photo: Eric Fredericks from Rancho Cordova, CA, United States / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0
Anyone who has seen the holiday lights around Fountain Square, or stopped by a Thursday night market, has met the work of Downtown Evanston without necessarily knowing who is behind it. It is not a city department. It is a nonprofit, and the distinction shapes what it can and cannot do for the people who run shops and restaurants in the center of town.
A nonprofit with a district
According to its website, the organization is legally named Evmark, does business as Downtown Evanston, and is a 501(c)(6) nonprofit corporation. It was established in 1987. Its stated purpose is to market, maintain, develop and improve the local economy and quality of life inside the boundaries of a special service area, which is a defined district where property owners pay an added tax to fund extra services. The group’s brochure describes it as the sole service provider to that area, and a map linked from its site is labeled SSA9.
The site links to annual reports and audits for 2020 through 2025 for anyone who wants the numbers, and to a board of directors page.
What the organization does
The services fall into a few groups, as the organization describes them:
- Upkeep of public space, including trash removal, landscaping and seasonal planters.
- Marketing, such as regional advertising, a biweekly e-newsletter and social media.
- Placemaking, including holiday street lighting, activities at Fountain Square, banners and public art.
- Events, including the Downtown Summer Sounds concert series, Thursday Night Markets, Evanston Cars and Coffee, S’mores on the Square and the Holiday Light Celebration.
The website doubles as a guide for visitors, with an explore map and sections for eating, shopping, entertainment, lodging and services. It also has a business side: pages on doing business downtown, office and commercial space, a form for new businesses to submit themselves, and general business resources. Organizers can submit events for the calendar.
The City of Evanston’s business district guide describes downtown as having the city’s widest mix of retail brands, more than 60 restaurants and rooftop bars, and a cinema and entertainment complex. It puts the area about half a mile from Lake Michigan and Northwestern’s campus and says more than 6 million people visit each year.
How it differs from city economic development
The city’s economic development staff work for the municipality. They run programs such as the retail incubator and pop-up program that Downtown Evanston’s homepage points to on the city’s site. Downtown Evanston, by contrast, is a private nonprofit tied to its district. The group says it supports the city’s economic development team on attracting and keeping businesses, and it advocates for the downtown business community. It does not issue permits. Anyone who wants to use Fountain Square or close a street for an event goes through the city’s Parks and Recreation department, according to the organization.
The City of Evanston lists several business districts side by side, among them Downtown, Central Street, the Main-Dempster Mile and Howard Street, and links out to each group’s own site. A restaurant owner on Davis Street and one on Central Street therefore deal with different organizations, even though both operate in the same city.
The organization’s email address is info@DowntownEvanston.org.
Sources: Downtown Evanston’s website and the City of Evanston’s business districts page.
Daniel Okafor covers business, startups and the Innovators section for The Evanston Edge.
