A Q&A with Adam Trinkel of Downtown Evansville EID
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In October, Adam Trinkel became executive director of the Downtown Evansville Economic Improvement District. The University of Southern Indiana graduate previously served as the organization’s marketing, communications and events director.
EID was formed in 2017 by property owners in downtown Evansville. The group’s mission is to create a more active and inclusive community by enhancing resident, consumer, investor, worker and visitor experiences.
Trinkel spoke with Inside INdiana Business about his work with the improvement district and his passion for getting more people into downtown Evansville.
Tell me about your work experience before you joined the Economic Improvement District.
I graduated from the University of Southern Indiana in 2009, and then for roughly nine years, I worked in the field of fundraising and development at three different organizations.
I started out after college at Arc of Evansville, an organization that advocates for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. I worked in their development department and on their annual fund program and primarily wrote grants for the organization. I was fresh out of college and never had written a grant, but they took a chance on me because I had some strong writing skills. I really enjoyed my time there, a little over a year.
Then, I got a call from the University of Southern Indiana Foundation. I had a very strong affinity for USI and the desire to go back there. I spent about three and a half years there. It was very rewarding work. I worked primarily on the university’s annual giving programs.
When I was looking for a change, I saw an opportunity with St. Mary’s Health Foundation, now Ascension St. Vincent Evansville Foundation. I worked there for a little over four years, doing a lot of different tasks ranging from grant writing to their annual giving, to even meeting with donors one-on-one to help raise funds for the mission of Ascension, which is to care for the poor and those vulnerable in our community. I enjoyed that time.
What drew you to work with the improvement district?
When I had personal time or time with family or friends, I was really drawn to downtown and all that was taking place, whether it was for dinner or going to an entertainment venue for a show or a concert. Our downtown was going through a period of growth that started around 2016. I was watching that from the sidelines and really intrigued by it.
I saw the posting in February 2018 for a marketing and events manager. I applied for that role and became the second employee of the organization. I started out as the events and marketing manager, was promoted in January 2020 to the director of marketing and events and then more recently promoted to the executive director role.
Explain your marketing role with the improvement district before becoming executive director.
I was brought on to help guide the process of developing the downtown Evansville brand. I didn’t design it myself, but I helped to lead that charge and bring our stakeholders together. Downtown has been around for 200-plus years, but we knew as an organization to tell the continued story of growth and success in downtown, we needed to have a unified brand.
I led the marketing and branding initiatives or communications, and then I’ve been at the forefront of leading and developing all of our event efforts. We produce about twelve events annually, and they have an audience of around 50,000 people.
Events are a way for us to invite the community to come downtown. We host them for various reasons. We’re trying to break away from perceptions that there’s no parking downtown, which is not the case, there’s plenty of parking. Or that it’s not safe, which is also not true. Downtown is a very safe area. Or that there aren’t things to do. We have 20-plus shops, 50-plus restaurants and the region’s largest entertainment venues for concerts and other performances.
How does the improvement district benefit downtown Evansville?
Our work really centers around three areas of focus.
Business and developer recruitment. How do we attract new business and investment downtown?
Clean, safe and beautification. Our team is out there every week picking up litter. Last year alone, we picked up 6,300 bags of litter in our downtown central district.
Events and marketing. How are we telling that story of our downtown neighborhood? We know that one of the key things to get downtown to grow is to get more residential housing because rooftops lead to further growth in retail, restaurants and so on.
What are the challenges facing the improvement district?
There are challenges for all downtowns. This month, I was fortunate enough to go to the International Downtown Association conference in Chicago. It was interesting to hear all the different challenges that downtowns of all sizes are facing.
We have a lot of opportunities to get more residential growth in our downtown. We’ve been fortunate. We haven’t experienced quite the level of what some bigger cities have seen in terms of COVID with stores closing. We want to provide those wraparound services for our businesses to help them grow and sustain. We’re really good at being that regional voice about the importance of shopping local and shopping small.
A real opportunity for us is to work closely with the Evansville Regional Economic Partnership on the development of this long-term plan for the Ohio River. It’s a project they’re leading that’s 50 miles of riverfront all the way from Mount Vernon to Newburgh. We know that downtown is crucial, very central to that plan. How do we develop a plan and long-term funding and all those things to activate our riverfront in a dynamic way that we’ve never seen before?
What are the improvement district’s successes?
The success has been bridging that gap and having a unified voice for the downtown neighborhood, elevating our shops and promoting our businesses and continually telling that story. Our events have been a success, but if you look at all aspects of our work, it’s also very important to have our clean, safe and beautification efforts.
COVID was a challenge for us. We obviously weren’t able to host some of our large events at that time, so we had to shift to do some other things and get creative. I’m really proud of the work we did in 2020.
We also saw a really challenging time for our country with the tragic death of George Floyd and other Black Americans around the country. We put out a statement saying we recognize downtown hasn’t always been a place where everyone feels welcome, but it’s our job each and every day to break away from that and make sure there are opportunities that exist and everyone feels welcome in our downtown.
Things we’ve done like putting Pride stickers on business windows—not only during Pride Month but throughout the year—continue to drive home that our commitment to be a place for everyone and an active and inclusive space is year-round. It’s never-ending work.
What other type of projects are you working on now?
We’re in the process of fundraising for a small dog park. It’s going to be over on Ingle Street. We have some money set aside in our budget, but we’re also trying to go out into the community and ask for some partner dollars to help us fund this project.
We know from 2016 to 2021, there were 460 new households in downtown Evansville, and a lot of those individuals have pets. We don’t have a great amount of green space downtown, so we want to provide a space where not only these property owners or people who are leasing a condo or renting an apartment can take their dog, but they can also have that sense of community.
So that’s in the pipeline, and then planning the year ahead and trying to map out the next couple of years on what some of our key initiatives will be. We’re governed by a board of directors comprised of property owners and business representatives, so we want to work closely with the board to help guide our work forward.
What are your goals for the organization?
The ongoing vision of telling the story of downtown, encouraging investment, making sure our events and activities are inclusive and welcoming to all people and empowering our staff to go out there and help spread our message.
One of my ideas is to introduce an ambassador program where we’re a little more intentional about when events are taking place downtown. How do we have a presence on the street to help provide basic directions for people to an event, venue or space—or just to greet them and welcome them into our downtown?
What do you think makes downtown Evansville an appealing place place to visit, live and work?
It’s a really strong sense of community. You get to know the people downtown, the people who work at your favorite restaurant or one of the shops you enjoy. You have those personal connections that can’t truly be measured or replicated. You don’t get that experience when you shop at a big box store. You go into some of these shops, and you’re interacting with the owner, a person who has a vested interest in our community and employs people in the community.
We talk a lot about how we’re in the memory-making business in our work, especially when you look at our events because we do things like holiday decorations. Yes, they’re primarily done to drive foot traffic into our downtown, but they’re also creating memories. We see families of all ages and backgrounds. We’ve seen special memories like engagements take place in front of some of our installations.
You think about the long-term impact of that and how people are going to have those memories for the rest of their lives. Kids who come to our Christmas event are there with their parents or grandparents or guardians. Not only are we getting them comfortable with being in an urban city environment, but we’re also creating these core special memories. That’s what’s probably most rewarding about the work that we do.