Welcome to Virginia Main Street!

Welcome to the Virginia Main Street blog. This space is devoted to making downtown and community development information available to you in an easy to use format.

We will be updating this blog regularly, so either bookmark this page in your browser or better yet, sign up for an rss feed which you can do here.

The Virginia Main Street blog is here to assist you, so if you have any suggestions for topics or questions about your downtown or our services, e-mail us.

How green is your Main Street?

How green is your Main Street? The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), Virginia Tourism Corporation (VTC), and Virginia Hospitality & Travel Association (VHTA) have partnered for the Virginia Green program. This is the statewide campaign to promote environmentally friendly practices in Virginia’s tourism industry – and it’s one more opportunity to market your community.

Certification is given by the DEQ and applications can be found at their Web site. The program originally began as Virginia Green Lodgingm but it is growing to include many more aspects of the tourism industry. Just a few of the focus areas for qualification are optional linen service, recycling, elimination or minimization of styrofoam disposables, water and energy conservation, and green events.

Greening your Main Street has benefits beyond the environment. It make economic sense! Conservation efforts can have a direct correlation to dollars saved. Some of the benefits of joining are: a listing on the Virginia Green Web site, use of Virginia Green logo, and an increase in environmentally conscious visitors.

As easy as 1, 2, 3: A downtown market analysis tool at your fingertips

A proper market study can be an expensive and complicated pursuit.  It’s a major community project that requires time, commitment, and the active involvement of a group of dedicated people.  And let’s be realistic too. Considering that dedicated group is volunteering their time outside of work and family responsibilities, completing and implementing a market study is one of the more difficult tasks of a Main Street organization. It’s certainly not motivating like the excitement of planning a  festival.

Thankfully there are Main Street experts and enthusiasts who understand this challenge. Through a cooperative effort, the University of Wisconsin Extension and the Wisconsin Department of Commerce Main Street Program created a Downtown and Business District Market Analysis toolbox that is available online. Beyond the user-friendly quality of the tools, it’s free.

This toolbox is designed to help local business leaders, entrepreneurs, developers, and economic development professionals understand their local marketplace and identify business and real estate development opportunities that make sense for their communities. The well-designed Web site presents essential tasks in an easily understood format.

There are three key parts, understanding market conditions, understanding market opportunities and developing market-driven strategies. Each section simply builds upon each other. The first includes tools to analyze current building uses, business mix, trade area size, economic and consumer data, consumer attitudes and business operator needs. The second presents market analysis techniques for seven sectors including retail, service businesses, restaurants, entertainment and theater opportunities, residential units, office space, and lodging facilities. And the final section guides the user in developing realistic conclusions and recommendations for today’s marketplace.

If updating the market study is one of your organization’s 2010 work plan priorities, then give this valuable resource a test run. Identify that one economic restructuring committee member with a knack for details and the Web, pass on the Web address and explore away. At a minimum, peruse the Web site to gain a basic understanding of how a market analysis works. Go to: http://www.uwex.edu/ces/cced/downtowns/dma/index.cfm for more information.

Arts and the economy converge at South Boston conference

Economic development and arts professionals convened in South Boston last week to explore strategies for harnessing the “creative class” in their communities. The conference, “Art and the Creative Economy,” featured notable speakers presenting examples of how small towns and cities have enhanced their economies by embracing the arts. The term “creative class,” as coined by Richard Florida, describes the class of workers that earn their living from their ideas and not machinery.  These individuals may be artists, designers, scientists, and researchers, to name just a few. As manufacturing leaves more small towns, this “creative class” just may be the economic boon that can make the difference.

The Prizery, a shining example of adaptive reuse for a tobacco warehouse, made a great venue for the conference. Featured speakers included Joy Gieseke, executive director of the Chamber of Commerce of Mineral Point, Wisconsin. Joy spoke about the organic growth of Mineral Point’s artist community, emphasizing that it is not an artist commune, but just a town that supports its artists. