Our Story
Historic Downtown Alpena is the food, arts, and regional hub of Northeast Michigan, located on the shores of the Thunder Bay River and a few minutes walk from Lake Huron and the Alpena Marina & Boat Harbor. As a major port of the lumber era, Downtown Alpena is home to a significant amount of historic buildings from the turn of the 19th century that have been preserved & renovated over the years.
Now Downtown Alpena is home to a diverse and vibrant set of nearly 200 businesses, including art galleries, a year-round professional live theater, a movie theater, a winery, the only Marine Sanctuary located on the Great Lakes, and a variety of offices, restaurants, pubs, and shops.
Now Downtown Alpena is home to a diverse and vibrant set of nearly 200 businesses, including art galleries, a year-round professional live theater, a movie theater, a winery, the only Marine Sanctuary located on the Great Lakes, and a variety of offices, restaurants, pubs, and shops.
explore downtownPlanning a visit downtown? Learn more about: - where to shop - where to eat - upcoming events downtown |
locate downtownBecome a part of the downtown community. Browse available properties and learn more about locating your office, store, or restaurant downtown. |
learn moreLearn more about downtown's businesses, history, and happenings by visiting our blog, Blog Downtown Alpena! |
Announcements
The DDA Office is CLOSED to all walk-ins for the time being. If you need to reach out please leave a phone message at
(989) 356-6422 or shoot us an email (downtownalpenami@gmail.com) and we'll get back to you as soon as we can!
2020 Downtown Sidewalk Sales will be held July 24th + 25th. Checkout our Facebook Event to see what businesses will be participating!
Want to know how you can support our downtown merchants during this time?
We've reached out to all of our Downtown Merchants to ask how we can support them at this time and we've started a page dedicated to updates and tips for supporting downtown businesses and organizations during the COVID-19 outbreak.
Here are 5 things you can do to support any downtown business:
All COVID-19 updates can be found by clicking the "SUPPORT DOWNTOWN" button below.
Here are 5 things you can do to support any downtown business:
- Like/share/post about them on social media. Throwback to your favorite meal or memory there, your favorite product you bought from them, something you're going to miss in these coming weeks. Help boost their engagement and give them a little free adverstising.
- Leave them a nice review on Facebook, Google or Yelp. Let everyone else know how great they are. Leaving reviews can really help because it boosts businesses up in the search results when people are looking for places to go online and they're something that will have a lasting impact into the future.
- Buy a gift certificate that you can use later. Think about it as an investment, use the money you would have spent there anyway or put aside some you can use as a treat later when we've made it through this difficult time.
- Shop online. Some of our downtown merchants have online stores and shopping options and some are working on getting their inventory online so you can shop from home. We're keeping an updated list of all downtown shops that have online shops and services below.
- Order food from your favorite restaurant for delivery or pick-up and takeaway, most places have only closed their dine-in services, but are keeping their kitchens open! We're keeping an updated list of those places at the link below as well!
All COVID-19 updates can be found by clicking the "SUPPORT DOWNTOWN" button below.