The news of downtown getting its first grocery store in more than a decade exploded last week as "Hart's Local Grocers" announced that it will open in May in the East End. Learn more about the new store at www.hartslocalgrocers.com, and on Facebook and Twitter. and find more details in news coverage from the Jan 10 press conference:

"New Grocery Addresses Downtown Need for Retail" - D&C 1/10/14

"Hart's to Open Grocery Store Downtown" - RBJ 1/10/14

"Plenty of Parking at Downtown Grocery" - Channel 13 1/10/14

The news follows serious talk by Tops Friendly Markets about locating a store downtown sometime in the future ("Tops CEO on Downtown Store: It'll Happen" - D&C 1/10/14). And in a recent article ("Downtown Development Outlook: Glass More Than Half Full" - WXXI 12/5/13), developer Larry Glazer indicated that downtown Rochester is on the "radar screen" of national retailers.

With an estimated 6,000 people now living downtown, it appears Rochester has reached a tipping point, jumpstarting the "retail follows rooftops" adage.

In October, the Democrat and Chronicle Media Group announced plans to move from the Gannett Building on the corner of Broad and Exchange, into a new facility it will build on the Midtown site at the corner of Main & Clinton.  ("D&C Announces Plans for New Downtown Home" - D&C 10/30/13).

Steve Simpson, Vice President of Market Development, discussed exciting plans for the new headquarters at a RDDC Member Briefing in November. Click here to watch a video of his presentation.  

There are no better words to describe Frozen Frontier than "wild success." Rochester's first ever outdoor hockey festival was held at Frontier Field in mid-December and drew tens of thousands of fans during its 10 day run. Here's hoping this will become an annual event!

Over 11,000 people attended opening game night

Get on board to sponsor the 2014 Urban Nights series showcasing new and unique downtown restaurants and event venues! A $500 sponsorship for the entire event series includes:

• Your company logo and website link on the electronic invitation sent to our email list of 3,000+ downtown stakeholders for each of the 6-8 events in the series
• 6 complimentary tickets to use at any of the Urban Nights events throughout the year

Urban Nights events are  promoted throughout the year on www.rochesterdowntown.com (which gets tens of thousands of unique visitors a year), as well as Downtown Rochester on Facebook and Twitter.

For more information about sponsoring Urban Nights, contact us at 546-6920 or rddc@rddc.org.