Shipyard District is Green Bay’s newest recognized downtown district

Shipyard District, Inc. announced a new public-private partnership with the city of Green Bay along with its formal recognition as Green Bay’s newest district at a press conference Monday, March 10.

The newly recognized district encompasses the commercial and residential area from West Mason St. to Lombardi Ave. between South Ashland Ave. and the Fox River.

Although the partnership with the city is new, Shipyard District, Inc. has been around since 2021.

“Four years ago, business and property owners along South Broadway and State St. worked together to form the 501c3 nonprofit organization Shipyard District, Inc. with the mission of revitalizing the business area…” said Tarl Knight, director of Shipyard District, Inc. “The mission of the Shipyard District, Inc. is to further the interests of Green Bay businesses, improve the lives of residents and contribute to a complete downtown destination.”

Since its creation, Shipyard District, Inc. has been hard at work bringing life and activity to the area.

“Over the last four years, we played an active role in reforming and supporting the Shipyard Neighborhood Association and recently the Tank Park Neighborhood Association, both of whom have impacted our district at the street level and improved quality of life for district residents… The Shipyard District has also been the home of All Bands on Deck, Green Bay’s largest music festival featuring hundreds of performances by bands at district bars, restaurants and food trucks. Since 2021, All Bands on Deck and our portfolio of district-wide festivities have generated a direct financial impact of almost half a million dollars on district businesses.”

Now, the Shipyard District, Inc. joins the ranks of On Broadway, Inc. and Downtown Green Bay as an officially recognized downtown district.

“Shipyard District, Inc. has continued to collaborate with the City of Green Bay through difficult challenges and rewarding accomplishments,” Knight said.

“Now, Shipyard District, Inc. is proud to finally announce, with the city of Green Bay, a public-private partnership between our organizations and the formal recognition of Shipyard District, Inc. as the representative business association for our district.”

With this formal recognition and established partnership, Knight said Shipyard District, Inc. will be better positioned to continue making improvements to the area.

“Our official partnership and recognition means that an organization that was grassroots and worked with the intention of a collaboration with the city now has an official channel for us to work very closely with the mayor and his administration,” Knight said, noting that a more formal partnership like the Shipyard District now has with the city means the potential to work together on projects involving improving the public right-of-way and working with city departments to improve the streetscape. “In order to work together holistically and make changes, we need to have a strong relationship with the local government. What Mayor Genrich has done is stepped in and reached out and made sure that we have that connection that all strong downtowns have with their local government.”

And the city of Green Bay is just as invested in seeing the area thrive.

“I think this is a great success story for this area…” said Green Bay Mayor Eric Genrich. “First and foremost, I want to thank the community members and business owners for taking a larger interest in the neighborhood as a whole and for all the vitality that’s been happening here over many years… It’s nice for the city to be able to recognize those efforts formally… We have some grand plans for this part of town. I don’t know if there’s an area that’s seen as much activity and as much investment as the city has demonstrated in this area of South Broadway here. And we’re looking forward to much more in the future with the Shipyard Park itself and we’re still really interested in revitalizing the river as you move further south, including the location of our coal piles.”

More information about Shipyard District, Inc. can be found at shipyarddistrict.org.