Downtown Ithaca Alliance Announces New CEO & Grant Program

By Matt Dougherty

It has been a busy week at the Downtown Ithaca Alliance as the organization has announced a new Chief Executive Officer along with the launch of a new grant program aimed at helping businesses recover from the pandemic.

New Leadership

The Downtown Ithaca Alliance announced who their next leader will be as Nan Rohrer, a Baltimore-based consultant with years of experience working with organizations focused on downtown revitalization, has been welcomed to the DIA as the group’s new Chief Executive Officer.

Rohrer will officially start work by early July, taking the place of longtime leader Gary Ferguson, who announced in February that he would be retiring at the end of June.

The announcement came on June 5 and was the result of an extensive nationwide search conducted by the Pittsburgh-based executive search firm HRS. The search process was led by former DIA Board Chair Ashley Cake and a group of six volunteer search committee members.

Following the announcement, the Chair of the DIA’s Board of Directors John Guttridge said, “Nan has experience carrying out the core focus of a business improvement district in diverse neighborhoods. She has built bridges between multicultural communities while carrying out economic development in a way that hears, respects, and preserves the interests of long-standing communities of color rather than displacing them through gentrification. She has navigated the complex web of different interests such that everyone was heard and welcomed in the community while still building economic vitality and carrying out the clean, safe, and green function that any BID must.”

Rhorer will be taking her leadership role at the DIA during a time when the organization is working on attracting new businesses to fill thousands of square feet of empty office and retail space in Ithaca’s downtown.

After accepting the position Rohrer said, “Downtown Ithaca is well known nationally as a unique community gathering place filled with local dining and retail, cultural experiences, concerts, festivals, and much more that make it the center of the city and region. I am excited to bring my expertise to Ithaca and build upon the great success of the DIA and Downtown already