DOWNTOWN 101, sponsored by The Baldwin Companies, will be held on Tuesday, January 22, at 8 a.m. in the offices of the Downtown Winston-Salem Partnership.  The free, 3-hour information seminar is for anyone who is thinking about starting a new business or would like to know more about the downtown market.  For more information or to register, call (336) 354-1500 or e-mail admin@dwsp.org.

CONGRATULATIONS TO ANDREW RODGERS, the Executive Director of the RiverRun International Film Festival for having received an Excellence Award for his contribution to independent film.  This year’s festival will be held April 23-28 and will feature nearly 100 films from around the world.  For more information about the festival, visit www.riverrunfilm.com  

CAFFE PRADA is scheduled to open at Fourth and Broad in January 2008.  The 1,400 square foot café will feature fresh coffee, espresso, pastries, gelato and salads.  A small international food market will stock certain gourmet items as well as every day grocery items.

SAVE THE DATE FOR THE DOWNTOWN PARTNERSHIP ANNUAL MEETING, which is taking place on Tuesday, February 12 at the Grand Pavilion in the Embassy Suites Hotel at 8:00 am.  This year, the key note speaker will be Pat Whalen, a leading pioneer in downtown development from Asheville, North Carolina.  Everyone is welcome to hear the latest update on Downtown and witness Mayor Joines present the Downtown Excellence Awards.  A special thank you to the Twin City Quarter for once again hosting this great event.

THE RUSH 24/7 IS OPEN for business in their temporary facility located at the corner of Fourth and Spruce Streets in the Dot Commerce building.  They offer a full range of weights and cardio equipment and are currently accepting new members.  They will move into their permanent facility in the Twin City Building at the corner of Fourth and Marshall Streets in a few months.  Visit www.therush247.com for more information.

SILK ROAD SALON & SPA IS NOW OPEN for business.  It is located at 460 N. Cherry Street in the Embassy Suites Hotel, a part of the Twin City Quarter complex.  They offer full service salon and spas services.  They are open daily from 8:00 am- 10:00 pm.  Please call 727-4805 for more information.

THE DOWNTOWN WINSTON-SALEM PARTNERSHIP has elected the following people to its board of directors for 3-year terms:  Amy Garland, President of A. S. Garland, Inc. The Marketing Company; Mike Pitt, Winston-Salem Chronicle; Michael Suggs, Goler Community Development Corporation.  Reappointed for three years are Dr. David Hughes, First Baptist Church; Wanda Merschel, City Council; Cort Bennett, Wachovia Corp.; Brent Waddell, BB&T; Gayle Anderson, WS Chamber of Commerce; and Mike Miller, Winston-Salem Journal.

LEONARD RYDEN BURR, the largest locally owned and operated residential real estate firm in Winston-Salem, has hired Capture Public Relations and Marketing to handle the firm’s communications.  Capture will provide a wide range of media relations, copywriting, collateral production, marketing strategy and Web-based services for Leonard Ryden Burr, which has 33 sales associates.

THE DOWNTOWN PLAN is now available for download at the Downtown Winston-Salem Partnership website.  The plan sets out short term goals for the next two years; medium term goals for the next five years; and long-term goals for the next ten years.  The plan calls for concentrating on making the Fourth Street and Trade/Liberty Street corridors – the Core District – into a vibrant, pedestrian-friendly, urban environment.  To download the Downtown Plan, just visit www.dwsp.org and click on “Downtown Info”.

THE TATTOO ARCHIVE is a new business in the 600 block of West Fourth Street. Owners Chuck Eldridge and Harriet Cohen collect, preserve and share knowledge from their archives about the history of tattooing.  They also maintain the Paul Rogers Research Center, a nonprofit that is built around Rogers’ extensive collection of photographs, tattoo design sheets and tattooing machines.  An exhibit of items from the Rogers Collection is currently on display.  The shop has design sheets for tattoos that date to the late 1800s, business cards and design sketches.  In March, an exhibit on Norman Rockwell’s Tattoo Designs will be featured.

PIEDMONT TRIAD RESEARCH PARK’S  Wet Lab Launch Pad, a new facility which offers short-term subsidized lab space, has its first two tenants. The companies are Carolina Liquid Chemistries Corp. (CLC) and Tengion.  CLC develops and manufactures materials for diagnostic testing and will use the wet lab to research new techniques for detecting syphilis.  Tengion is working on commercializing research into regenerating human organs and tissue from a patients own cells. 

ATLANTIC COAST COMMERCIAL is the new leasing agent for three historic downtown buildings: the former Dewey’s Bakery site at 209 West Fourth Street, two floors of the O’Hanlon Building at 105 West Fourth Street, and the former Woolworth Building at 408 North Liberty Street.  Call 768-1800 for more information.

THE FORSYTH COUNTY REGISTER OF DEEDS is moving to the Forsyth County Government Center located at 201 North Chestnut Street. They will be CLOSED ON FRIDAY, JANUARY 25, AND MONDAY, JANUARY 28, 2008.  They will reopen for business on Tuesday, January 29, in the new location.  The phone number will not change. 

THE MAKE-A-WISH FOUNDATION of Central & Western North Carolina is proud to become a member of the Downtown Winston-Salem Partnership. The mission of the organization could not be fulfilled without the relationships with and the support of a healthy business community. MAW is looking forward to establishing new partnerships in downtown Winston-Salem. Please call Don Timmons, Triad Regional Director, with any questions about Make-A-Wish, or ideas about how you can work together to help grant the wishes of local children. Phone: 403-1964, or email: dtimmons@ncwish.org.  Visit the chapter website at: www.ncwish.org.

AN UPDATE ON OFFICER CHARLES McCOY BRINGS GOOD NEWS.  Officer McCoy is making greats strides in his recovery at home.  He is constantly improving and getting stronger with regularly scheduled physical therapy.  He is still planning to return to regular duty with the Downtown Bike Patrol.  Officer McCoy was injured in a training accident on October 15.