EXCELSIOR SPRINGS – Downtown had “a really positive economic impact year” in 2021, Downtown Excelsior Partnership Executive Director Lyndsey Baxter told city leaders at the Hall of Waters. Last year, the Community Improvement District, or CID, brought in almost $6.5 million downtown “in reported taxable retail sales,” Baxter said while giving the DEP’s annual report in a PowerPoint presentation March 7. The amount rose 32.7% from 2020 and 90.2% from the CID’s inception seven years ago, she said. “That is not only attributed to our increased marketing efforts and seeing the ROI (return on investment) of those visitors coming to us, but also the relationships we were able to build with our community residents during COVID-19 and those shutdowns,” she said. The DEP spent $104,980 promoting downtown last year. That amount also covered the DEP’s promotional campaign, Visit Excelsior, Baxter said. The campaign helped generate 116,492 visits to the Visit Excelsior website, with 869,485…