McGuinness
By: Mike Koury | Woodward Talk | Published January 10, 2025
BERKLEY — The Berkley Downtown Development Authority executive director will be leaving his role next month.
The city announced that Mike McGuinness has submitted his resignation and his final day of work will be Feb. 14.
McGuinness, who also is the Pontiac City Council president, stated he was leaving Berkley after Pontiac voters revised the city charter to make the council president a full-time job.
“It’s been a fantastic experience in Berkley, and it’s been really rewarding being able to make a positive impact in my role in these last few years,” he said. “In order to continue fully fulfilling my … elected leadership role in my hometown, I needed to be able to concentrate on Pontiac.”
McGuinness was hired as the interim executive director in July 2021 before accepting the full-time position that October.
During that time, the DDA launched the BOO!kley season, Berkley Pride, the Berkley Farmers Market and the Berkley Outdoor Social Scene district. There also have been improvements to landscaping, new benches, new bike racks and the installation of ArtSpace near the high school.
“It has been a great experience,” McGuinness said. “We have in downtown Berkley a really dynamic roster of local businesses from the retailers to the restaurants.”
According to an online posting by the city of Berkley, the city’s ideal candidate for the next executive director is “an excellent communicator and relationship builder” with “3-5 years of experience in downtown development, economic development, urban planning, or a related field.”
Interested candidates can learn more about the job at berkleymich.org/employment and send their resume and a cover letter to the City Manager’s Office at cmo@berkleymi.gov. The first review of applications will be Jan. 24.
City Manager Crystal VanVleck stated that an organizational committee, of which she is a member, will spearhead the process of finding the next director. The review of applications will lead to the first round of interviews at a later date.
“We haven’t internally clarified yet exactly what the process will be, meaning how many interviews,” she said. “I think that will a bit depend on how many applications we receive. It’s very difficult to replace Mr. McGuinness, obviously. He’s irreplaceable in so many ways, and he just has an energy to him that is unparalleled. And so it’s not that we’re expecting to get a Mike McGuinness 2.0, but we think that Berkley has the right environment to really attract someone who can bring in energy and bring their own ideas to the role, and we’re hoping to find that person. So we’re hoping for somebody who has a vision for the Berkley DDA, and who can also help carry out the current vision of the DDA and help expand on that.”
VanVleck stated that they’re hoping to find a candidate with experience in economic development, event planning and someone who can help the city continue to foster relationships with local businesses and provide them with the resources they need.
“We want them to be able to implement strategies that drive economic development, have some ideas for improving the public spaces and also continuing to create a vibrant downtown district,” she said.
There is no set date on when the city is looking to hire the next director and, with its current timeline, VanVleck believes it might be difficult to have somebody in place before McGuinness leaves.
“We may have to entertain something for the interim. And so we’re meeting internally to talk about our options there,” she said. “In a perfect world, we would have somebody in and chosen as the next DDA director before Mike leaves, but living in the world of realistic expectations, we’re just not quite sure we can meet that deadline exactly.”
Whenever the next executive director begins in the role, one piece of advice McGuinness gave was to know that the business owners and community members have been receptive to making improvements to the downtown.
“So, keep the forward momentum going and you'll find a lot of eager partners to volunteer, to collaborate, to help sponsor and to make downtown Berkley continuing to move forward,” he said.