Will Isern

wisern@pnj.com

Barring the intervention of some group other than the Downtown Improvement Board, both Gallery Night and the annual New Year’s Eve Pelican Drop celebration will end this year. The final Gallery Night will be in September.

The DIB members present Tuesday morning voted unanimously to sunset Gallery Night in September and end the DIB’s sponsorship of the Pelican Drop, citing a desire to refocus the DIB’s resources in ways that will more directly benefit downtown businesses and property owners.

Gallery Night, DIB board chairman John Peacock said, has run its course as a vehicle for introducing downtown Pensacola as an entertainment district.

“I think the days that we have to keep the streets closed until midnight to make sure the bars can be profitable are over,” Peacock said. “… It’s time for us to refocus on some other things.”

2016 Gallery Nights schedule

While Gallery Night has been hugely successful in drawing people downtown, it has disproportionately benefited bars and restaurants, and retailers have been left behind, Peacock said. After the September Gallery Night, Peacock said the DIB will likely shift to retail- and art-centric events, and will continue to expand on the holiday lighting campaign that was such a hit last year.

As for the Pelican Drop, the event has grown to be too large and expensive for the DIB to continue to sponsor. The DIB had to ask the Escambia County Board of County Commissioners for $87,500 to sponsor last year’s Pelican Drop, and still lost more than $16,000 on the event.

Gallery Night has also become more expensive as it has grown and the DIB has struggled to convince some downtown businesses that are open on Gallery Night to pay toward the event. The monthly street party costs about $8,500 to put on, and Peacock said the DIB could use that money in more effective ways that would benefit more than just bar and restaurant owners.

“It’s not a matter of running out of money, it’s a matter of where’s the best place to spend that money,” Peacock said.

Gallery Night faces financial woes

Peacock admitted that at least some portion of the DIB’s willingness to end Gallery Night in its current form can be traced to the reputation the event has gained as a raucous bacchanal. Peacock said the DIB would be supportive if some group wanted to take over and sponsor Gallery Night, but that support would no longer extend into the DIB’s bank account.

It’s possible that the city of Pensacola, Escambia County or some other organization could decide to sponsor one or both events. Peacock said he has spoken with both Pensacola Mayor Ashton Hayward and Escambia County Administrator Jack Brown about the Pelican Drop.

Pensacola Mayor Ashton Hayward released the following statement Tuesday afternoon.

"Gallery Night has been a driving force in the renaissance of Downtown Pensacola," Hayward was quoted. "Pensacola is a creative place with innovative people and we look forward to new opportunities for a new downtown experience. The Gulf Coast is built on a creative economy, especially in Pensacola. We look forward to the next generation of events that attract creative investments to our downtown."

Gallery Night might extend into day

The DIB first came to host the Pelican Drop under an agreement with the Community Redevelopment Agency in 2012. As part of the agreement, the CRA paid the DIB $149,000 in fiscal year 2012. The next year the CRA paid the DIB $125,000, and then $75,000 and then finally $50,000 in fiscal year 2015, the final payment per the terms of the agreement.

With no CRA money for last year’s Pelican Drop, the DIB turned to Escambia County and sponsorship from Levin Rinke Realty and the J.J. Talbot law firm. Rather than scramble to find funding again this year, the DIB chose to end its sponsorship of the Pelican Drop in the hopes that a more financially capable body will pick it up.

The DIB is funded by tax revenue generated from an extra two mills of tax charged on properties within its borders, which consists of 40 blocks of the urban core of downtown Pensacola. Peacock said the DIB’s responsibility is to its rate payers, and that DIB revenue should be used to their benefit.

“That’s not the function of the DIB to put on parties,” Peacock said. “The function of the DIB is to make sure our businesses are getting the biggest bang for their buck because they’re the ones paying for it.”

What the downtown landscape will look like with Gallery Night off the calendar isn’t immediately clear. The DIB conducted a survey of 53 downtown businesses, most of which rated Gallery Night as a positive event for downtown, but 50 percent responded that it would have no impact on their business if Gallery Night were reduced to four to six times a year. However, 96 percent responded that they wanted to see Gallery Night continue.

Pensacola Pelican Drop and New Year's 2016

O'Riley's Irish Pub manager Warren Sonnen said he anticipates a drop in revenue when Gallery Night goes away, but said that the event has put downtown Pensacola on the map and that he stays busy all month long as a result.

"Even though I might do an extra five grand or something (on Gallery Night), it's the fact that I'm busy all the other days because people know what's downtown," Sonnen said.

Hopjacks and Tin Cow owner Joe Abston said he was surprised the DIB went as far as it did Tuesday morning, and said the city and DIB should recognize what an asset Gallery Night is.

"It's less about the revenue we create verses that it's one of the things that makes Pensacola great, that we have this popular monthly event," Abston said.