Destination Caldwell outlines 2025 events, budget and downtown priorities; cites $1.6M in 2023 revenue

Danae, a representative of Destination Caldwell, told the Caldwell City Council that the nonprofit manages Indian Creek Plaza and the downtown Business Improvement District and presented the group's proposed 2025 programming and budget.

"We are essentially a destination marketing organization," Danae said, and described Destination Caldwell's role promoting local tourism, running marketing campaigns (including a Boise airport placement) and organizing events at Indian Creek Plaza.

The presenter said Destination Caldwell hosted more than 250 event days last year and that it generated $1,600,000 in revenue in 2023, with about 66% coming from events and the ice-skating operation, including bar sales. She gave an expense overview for 2023 of roughly $1,400,000, with payroll accounting for about 47% of costs, event expenses about 17%, general operating about 20% and marketing about 16%.

Danae cited aggregated location-intelligence data from Placer AI showing broad visitation: she reported about 3.2 million visits in 2023, 564 unique visitors who came on average five times and an average plaza dwell time of 99 minutes. She also highlighted signature-event attendance, saying Indian Creek Festival drew about 13,000 people over two days and Winter Wonderland about 34,000 over three days.

On funding, Danae said BID assessments made up roughly 18% of Destination Caldwell's 2023 revenue; she reported the BID assessed about $341,000 and collected about $324,000 and described a $45,000 competitive grant from the Southwest Idaho Travel Association used for regional marketing. For 2025, she outlined planned uses for approximately $350,000 of BID funds, including $25,000 for downtown marketing and promotions, $50,000 toward event expenses (noting marquee bands can account for nearly half that line) and about $157,000 for staffing, with $5,000 proposed for downtown beautification.

Danae also raised development priorities: she said Destination Caldwell supports a premium downtown hotel, noted the organization paid about $50,000 to Cushing Terrell for schematics on a possible 7th and Arthur plaza extension, and asked the council to consider an economic impact study to measure downtown jobs and revenue. She described a $50,000 donation from Kilometers Engineering with Bridal Development for a playground project but warned site constraints could require retaining walls and raise costs.

Council members and attendees asked questions about signage and parking, and Danae said banners and pedestrian signage were designed to be changeable while larger, high-pressure-laminate signs are harder to update. A council member requested an organizational chart and a balance sheet; Danae said Destination Caldwell employs 16 year-round staff (six facility employees and nine core office staff) and about 15 seasonal skate-shop workers and offered to provide the org chart and financials to council members. She also described sponsorship and naming partnerships, citing Lactalis as the skate shop naming partner and Bogus Basin as a plaza activation partner.

The council thanked the presenter; the meeting was adjourned until 6 p.m.