After 18 month tenure, downtown Wilmington leader resigns
The leader of Wilmington Downtown Inc., the organization charged with managing Wilmington's downtown business district, resigned this week after a year and a half in the role.
Holly Childs, the president and CEO of Wilmington Downtown Inc., announced her resignation in a press release from the organization Thursday. Her resignation, effective immediately, comes as Childs has "chosen to return home for family reasons," the release stated.
Wilmington Downtown Inc., manages the 70-block downtown municipal services district, which the city of Wilmington established in 2016.
Childs stepped into the role in January 2021, the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic and its devastating impact on downtown's small restaurants and businesses.
At the time, she told the StarNews accepting the position was "the most significant move of my career."
Childs was born in North Carolina, attended college at Wake Forest University and vacationed in Wilmington, which made accepting the position a homecoming of sorts.
As she stepped into the role, Childs told the StarNews her focus was on growing businesses downtown.
"My mission – and the WDI Board’s clear direction – is to refocus the bulk of WDI’s attention and our resources on true economic development: creating new jobs and investment in our downtown," she said.
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Throughout her time at the helm, the organization continued to grapple with the impact of the pandemic on downtown Wilmington businesses.
The organization offered support to downtown business through outreach initiatives and financial assistance programs, including a microloan program for struggling businesses funded by a $25,000 Duke Energy donation.
WDI has also offered façade improvement grants for downtown businesses and leads efforts to "improve the safety, cleanliness and vitality of our downtown," by managing its ambassadors program, according to the organization's website.
In recent months, the organization hired an outreach specialist to build relationships with downtown's homeless and connect them with needed services. The position is part of a pilot program aimed at addressing downtown homelessness and the panhandling, littering and other issues that sometimes stem from the unsheltered population.
But during her tenure, the organization announced the cancelation of its popular Downtown Sundown concert series, which WDI had been staging for more than a decade. Downtown Sundown was last held in 2019 in a parking lot at Second and Market streets.
WDI evolved from the Downtown Area Revitalization Effort, Inc. or DARE, which was established in 1977 to focus on downtown improvement.
WDI is set to get $100,000 next year for its service contract with the city of Wilmington, according to a budget recommended to the Wilmington City Council earlier this year.
The city expects to generate more than $780,000 in property taxes and fees from the municipal services district over the next fiscal year, according to the budget.
Reporter Emma Dill can be reached at 910-343-2096 or edill@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: Wilmington Downtown Inc. leader Holly Childs resigns
