Downtown Hastings A Place for Talent 2016 MML Community Excellence - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Downtown Hastings “A Place for Talent”

2016 MML Community Excellence Award - City of Hastings 1

A Growing Need

2016 MML Community Excellence Award - City of Hastings 2

• Downtown Hastings has long been the center of activity in Barry County, and a

geographic hub of West Michigan being a short drive from Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Battle Creek, and Lansing.

• Popularity and success of local musicians,

children’s entertainers, artists, and festivals outgrew the existing venues :

• Spray Plaza
• Courthouse Lawn
• Restaurants and Coffee Houses
• Summerfest
• Made social, economic, and cultural sense to build a synergistic connection

through Downtown with the Thornapple Plaza, Riverwalk, and Spray Plaza, and City Parks at each end.

Thornapple Plaza

2016 MML Community Excellence Award - City of Hastings 3

• Downtown Hastings

“place-making” and “destination” efforts

• Fits with city’s Eastside

Downtown Redevelopment Plan

• Re-purposed blighted/brownfield

site

• Architectural fit with adjacent

building - Hastings Public Library

• 9 months – Concept to Opening
• Low Maintenance
• A 1.2 million dollar project funded 100% by a

local family foundation

2016 MML Community Excellence Award - City of Hastings 4

Thornapple Plaza

• Seats 700 - 1,000
• Venue for 30 FREE community

concerts from June—August

• On the Hastings Riverwalk

Trail and the Thornapple River

• Venue for other Downtown

events: Summerfest, Jazz Festival, Roots Music Festival

• Concession stand run by local

service clubs such as Hastings Rotary and Kiwanis

Local Talent

Over 50 FREE concerts in Downtown Hastings this summer at multiple venues

2016 MML Community Excellence Award - City of Hastings 5

• Hastings, Barry County, and West Michigan have
• utstanding talent
• Continued growth and popularity of Hastings City

Band and Thornapple Jazz Orchestra

• Amazing growth in the popularity
• f genre music:
• Blues
• Folk
• Jazz
• Country
• Bluegrass
• Americana
• Thornapple Plaza + Spray Plaza helps build

entertainment momentum in Downtown

Events

2016 MML Community Excellence Award - City of Hastings 6

• Fits with other cultural events taking

place in Downtown Hastings

• Fridays at the Fountain
• Playing at the Plazas
• Roots Music Festival
• Arts and Eats
• Jazz Festival
• Summerfest
• Barry-Roubaix Road Race
• Gus Macker 3-on-3 Basketball

A Better Life

for Residents and Visitors

2016 MML Community Excellence Award - City of Hastings 7

• Building an enriched culture and

quality of living in Hastings and Barry County

• Music - Free Concerts
• Visual Art – Sculptures and Murals
• Parks and Trails – Green Space
• Thornapple River
• Walkable and Bikable - Healthy

Riverwalk

2016 MML Community Excellence Award - City of Hastings 8

• Connects the Thornapple Plaza on

east end of Downtown with smaller Spray Plaza on the west end of mainstreet

• Runs through three riverside parks –

63 acres

• Captures the beauty of Hastings

prime natural resource – the Thornapple River

• Thornapple Plaza adds a third set of

public bathrooms Downtown along the Riverwalk

Spray Plaza

2016 MML Community Excellence Award - City of Hastings 9

• Accommodates up to 200
• Funded 85% by private donations
• Grew from success of the Downtown

Sculpture Tour

• FREE children’s educational

entertainment and concerts

• Venue for Downtown events such as:

Summerfest, Jazz Fest, Roots Festival

• Redevelopment of a vacant lot on

Mainstreet in Downtown Hastings

Local Collaboration

Making a Better Place

2016 MML Community Excellence Award - City of Hastings 10

• City of Hastings
• Hastings DDA
• Thornapple Arts Council
• Local Philanthropists and Volunteers
• Hastings Rotary
• Hastings Kiwanis
• Downtown Merchants