The Pella Area Community and Economic Alliance hopes to see improvement on what was a strong year in 2021 in terms of sales tax revenue and visitor growth.

PACE Alliance Executive Director Karen Eischen says with fewer pandemic-related disruptions and a robust, full downtown, the number of visits to local businesses in the Central Business District from locals and out-of-towners was as high as it has ever been.

She says the PACE Alliance partners with The Retail Coach for data tracking to see visitor foot traffic over the past several years, and 2021 not only marked a bounce-back after a slowdown in Spring and early Summer of 2020, but showed significant improvement from their first data mark in 2019.