Last January, former Howard County Executive Ken Ulman paid a visit to Tim Bojanowski’s small social media marketing company, Zest Social Media Solutions, in downtown Towson. Bojanowski is also the vice president of the Towson Chamber of Commerce.

Ulman was visiting Bojanowski on a paid mission for Towson University to gather information to help the university connect the campus with the broader community surrounding the state school. Indeed, over the previous three months Ulman had spent much time in Towson on that mission, visiting business leaders, politicians and community members.

As the pair looked out over downtown Towson from Bojanowski’s business on the fourth floor of an office building on Chesapeake Avenue, they talked about how to encourage a successful business climate in Towson. One of the subjects they discussed was whether Towson could benefit from a food amenity similar to the nearby Belvedere Square Market, just south of the Baltimore City line that includes a variety of restaurants.

Ulman posed the questions: “Where do we do that?” “Should we do it here?”

Ulman asked those and many other such questions about Towson’s future on behalf of Towson University officials, who hired his consulting firm, Margrave Strategies, last fall to assist them in discovering how the university can form a stronger partnership with the surrounding community that, at the same time, will help to ensure the university’s continued growth.

Read full article: Towson University seeks to improve downtown through stronger bonds with neighbors – Baltimore Sun