By Steven Arbuckle for Whatcom Talk
It may be hard to imagine how leveraging business tax credits through a local nonprofit organization could lead to an inspirational joy that touches people’s hearts, but that’s exactly what happened when Mount Baker Care Center & Summit Place Assisted Living decided to work with the Downtown Bellingham Partnership. Jenny Hagemann was there to watch it happen and explain how local businesses can be a part of it.
Hagemann is the development and communications director for the Downtown Bellingham Partnership (DBP), a group that has one foot in bureaucratic life, and the other in the public eye. On the bureaucratic side, DBP helped bring the Main Street program to Bellingham. Active in more than 2,000 communities nationwide — and 38 in Washington state — Main Street focuses on economic development and community preservation, to improve the quality of life. One way it does that is by letting Bellingham keep its B&O taxes local.
Downtown Bellingham Partnership puts a friendly local face (left to right, Nathalie Wagner, Hagemann, Lindsey Payne Johnstone), on complex bureaucratic matters. Photo courtesy Downtown Bellingham Partnership
Virtually every business in town pays B&O (Building and Occupation) tax, and that money goes straight to Olympia where the state government decides how it is going to be spent. But through Main Street accreditation, businesses in Bellingham can choose to donate the value of their state B&O taxes to the Downtown Bellingham Partnership instead and in exchange receive a 75% tax credit. And that means they can have an active say in how the money is spent and receive impact reports on the Downtown Bellingham Partnership’s annual efforts.
Seeing the Results
The public part of DBP’s mission is divided into three parts: commerce, culture, and celebration. The commitment to commerce means supporting and advocating for businesses downtown, looking into their problems and dreams, and helping create solutions.
“Beautiful things have come out of it, like the Commercial Street Block Party, Hagemann says. “It’s the direct result of business owners saying they wanted to bring life to the street, by closing it down and having block parties all summer.”
Sometimes the line between “culture” and “celebration” gets a little blurred since the overall goal is to bring both art and people to the downtown streets. Many locals are familiar with the First Friday program — formerly monikered Art Walk — and a more recent example is Gallery Alley, a program that brings a seasonally shifting set of paintings by several local artists to the alley connecting the 200 blocks of Holly and Magnolia Streets.
Tax dollars become public art when B&O credits are shared with a local accredited organization. Photo courtesy Downtown Bellingham Partnership
Enjoying the Benefits
Perhaps the most noticeable event is Downtown Sounds, an annual concert series that’s brought live music to the intersection of Holly and Bay Streets for the past 20 years. This year it attracted 26,000 people to the intersection of Holly and Bay, which is obviously good for businesses in the area, and for the families who look forward to spending their evening dancing with friends and strangers in the street. But it also ties together the public and bureaucratic sides of DBP and the businesses that support it.
Pete Wolkin of Mount Baker Care Center & Summit Assisted Living is one of 45 business owners that take advantage of the B&O tax opportunity with DBP, despite the fact that the business itself in on the south side of Fairhaven, almost four miles from the heart of downtown Bellingham.
“You don’t have to be physically located in downtown to support this program, and to acknowledge that a vital downtown is incredibly important,” says Hagemann. “Bellingham has the largest downtown in our county, and for people choosing where they want to live — where they want to grocery shop, where they want to find assisted healthcare for their loved ones — we want to welcome them and be proud of the community.”
As an organization that’s been working with DBP, Mount Baker & Summit Place received a bit of a perk this year, when Downtown Sounds included a VIP section for the first time and extended an invitation to the retirees interested in seeing a show.
Downtown Sounds is one of the Partnership’s most visible events, and it’s 20th anniversary in 2024 brought 30,000 people downtown. Photo courtesy Downtown Bellingham Partnership
“It’s truly one of my favorite memories of this season,” Hagemann says. “I got the opportunity host the VIP lounge and see a resident — who is a life-long music lover — and his nurse smile for two and a half hours straight. I got to serve this gentleman his doctor-ordered two beers and see him enjoy a concert where he was able to safely navigate a crowded event. I’m looking forward to building on that next year.”
Talking Taxes — and Opportunities
The staff at Mount Baker and Summit Place are dedicated to making sure the people they care for are not only healthy, but happy as well. And the staff at Downtown Bellingham Partnership have a similar devotion to the health and happiness of Bellingham, and the businesses that keep it vital. Fortunately for local business owners, they have someone like Jenny Hagemann to communicate with, and help them bring the two worlds together.