Downtown Bismarck Community Foundation outlines neighborhood reinvestment gains and new outreach efforts

Kate Herzog, representing the Downtown Bismarck Community Foundation, told the commission the foundation’s partnership with the city yielded several downtown initiatives and resources during 2025.

Herzog described the Neighborhood Reinvestment Initiative (NRI), a low‑interest loan program for older homes that this year raised its maximum eligible home value to $300,000. "In 2025, we had 13 applications that amounted to almost $400,000 in improvements," Herzog said, adding that average requested work was about $30,000 and the average property value of applicants was roughly $221,000. Participating lenders named in the presentation were Gate City Bank and Capital Credit Union.

Herzog also reviewed other activities supported by the foundation: use of placemaking and visitor data for downtown planning; participation on the parking authority and land‑development code steering committee; assistance with recruitment for city advisory boards and the Citizens Academy; multicultural welcome events and Vinterfest; and support for the event center and downtown promotions such as a winter "burger slam" to boost restaurant traffic in slow months.

Dr. Carl Slovak (presenting as a partner with the foundation) said the foundation will pursue succession‑planning workshops in the first quarter to help business owners — particularly older owners — prepare exit strategies. "We want them to have some options and know what those options are," he said.

Herzog said the foundation and its partners have also been using locational visitor data (Placer) to help departments with grant reporting and to advise consultants working on the event center and parking ramp studies. The presentation closed with a brief Q&A about how the foundation tracks economic impact and which metrics staff can provide to the commission going forward.

The commission thanked the presenters and invited further data in future updates.