About BUP
Our Mission
Create an environment, experience, and economy in which downtown Bethesda businesses, residents, and visitors can thrive and prosper.
From 2024/2025 Board Chair Katya Marin
I am honored to serve as Chair of the Bethesda Urban Partnership Board (BUP) of Directors, an organization I have had the pleasure of being a part of for many years. As I assume the position for the July 2024 – June 2025 term, I would like to thank our community for its continued support of downtown Bethesda. As a local resident, I look forward to leading an organization that is dedicated to the success of our downtown enjoyed by residents and visitors alike. Our community is fortunate to have successful local businesses like our wonderful restaurants and retailers as well as exciting arts events, cultural programming and more.
In December 2023, the Montgomery County Council unanimously reauthorized the Bethesda Urban Partnership to continue our work of marketing and maintaining downtown Bethesda for another five years. We worked closely with the County’s Office of Legislative Oversight which did a thorough review of BUP, our mission and our daily efforts in managing downtown Bethesda. BUP was created in 1994, and since that time, we have been working in maintenance and landscaping, marketing and mobility. You’ll see our dedicated team in red shirts working throughout downtown Bethesda, at our special events and more.
BUP has a Board and staff dedicated to not only taking care of our downtown, but also marketing our many amenities to attract new residents, businesses, visitors and artists. Downtown Bethesda is one of the premier neighborhoods in the Greater Washington, D.C. area, and we are thrilled that so many local businesses and residents call Bethesda home.
Special events such as our Summer Concert series, Outdoor Movies, Bike to Work Day, Taste of Bethesda and Bethesda Fine Arts Festival make Bethesda a welcoming and exciting place. Public art programs, local galleries and arts events such as the Bethesda Film Fest make our area culturally rich and provide quality entertainment close to home. Bethesda’s artist and cultural community, designated as a Maryland Arts & Entertainment District, is one of the many reasons residents, visitors and
developers alike come to downtown Bethesda.
I am grateful to have the privilege of working alongside the BUP team and my Board colleagues as we remain dedicated to maintaining, supporting and promoting all that Bethesda has to offer. As Chair, I look forward to another successful year working with our constituents and fulfilling our best strategic vision for downtown Bethesda’s future..
Best regards,
Katya Marin
Chair
Bethesda Urban Partnership, Inc.
Operations & Funding
Established by Montgomery County in 1994, Bethesda Urban Partnership, Inc. (BUP) is a downtown management organization that maintains and markets downtown Bethesda. The organization was developed to promote downtown Bethesda as a desirable place to live, work and visit as well as foster a community that features restaurants, retailers, arts venues and more.
The BUP team includes more than 30 employees working in marketing, maintenance, mobility and administration who produce cultural events and community festivals and attend to landscaping and maintenance needs. BUP also manages Bethesda Transportation Solutions (BTS), the Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District, and the Bethesda Circulator as well as the non-profit art spaces, Gallery B, Studio B and the Triangle Art Studios.
BUP is operated by an 11-member Board of Directors comprising residents, businesses and developers appointed by the County Executive. The organization is funded primarily by revenue generated from the Bethesda Parking Lot District fees, in addition to the commercial Urban District property tax. Private sponsors partner with BUP on events such as Taste of Bethesda and the Bethesda Fine Arts Festival.
Maintenance
Bethesda’s sidewalks, streets and flowerbeds are meticulously maintained by the 14-person BUP maintenance team. Throughout the week the team manages trash removal, cleans and repairs streets, trims trees, maintains 188,000 square feet of turf and more.
Marketing
BUP’s marketing team creates year-round community events, produces free guides that detail Bethesda’s restaurant, retail, home fashion and arts organizations and operates downtown Bethesda’s Web site, www.bethesda.org. The efforts of BUP’s marketing team target downtown Bethesda’s residents, tourists, visitors and employees. The Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District is also managed by BUP’s marketing team. BUP’s marketing team is the producer of Imagination Bethesda, Taste of Bethesda, a free Summer Concert Series, Yappy Hour, Winter Wonderland and Bethesda Outdoor Movies. To stay up to date on all of the Bethesda Urban Partnership’s events and amenities, please join the BUP email list and follow us on social media.
Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District
The state of Maryland designated downtown Bethesda as an Arts & Entertainment District effective July 1, 2002. The 501(c)(3) non-profit organization is comprised of a 12-member Board of Directors as well as an advisory committee of local artists and arts businesses representatives. The mission of the Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District is to create and implement arts and entertainment projects that contribute to the artistic, cultural and economic growth of downtown Bethesda.
Special tax incentives are in place that will benefit artists, arts enterprises and developers that are located within the Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District. The Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District is the producer of the Bethesda Fine Arts Festival, The Trawick Prize: Bethesda Contemporary Art Awards, the Bethesda Painting Awards, Play In A Day, “Paint the Town,” and manages Gallery B, Studio B and Triangle Art Studios.
Mobility
Bethesda Transportation Solutions helps manage the traffic in downtown Bethesda by marketing local, state and federal commuter benefits programs and tax incentives to employers. BTS promotes alternative transportation such as rail, bus, carpools and biking with the goal of reducing the number of Bethesda employees who drive alone to work.