On March 22, 2017

Coppinger to leave downtown Rutland post

By Alan J. Keays, VTDigger

RUTLAND — Michael Coppinger is stepping down next month from his post as chief marketer for the city.
Coppinger, the executive director of the Downtown Rutland Partnership for the past 10 years, said he formally submitted his resignation Tuesday, March 14, at a meeting of the organization’s board of directors.
“Ten years is a long time to be in a role as a downtown director,” he said Wednesday. “I think that healthy turnover in a job like that is good.”
His resignation takes effect April 14.
Coppinger, 39, ran for mayor, finishing third in the four-person field. He previously served six years on the city’s Board of Aldermen more than a decade ago and ran a previous campaign for mayor in 2007.
He said he had started thinking about leaving the Downtown Rutland Partnership about a month ago.
“I felt this was a good time,” he said. “It’s a time right now where a director needs to be fully dedicated to what’s coming up in the summer and fall.”
He has no immediate plans for what will be next, but said he has no intention of leaving the area. Coppinger says he may turn his entertainment and DJ business into a special events management company.
During his tenure, the Downtown Rutland Partnership launched Hops on Top, a brew fest on the upper floor of the downtown transit center, and Friday Night Live, a summer event in which Center Street is turned into a marketplace and venue for activities and entertainment.
He also talked of increasing “market-rate” housing in the city’s business district.
First-floor storefronts are now about 80 percent occupied, he said, compared to a high rate of occupancy in the mid-90s. Two prominent businesses recently moved out of downtown, the Coffee Exchange and Hawley’s florist.
Coppinger said serving as the head of the Downtown Rutland Partnership was the best job he has held.
“I literally had no one day that was exactly like the other my whole 10 years,” he said. “That made it exciting for me and that was motivation for coming to work every day. That’s tough to find in a job.”

Do you want to submit feedback to the editor?

Send Us An Email!

Related Posts

Weather impacts Killington mid-week skiing

May 8, 2025
Killington Resort planned on keeping its lifts running during the week until May 11 (then weekends only), but rain and warm temps over the last several days have taken a serious toll on its snowpack. Therefore, Killington Resort will be closed Thursday, May 8, and Friday, May 9, to preserve what they have left and…

How Killington became The Beast: Part 9

May 7, 2025
Snow, summer, and snowshed: 1960 saw fast progress How Killington became The Beast: Part 9 By Karen D. Lorentz Editor’s Note: This is the ninth segment of an 11-part series on the factors that enabled Killington to become The Beast of the East. Quotations are from author interviews in the 1980s for the book “Killington,…

Woodstock Foundation honors the winners of new Rockefeller Legacy Scholarship

May 7, 2025
Three Woodstock Union High School students were honored on April 30 for their visionary ideas about shaping Vermont’s future as the first recipients of the Laurance and Mary Rockefeller Legacy Scholarship, a new annual essay competition created to honor the Rockefellers’ lasting impact on the community. The scholarship program was launched in 2025 by The…

Jimmy LeSage Memorial Scholarship awarded to Brycen Gandin of Mendon

May 7, 2025
The first-ever Jimmy LeSage Memorial Scholarship, a $2,500 award created to honor the life and legacy of wellness pioneer Jimmy LeSage, has been awarded to Brycen Gandin, a graduating senior at Rutland Senior High School. Brycen, a resident of Mendon, can use the scholarship toward the college of his choice this coming academic year. Brycen was…