There will be several new faces stepping into senior positions at revered Huntsville organizations in 2023 and 256 Today has them all covered. We will be talking to Butch Roberts, the executive director at Huntsville International Airport, right after the New Year. Today, we talked to Rob Buddo, the president and CEO of Downtown Huntsville, Inc.
HUNTSVILLE — When Downtown Huntsville Inc. announced President and CEO Chad Emerson was leaving to lead efforts in Huntsville’s growing sports scene, there was speculation about who might replace him.
After all, Downtown Huntsville Inc. was formed as a membership-driven nonprofit with a mission to encourage community engagement and to support a creative vision for downtown Huntsville.
That vision and active engagement has been the backbone of some of Downtown Huntsville’s most popular events such as the Craft Beer Trail, Downtown Open, Food Truck rallies and Friday Night Art Walks, to name a few.
Just in time for the New Year, Huntsville is welcoming Rob Buddo as the president and CEO of DHI.
Buddo comes to Huntsville from Birmingham where he had nearly a decade of experience in commercial real estate and space-based economic development.
A University of Alabama graduate, Buddo brings plenty of “street” cred, as in Main Street Birmingham. He worked there for four years before his wife was transferred to Washington, D.C. and, later, to Houston. During that time, he worked in commercial real estate, an industry closely tied to economic revitalization.
Tiring of large cities and traffic, Buddo welcomed the opportunity to move back to Birmingham.
As city center district manager for REV Birmingham, he managed business improvement districts, the commercial revitalization of the suburb of Woodlawn, and retail redevelopment in Birmingham’s urban core.
When asked his priorities for DHI in 2023, Buddo said his role and projects here are similar to what he was doing at REV Birmingham.
“I am fortunate to have inherited a great team that has kept things running smoothly since Chad’s departure a couple of months ago,” he said. “He left the organization in very great standing, so my main goal this first year is to continue forward with the momentum.
“The next six months will lean heavily on building relationships and doing some community and stakeholder engagement to make sure all the events we currently have, and all the projects coming down the pipeline, are what the community needs, what downtown needs, and we want to make sure people are excited about them.”
He said not to expect a lot of new events in 2023 until the fall, but they will not be dropping anything, either. Outside of some tweaks around the edges to track attendance, or to add an additional date to a performance series to make the experience better, he intends to maintain the positive momentum DHI already has.
“I do not want to be the guy who comes in from a different market and automatically takes things that worked in Birmingham and try to implement them in Huntsville,” he said. “Birmingham and Huntsville are different cities and what works in one may not work in the other.
“We will also work closely with City Hall, the county, and the Huntsville-Madison Chamber and others because those relationships are vital to the work DHI does.”
Things he will look at include maintaining a strong residential district around downtown because that will lead to a lot of opportunities.
“We are meeting with interested developers to give them the city’s Big Picture so they understand how their project or development will fit into that Big Picture,” he said. “So we will continue to do a lot of consulting.”
The downtown district also works with organizations outside its parameters to share their story and connections to downtown. Those places include Lowe Mill Arts and Entertainment, Campus 805, Stovehouse, Lincoln Mill and the Medical District.
They will also take on some work in John Hunt and Merrimack parks to help get the word out about some of the amenities available.
“My goal is to continue the escalating growth and outreach to the community, all while assessing and maintaining the public’s favorite events,” Buddo said. “My focus, at least the first half of the year, will be to make sure events are high-quality, high-caliber and making sure DHI maintains strong relationships with businesses, organizations, and stakeholders to grow the membership.”
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