Cda Merchants Plan Downtown Parties

Downtown merchants will stay open until 8 p.m. Thursday as part of a new promotion designed to bring people back to the city’s core.

“First Thursday Downtown” will feature live music in Sherman Park, and open houses by many of the downtown’s 125 retailers.

“It’s designed to bring the party back downtown,” said Clark’s Jewelry owner Dan Clark, one of the event’s organizers.

Stores and galleries are planning fashion shows, cooking demonstrations, artists at work, and free hors d’oeuvres. The event is sponsored by the Downtown Coeur d’Alene Association, and it will be repeated on the first Thursday of each month.

“No one’s looking at it as a moonlight sale,” Clark said. Rather, merchants wanted to keep business people downtown after hours, and encourage local residents to visit the city’s center.

“We wanted to welcome the locals back downtown … and let them know that we have a fun place and something that has character,” said Jim Duncan, owner of the Wine Cellar and chairman of the downtown association’s First Thursday Committee.

The event is patterned after a downtown promotion that has been successful in Boise, he added.

The Coeur d’Alene Kids Marimba Band and Painkillers, a blues band, are scheduled to play in the park on Thursday, and local merchants will carry information about upcoming events. The next “First Thursday” falls on July 2.