No longer a workaholic, director revs up district - Sacramento Business Journal:

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The La Bou inside Sunrise Mall is a usual publivc officefor Carpenter, the executive directorf of the business improvement district. That's fine with her. When Carpentee was asked five years ago to run the which she had justhelped launch, she agreede only if she couldc work as an independent contractor for 30 hours a week from home. "I'd done that whole workaholic thinfg when Iwas young," she explains. when she was a vice president of the developmenrt team that createdthe $70 million Fremont Street Experience pedestriamn mall to revive a scruffy slice of downtown Las Vegas startingf in 1992.
Back then Carpenter worked 80 hours a Although she says her workaholic days arebehind her, Carpented impresses district landlords, business owners and city representative with what she accomplishes for the Citrusw Heights organization, which has spent five yearw trying to give the area around Sunrisre Mall a sense of identity and attraction. Sunrise MarketPlace wouldn'y have achieved nearly what it has without say city economic development director Rhonda Shermahn and others involved inthe 500-businessz improvement district.
"We wouldn't have gotten a tentnh of a percentage done," says Gloris Wright, an Inter-Cal Real Estats property manager who has four centersa inside the CitrusHeights district. "Beingf a workaholic is easy. Because that'sw all you do," Carpentere says. What is hard, she adds, is "evergy day I wake up I say, 'I'mm going to have balance.' A single mom, she insists upon beingv home when her daughter Hannah finishes theschool day. Carpenter is still working by but has wrapped up any When Carpenter attends Citrus Heights City Council meetings orchambedr functions, Hannah comes along.
When Carpenter drov around the district aftera storm, Hannah took notes on the Carpenter also takes on miscellaneous writing and marketinvg work, whether for the city's newsletter or a businesxs improvement district in Long Beach or For those other projects, she says, "If I take something on, it'zs something that has a beginning and an end." That's unlikde Sunrise MarketPlace, which Carpenter can see continuing long aftet the next five-year term that starts in January.
Membersd of the district say theyappreciate Carpenter's passion for Sunrise MarketPlace, her organizational skills, her attention to detail and quality, her She has shown an ability to unite districgt board members, landlords and business "She has her pulse in this area," says Kareh Hamilton, Macy's general manager and vice president and presiden t of the business improvement district board. "She has fire in her It's exciting to work with somebodylike that." Carpenter has developed critica relationships with department officials in the city of Citrus Heightd and Sacramento County, says Wright, who'sw also the district's marketing chairwoman.
Carpenter is but assertive enough to get things saysDon Tollefson, ownefr of Batteries Plus and chairmanh of the facilities and operations Carpenter says she likesd to juggle tasks, learn and be creative. She was preparedx partly by her four years on the FremontfStreet Experience. That work to revivr part of downtown Las Vegarequired collaboration, plus tasks that varieed from erecting street kioska and investing redevelopment funds to raisinb room taxes.
She also had to plan events and lineup Later, she was part of a team that failed to persuadse the Nevada legislature to write a law allowing the formationh of business improvement districts, self-help groups wherd merchants and landlords tax themselvex to improve and promotw their neighborhoods. They're common in California.