About BUP
Our Mission
Create an environment, experience, and economy in which downtown Bethesda businesses, residents, and visitors can thrive and prosper.
From 2026/2027 Board Chair Christopher Smith
I am honored to serve as Chair of the Bethesda Urban Partnership (BUP) Board 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 2026 – June 2027 term, I would like to thank our community for its continued support of downtown Bethesda. We are very fortunate to have a BUP team that has delivered outstanding maintenance, marketing and mobility services since 1994, receiving many accolades from our business, government and community partners for our work in downtown Bethesda.
Our five-year Strategic Plan centers around our Mission to “Create an environment, experience, and economy in which downtown Bethesda businesses, residents, and visitors can thrive and prosper.” As such, our team is working hard every day to make downtown Bethesda the best downtown in our region with a focus on livability, economic viability and a vibrancy that is unmatched by our competition.
Downtown Bethesda is filled with amenities for residents, opportunities for businesses, and a lively atmosphere welcoming to everyone. We’ve had the opportunity to see our downtown evolve from a small suburb into an exciting urban community that offers great restaurants, unique shops, cultural programming and a place many residents and businesses call home.
We also work closely with local businesses, promote transportation alternatives, and have a significant presence on social media to stay connected with our constituents. Some highlights from the past year include festivals and events attracting hundreds of thousands of people to our wonderful downtown to enjoy activities such as the Taste of Bethesda, Outdoor Movies, Summer Concerts and the Bethesda Fine Arts Festival.
Additionally, the Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District has also made our downtown a vibrant place filled with public murals, artistic signal boxes, local galleries, theaters and arts events making our area culturally rich and providing quality entertainment close to home.
I am grateful for the privilege of working alongside the BUP team and my Board colleagues. We remain dedicated to the success of our downtown through our efforts in promoting local businesses, creating a sense of place for our residents and visitors, and maintaining a clean, colorful and well-manicured downtown.
Best regards,
Christopher Smith
Chair
Bethesda Urban Partnership
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.