One man, two roles
Martin fills Washington’s BDA, CDC top spots
When replacements were needed for Shana Brown as Main Street manager for the Washington Business District Authority and for Christy Bean Rowing as executive director of the Washington Citywide Development Corp., the search centered on one person.
That person was Washington native Bradley Martin, who was chosen to fill both roles.
Martin, 32, was the CDC’s business development specialist in 2021 and during his time with the CDC worked closely with Brown at the BDA.
“I worked closely with Shana through my time at the CDC because my job was more as an adviser or consultant for the businesses downtown,” Martin said. “If she needed help with anything, I would help her with whatever was going on. So, I was familiar with her job.”
Martin said he wasn’t initially interested in Brown’s position, but applied after some convincing.
“After that process had started I found out Christy was leaving the CDC,” Martin said. “We needed a director. We met with the board and felt the best decision was for me to stay there and try to get some of the funding stuff situated on that side. The positive is with me being in both now, I know everything that’s going on, on both sides. It’s worked really well.”
Martin, a 2011 graduate of Trinity High School, feels he brings some unique skills to the positions. He has about a decade of experience working with small businesses and once owned a business, giving him an understanding of the challenges they face. He also has experience with video production and web design.
“The thing I feel I do well is creating some type of structure,” Martin said. “I like organizing things. That’s the way I think through things. I think that’s an important piece of bringing some further structure, so we can either expand or easily bring on interns so we can be providing a better service to the people who are paying their assessments, the downtown property owners, the businesses. At the end of the day, that’s what we have to figure out, how to make sure they’re getting what they’re paying for.”
A town hall meeting was held recently with property and business owners within the city’s business district to get their perspective and find out what can be done differently or better serve their needs.
“I can at least be a liaison for the city or find out who the people are that need to be contacted for these things,” Martin said. “There’s a lot that I’ve been working on since then that came from the town hall.”
Now that he’s had a couple of months in his two new positions, Martin has set some goals.
“If we can grow and bring in some additional people or some additional help, whether they’re part time or interns, we have an easy way to manage them, because there is one person,” he explained. “I’ve put out requests for some committee signups so we can have a little bit more of a disbursed event effort, a little bit more disbursed effort in the downtown marketing just to get some more input and buy-in from the stakeholders.”
Washington Mayor JoJo Burgess said Martin has slipped into his new roles nicely.
“We haven’t missed a beat yet,” Burgess said. “He’s been doing well. He jumped right in and did everything he was supposed to do. We’re still moving forward with everything. We’re going to continue to move forward with him. He’s doing a great job.”
Brown believes Martin is the right person for the job because he is aware of all the work necessary that goes on behind the scenes, such as the administrative duties, assessments and the newsletter .
“Brad is fantastic,” she said. “He and I have worked together very closely over the last couple of years so understands fully what the job entails, which is something that a lot of people don’t. A lot of people think it’s just being front and center, a cheerleader for downtown, but there’s so much more that goes into it. He was the best suited for the position, and he really has a grasp on the businesses and what the businesses need. He has a vision of how the BDA should grow and combining it with the CDC, he won’t have the limitations that his predecessors have had, taking on both of these roles. He’s going to do amazing things. I have every confidence that he’s going to take the BDA and the downtown to the next level.”
Martin the city has a lot of potential, and as he’s starting to get settled into his new positions, much can be achieved.
“Everyone seems to be working better together,” he said. “Everyone is getting together a lot more regularly to see what have you done, what are you doing and where do you need help. My skill set is different from Shana’s and different from Christy’s. The goals are still the same but the way we’re going to get there is going to be a little bit different. It’s an exciting time.”
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