A new group is now organizing the monthly First Fridays event in downtown Aurora.
First Fridays, as the name suggests, are events held on the first Friday of nearly every month to encourage foot traffic downtown through specials at multiple local businesses. Last Friday, for example, Society 57 offered cocktails and kabobs along with live music and art, while The Venue offered a free live concert.
Last Friday’s event, which had over 32 downtown businesses and organizations participating, was also the first time the event was organized by the Aurora Area Economic Alliance. It took First Fridays over from Aurora Downtown, an economic development organization that recently joined with others to create the Alliance.
Kelly O’Brien, Alliance president and CEO, told The Beacon-News on Friday that the Alliance would be bringing some changes to the event, such as a renewed focus on the arts and more marketing.
Plus, the Alliance will be “very thoughtful with each month,” she said, such as with the spring egg hunt from last Friday’s event.
Businesses across downtown Aurora hid plastic eggs throughout their establishments, and each customer that found one got some sort of prize. Prizes included discounts, gift cards, promotional items and other similar things, according to a post on the Aurora Downtown Facebook page about the egg hunt.
The Alliance will be taking recommendations about the First Fridays events from property owners and businesses within Special Service Area One, which is downtown Aurora, so that “whatever we are doing aligns with what they think will help to grow their business,” O’Brien said.
Several downtown business owners told The Beacon-News that First Fridays events have, in fact, helped their businesses be successful.
“When I first started, it was really a huge catalyst for the growth of my business,” Shannon Gutierrez, owner of the Wyckwood House boutique and cocktail bar on South River Street, said on Friday. “Every Friday, our store was full of community members that just wanted to come and experience what was happening in the downtown.”
Gutierrez said she has been participating in First Fridays for about seven years and now relies on it to bring in business and more awareness.
Last Friday, Wyckwood House had live music as well as several pop-up booths from other local businesses and organizations, which Gutierrez said was typical for First Fridays.
One such booth was set up by the founders of Bella Luxe MedSpa, a new business set to open on West Galena Boulevard in Aurora within the next couple months.
Brooke Minton, the business’ practice manager, said the booth was advertising an introduction event on April 18 also at Wyckwood House that is set to showcase the kinds of services the business would be offering. Minton called Gutierrez and the opportunity she is giving Bella Luxe MedSpa “incredible.”
First Fridays have been “essential” for small businesses in downtown Aurora, according to Karen Nicholas of Yellow Bird Books.
“The foot traffic is unlike any other night,” she said.
Yellow Bird Books’ monthly special event centers around artwork. Nicholas said the store puts out a call to artists around a certain theme — for this month, it was “Make ‘em Laugh” — and the artists who submit work can put up original pieces or prints around the store, which are displayed for the rest of the month.
The artwork has been “really successful,” Nicholas said. Not only does the store like to support local artists, she said, but the art also makes the independent bookstore unique because it has things created by local people.
First Fridays are just a “nice, vibrant time” when the store is busy with people hanging out, looking at the art and looking at books, Nicholas said.
While the Alliance has not yet finalized a contract with the city to officially do the work previously done by Aurora Downtown, O’Brien said business owners are already embracing Alliance staff.
The combined efforts of multiple former organizations, she said, means the Alliance can now offer downtown businesses a “whole suite” of services.
“That’s where the Alliance is so powerful,” O’Brien said. “It’s like the right hand finally knows what the left hand is doing.”
Already, the Alliance has helped to bring more awareness to downtown businesses by working with APS Data Technologies to update the Destination Aurora app with a map of downtown businesses, according to O’Brien.
She said that, within a week of hearing downtown business owners were disappointed that some businesses were represented on the app while others were not, the Alliance had already worked with the company to add the map, which is still a work in progress.
The Alliance also heard in meetings with downtown business owners last week that there are “always meetings” but “nobody does anything,” O’Brien said, so getting the map added to the app was also to show people the Alliance is “really committed to action.”
rsmith@chicagotribune.com
