THE MARKET INSIDER
February 2012
New Director of Programs and Marketing joins the PDA
Welcome to Kelly Lindsay, the PDA’s new Director of Programs and Marketing. Kelly was selected from over 130 candidates to lead the Farm, Craft, Education and Marketing departments. With experience at companies including Crystal Mountain Resort, Vail Valley Foundation, Callison (an architecture firm), and Starbucks, Kelly brings a diverse background in marketing communications, venue and destination management, non-profit fundraising, event promotion, branding, and community programs.
In her new role, Kelly will oversee the marketing, education, daystall and farm departments and be responsible for developing the overall advertising and promotions strategy for the Market. Kelly grew up in Kent and is a graduate of Pacific Lutheran University. She lives in Columbia City with her husband, Joe, and 18 month-old daughter, Charlotte.
Holiday Parking Program Recap
From December 1-15, the PDA offered two hours of free parking at the Public Market Parking Garage to shoppers who showed $30 in receipts from Market businesses at the Market Information Booth. We promoted the offer to existing Market customers and to downtown area shoppers with 15,000 bookmarks that featured an attached holiday button. We were greatly helped by members of the Pike Place Producers, a group of craftspeople who have joined together to promote crafts businesses at the Market, and many other Market businesses that helped spread the word and holiday cheer. We also reached out to a number of downtown businesses who distributed the bookmark/button combination to their employee base to compliment our radio ads, website, electronic newsletter, Facebook posts, Twitter tweets, and posters advertising the program.
With 257 shoppers participating in the promotion, it helped create a minimum of $8,010 in direct sales to Market vendors.
One vendor who saw a significant impact to sales was Cynthia Hope of Hands of the World. Cynthia promoted the free parking message to customers and potential customers by passing out bookmarks/buttons in her store, added a printed parking promotion message to store receipts, posted information on the store’s website, sent an email to customers with the parking promotion message as the lead message, and store employees verbally mentioned the promotion to customers.
From December 1 - 15, Hands of the World experienced a 25.6% sales growth over the previous year. Cynthia further reported that the store saw more sales per potential customer ratio than in years past. As a result, she will look to experiment with store promotions in 2012 that include free parking for her customers.
Third in a Series: Meet the Finance Department
With monthly reporting to the PDA Council and five audits each year, the financial health of the PDA is well documented and reviewed. The PDA’s Finance department is responsible for proper budgeting, management, and safeguarding of the PDA’s financial resources; establishing policies and procedures to ensure agency compliance with laws and accounting standards; providing financial information to staff and Council; responding to tenant inquires regarding their accounts; processing payments to the PDA’s vendors; billing tenants; and receipting tenant rents and parking payments through the cashiering service.
“Our department takes pride in the fact that for many years we have received clean reports from auditors regarding the preparation of our financial statements, our compliance with Government Auditing Standards, and our compliance with federal grant requirements,” said Sabina Proto, Director of Finance. “Our controls are updated periodically to adequately safeguard the public assets. We have several contracts with the City of Seattle and other financial institutions which impose many rules and restrictions and compliance requirements. We are praised for our high quality and on-time performance. We also get good feedback from our staff, Council, and the Market community.”
Ensuring completeness and accuracy of financial recording and reporting is crucial to any public organization. “We have very strong controls,” explained Sabina, “We work very hard to improve those controls all the time.” This work starts with using appropriate accounting policies and practices, and the continuous monitoring of their application. The PDA’s financial statements are prepared in conformity with the generally accepted accounting principles in the United States (known as GAAP).
“In addition to GAAP,” Sabina said, “we also comply with many restrictions that apply to public and governmental agencies. One part of the State Audit is the Accountability Audit which makes sure that the PDA has the necessary controls to safeguard the public funds.”
Since the PDA receives federal funds for housing, we comply with HUD rules and regulations and their reporting requirements.
In addition, the Finance team has played an important role during the Levy, including payment processing, tenant account maintenance to reflect temporary relocations, and financial reporting of the levy funds.
