The express route
Pearl District partners with American Express to promote district
Wendy Culverwell
Business Journal staff writer
The Pearl District gained its holiday footing this year with the district's first-ever comprehensive Christmas promotion.
The program is backed by American Express, which signed on as a major sponsor of the Pearl District Business Association and underwrote the cost of everything from Christmas carolers to bag-checking services for customers.
"We're thrilled," said Monica Spoelstra Metz, marketing coordinator for the business association.
Shoppers can win prizes at participating vendors and leave their cars with valets -- complimentary to American Express cardholders and low-cost for all others. Carolers stroll the streets on weekends and a shuttle service ferries visitors between the Pearl District and a half-dozen downtown hotels.
One spa owner described the environment as "magical."
The business association couldn't afford a holiday promotion on its own, said Metz, and went looking for a partner.
Attracting American Express as a partner shows just how much the district has grown in the past 10 or so years since a strip of warehouses and rail yards reinvented itself as a business and residential district, with more than 5,500 residential units developed since 1994.
American Express likes what it sees in the Pearl District, said Lisa Gregg, a company spokeswoman. The merchant community routinely uses American Express to process sales transactions and the neighborhood's generally well-heeled residents fit the company's customer profile, she said.
It's been a long slog for the business association, which formed nearly a decade ago when the Pearl District was just starting to emerge around the former rail yards at Hoyt Street. A group of retailers and restaurateurs decided to publish a map to guide visitors and hit up their neighbors for contributions to pay for it.
Today, the association's membership fluctuates between 220 and 250 or so members and the base is expanding to include more professional services. Metz said there are many "off map" members -- those businesses that participate in the association but don't need or want to be on the shoppers' map, which it still publishes.
Joanne Sunnarborg founded Desperado, a Western boutique, nine years ago and was instrumental in soliciting $25 contributions for the initial map.
"It was pretty quiet down here," she recalled. Having a formal holiday promotion this year has generated traffic. She didn't have to take any extra steps to participate since she's accepted American Express almost since she opened in 1994.
"It's that demographic. If three people say, 'Do you take American Express?' That's good enough for me," she said.
Indeed, that's a big part of why the company stepped in to underwrite the multipronged promotion, Gregg said. A large base of merchants accept the card and the Pearl District offers the right setting for its cardholders, who tend to spend more on dining and shopping.
She wouldn't disclose what American Express is paying to support the Pearl District's holiday extravaganza, but it is certainly considerable.
To drive traffic to the Pearl District, American Express sent $15 prepaid gift cards to its cardholders throughout Portland. They can be used anywhere that accepts American Express, but carry the Pearl District logo -- no small coup, Metz noted with satisfaction.
Sunnarborg said she's seen plenty of gift cards with the Pearl District brand at her cash register.
"It is pretty fascinating that they would partner with us to launch this," she said.
Metz said there are plenty of perks for all visitors and the business association pitches the Pearl District as a holiday destination to residents in Portland's close-in neighborhoods as well as the West Hills and along Highway 26. It isn't trying to compete with the regional shopping malls.
"For us, it's people who want an urban arts, shopping and dining experience," she said.
John Cusack, proprietor of the Hawaiian-themed Kanani Pearl Spa, opened 13 months ago. Christmas is an important season for the personal services industry and indeed, he's busy now with clients who received gift certificates for spa treatments last Christmas.
The holiday promotion isn't just good for business, it's good for the business community, he said
"It's been very unifying for the merchants," he said. A sense of solidarity developed as participants met to hash out the program details.
To him, American Express' willingness to invest its marketing dollars in the neighborhood is an important mark of approval.
"I think it's a recognition of what the Pearl's accomplished," he said.
wculverwell@bizjournals.com | 503-219-3415