Business View Magazine - November 2016

Business View Magazine - November 2016 99 a commitment by the city, working with our partner, the Downtown Development Authority (DDA),” explains Finn. “Between the two organizations, we funded that entire project. That was done, first of all, because it needed it, but secondly to show the community - es- pecially the business community - that the city is very committed to moving forward, working in partnership with the business community. Since the renovations, there have been more businesses opening downtown.” To help those new businesses thrive, Finn also knows that the downtown area must be a location where people want to visit, shop, and linger. He says that the downtown redevelopment project was completed this past summer, purposely, to coincide with the city’s hosting of the Tall Ships Celebration. “Every three years, we have somewhere between 12 and 18 tall ships come into the city along the Saginaw River,” he relates. “We’re one of their ports of call along the Great Lakes. We have them for four or five days, and that brings in over 300,000 visitors, all coming to see these majestic tall ships. And, this year, they came into a brand new downtown.” To further enhance the downtown environment, Finn says that the city-owned, municipal electric company is on “a very progressive schedule of replacing all of our decorative lighting in the downtown area. That was AT A GLANCE WHO: Bay City, Michigan WHAT: A city of 35,000 WHERE: East-central Michigan near the base of the Saginaw Bay on Lake Huron WEBSITE : www.baycitymi.org