The PDA participates in other financing opportunities to obtain additional funds for capital improvements in the Market. The most recent financing transactions were the New Markets Tax Credit financings in February 2009 and March 2011. As a result, two new non-profit organizations (named PPM QALICB and PPM QB2) were created, each with its own set of accounting books. Finance is in charge of the financial recordkeeping and reporting for these two entities.
Finance staff plays an important role during the PDA budget process, and throughout the year monitors the actual performance compared to the budget.
The PDA budget and other policies approved by the PDA Council provide authoritative guidance. Each member of the accounting staff has very strict segregation of duties, with the necessary controls on every layer. The crucial factor for the success of Finance department, according to Sabina, is the high standards, commitment, energy, and responsibility of each member of the Finance team.
Each month, the Finance department provides a variety of financial reports to the PDA Council, including the current balance sheet, the trended budget vs. actuals spent, the status of capital projects, and the percent rent performance. This information is prepared by the Finance department after each department reviews and explains their monthly variances.
If you have questions about the PDA Finance department, please contact Sabina at 774-5256 or sabina@pikeplacemarket.org.
Co-op Advertising 2012
Information about the 2012 Co-op Advertising Program will be emailed soon to commercial and daystall tenants. Watch for it and earn money back on advertising this year.
Merchant News
Priority Billing Extended
The Priority billing company, who bills some commercial tenants for water and electricity, has agreed to extend the payment due date at least one week. They had a short turn around time on payments, which increased the risk of incurring late fees. Thanks to Becky from Merry Tails for bringing this our attention.
Welcome, Paper Feather
Please welcome Jennifer and Paul Cullin of Paper Feather, opening by Valentine’s Day on Western Avenue. They will specialize in high quality custom paper goods including greeting cards, handmade gift boxes, journals, wrapping paper, vintage paper products, and more. Look for Jennifer’s personal designs and work by other local artists.
Business Opportunities
The Pike Market Child Care and Preschool moved into their new location on the 2nd Level DownUnder in January. The space they vacated on the 3rd level is ready to be revived. We are looking for artist-related uses or other funky Indy Art type tenants to lease studio work space with a retail/gallery front. A small coffeehouse style café will also be considered; water is available in some spaces. Commercial space applications available here.
Staff Comings & Goings
Welcome aboard to Kelly Lindsay, Director of Programs and Marketing (see story above).
Help Shape the Waterfront
The City of Seattle’s Waterfront Seattle project is holding a series of discussions on topics shaping the future of the waterfront. Meetings will be downstairs at Town Hall Seattle (1119 8th Avenue) from 5:30 - 7:00 p.m. on:
Feb. 8 Mobility & Access
Feb. 15 Uniquely Seattle
Feb. 27 Environment & Ecology
March 5 Setting the Stage
If you plan to attend, please RSVP to mailto:rsvp@waterfrontseattle.org. You’ll find information at www.waterfrontseattle.org.
Food Bank Needs Help
The Pike Market Food Bank needs volunteers to pick up grocery donations (daily 10:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.) and deliver food to disabled clients (Tues./Thurs. 8:00 - 11:00 a.m.). Clean driving record required. Contact Kate Allen at kate@pmsc-dtfb.org.
PDA Meetings & Events
All meetings are in the PDA Conference Room.
February 7 Waterfront Redevelopment: 5:00 p.m.
February 9 Market Programs: 4:00 p.m.
February 13 Asset Management: 4:00 p.m.
February 15 Executive: time to be determined
February 16 Waterfront Redevelopment: 5:00 p.m.
February 21 Finance: 4:00 p.m.
February 23 PDA Council: 4:00 p.m.
Downtown Conventions - February 2012
February 8 - 12
NW Flower & Garden Show
60,000 attendees
February 19 - 23
Society for Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration
4,000 attendees
February 29 - March 3
National Assoc. of Independent Schools
5,000 attendees
Need more info?
Call the PDA office if you have questions or need more information. 206.682.7453
Read previous editions of Market Insider:
2012: January
2011: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December
