Downtown Dynamo

CHRISTINA HALEY, president and CEO of Wilmington Downtown iNC, bubbles over with enthusiasm when she talks about Wilmington’s core district, how it has changed, and its future development. She expects the city’s downtown area to continue to evolve as it attracts new businesses, residents, and visitors.  

“I am really passionate about this community,” Haley says. “I truly value everyone in it and everyone who believes in downtown Wilmington. I work to make sure people feel they are taken care of. That they believe this community is the right place for them.”  

WDI promotes the economic growth and development of the city’s downtown locale. The nonprofit works with a twenty-seven-member board of directors who represent the public and private sectors. The board members plan for – and some also invest in – the city of Wilmington.    

As a student at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, Haley says she loved the downtown area so much that she spent a lot of time studying there and frequented spots like Front Street’s Port City Java. After graduating, Haley worked as a journalist, first for Port City Daily and then for the Greater Wilmington Business Journal. In 2021, she joined WDI as its director of marketing and communications. Haley was promoted to vice president in 2022 and was named president and CEO in 2024.  

Haley says her responsibilities range from the visionary – like developing a strategic plan to make downtown Wilmington the economic, cultural, and civic heart of the city – to overseeing essential services such as operations, contracts, and accounts with the Wilmington and New Hanover County local governments, assisting with efforts to help the unhoused, helping businesses and developers with site selection, and fulfilling multiple additional duties that make the city run smoothly. 

“I am often a liaison between the city of Wilmington and our private sector, and I foster communication, collaboration, and growth to help downtown Wilmington create a really viable, vibrant place to work and invest in,” she says. “I come up with ways to promote downtown, to market downtown, and to help downtown grow and develop.” 

Haley’s efforts are evident in the number and type of businesses populating Wilmington’s downtown area. She often helps developers and business owners in the core district get the information and resources they need to get their business off the ground and thrive. For example, eighteen businesses now participate in the city’s micro loan program, which offers businesses loans of up to $20,000 at three-quarters of the New York prime rate, Haley says, and payment is deferred for six months.  

 Haley is also the force behind many of the initiatives that make the city inviting. Not only has she worked with the Wilmington Police Department to install lighting improvements and cameras for downtown safety, but she has also assisted local organizations to make it visually pleasing, including the Wilmington Arts Council’s first large-scale downtown mural and the installation of holiday lights along the Riverwalk. 

“We made this a destination where families can come downtown and they can grab an ice cream or hot chocolate, walk on the river during our winter season, go shopping, and enjoy some holiday lighting and activities,” she says. 

In the past few years, Haley’s role has expanded to include the area’s outlying districts, and she expects further growth to occur there as well. She is currently preparing to incorporate the long-term plans of the Wilmington and Beaches Convention & Visitors Bureau and New Hanover County into Wilmington Downtown’s goals.  

“I want to make sure we’re helping the city and county fulfill their plans and make their goals a part of our goals and mission as well,” she says.  

Haley also hopes to see the downtown’s tax base increase to $1 billion and for more commercial businesses move in. Two or three national retailers need to join the mom-and-pop shops that currently populate downtown if Wilmington’s core district is to be a complete and walkable community, she says.  

Thoughtful and targeted economic development initiatives are essential to strengthening and expanding downtown Wilmington’s economy, according to Haley, and she says the time to take those initiatives is now.  

“We’re at a pivotal movement in our history in how we grow,” Haley says. “We have some projects that need to occur and other projects that I hope will transpire over the next five to ten years. There’s a lot of strategic work to be done, and we will work with our city and county partners in order to maintain that continued, thoughtful growth that we’ve been experiencing over the past decade.” 

To view more of photographer Maggie Beck’s work, go to www.magsphotography.shop.

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