New director bringing marketing skills to Iowa City’s South of 6 Business District

IOWA CITY — Maurice A. Davis has been named as the next executive director of the South of 6 Iowa City Business District, which seeks to revitalize the Pepperwood Plaza area and use a newly approved economic development tax.

Since moving to Iowa in 2013, Davis has worked as a financial adviser, run a marketing firm, worked as an entrepreneurship program coordinator at Jane Boyd Community House, been a podcast host and written a children’s book about entrepreneurship. He also taught at Kirkwood Community College, where he went to school.

  Buy Photo

An Illinois native, Davis joined the National Guard and served in a combat arms position before he was medically discharged. After that, he started looking for work where he could use the skills he had learned, ultimately looking for a job in law enforcement.

He settled on the Corridor area due to the multiple penitentiaries in the region. But Davis never ended up working in law enforcement.

He decided to pursue the South of 6 job after he and his marketing firm business partner decided to part ways and chase other opportunities.

“Before I was focused on ‘how do I get inside of your business and help you build infrastructure, help you create opportunities to generate customers’,” said Davis. “Now I'm staying outside of the business and saying, ‘how do we create an environment that fosters a natural flow to bring more prosperity to the region,’ but very similar problems in regard to, how do we make sure that the environment is economically viable.”

Davis had been introduced to former South of 6 executive director Angie Jordan through his work at the Jane Boyd house and continued to work with her over the years on various projects. Jordan stepped away from the position in May for health reasons.

The self-supported municipal improvement district — or SSMID — is an economic development tool intended to revitalize businesses and support local entrepreneurs in the area. The money collected from a levy that businesses there decided to charge — which started in 2022 — is used to revitalize the Pepperwood Plaza area south of Highway 6 between Broadway and Keokuk streets.

Since Davis has been in the new role for only about a month, he’s still figuring out what it will entail. But he said he wants his work to align with the South of 6 mission: Bringing people into the district, making the district comfortable for visitors, residents and organizations and providing business support.

“My power is more bringing people together, helping facilitate connections, resources and conversations. And then there's some opportunity that I have with the way that SSMIDs are structured, to use portions of that budget to help move projects along,” he said.

Davis said a key component of his work will be managing resources effectively and efficiently, something he has experience in with his past marketing work.

“I think a lot of times when people think marketing, they think like social media posts, they think making commercials, they think graphic design. That's not really where my background lies. It's more in research. It's more in strategic development … and what does it look like long term for us to do something that matters, and how do we make all those pieces fit?” Davis said.

For the time being, he’ll continue to live in Cedar Rapids, but would consider moving to Iowa City if there is a property that made sense for him.

Davis received his bachelor’s degree in finance at Upper Iowa University in 2016 and a master’s in business administration from Capella University in 2022.

Davis has also served on the Cedar Rapids City Council’s ADA commission and on boards with the African American Museum of Iowa and African American Professionals of Cedar Rapids.

Davis has invited community members to meet him from 3-7 p.m. Wednesday at the South District Market, 947 U.S. Highway 6 in Iowa City.

Comments: megan.woolard@thegazette.com