DOWNTOWN CLEVELAND IMPROVEMENT CORPORATION ANNOUNCES NEW CHAIR
On January 25, 2023, the board of directors of the Downtown Cleveland Improvement Corporation (DCIC) held its first meeting of the year, electing Thomas J. Coyne as chair. Mr. Coyne is a partner and chair of the 50-member national Real Estate practice group at Thompson Hine LLP. He previously served as chair of Cleveland Neighborhood Progress Inc., Family Transitional Housing Inc., and the Real Estate Committee of the United States Law Firm Group. Mr. Coyne currently serves on the board of the EDWINS Leadership & Restaurant Institute and is a fellow of the American College of Real Estate Lawyers (ACREL). He also serves as national real estate counsel to many public and private companies and has represented local developers on numerous City of Cleveland projects for more than 35 years.
In addition to Mr. Coyne, the DCIC board elected Doug Price (chief executive officer, K&D Group) as vice chair, Deb Janik (senior vice president of business development, Bedrock Cleveland) as treasurer, and Antonin Robert (president of community development, GBX Group) as secretary.
DCIC is an organization made up of property owners who pay a special property assessment to provide enhanced services to the Downtown Cleveland Improvement District, which DCIC’s board of directors oversees. DCIC provides 100% of the funding for the Clean & Safe Ambassadors program, which accounts for approximately 75% of its $5 million budget. The remainder partially supports Downtown Cleveland Alliance’s (DCA) strategic economic development and place enhancement initiatives and the Group Plan Commission’s operation of Public Square.
The Clean, Safe & Welcoming program has made a series of recent upgrades, including increasing ambassador wages, establishing a co-deployment center in Tower City Center, investing in new equipment, creating the neighborhood safety specialist position, and partnering with the City of Cleveland to track data collected by ambassadors to document public structure inefficacies. These improvements advance the narrative of an efficient, strong, and unified Downtown Cleveland. To learn more about the program, visit our webpage.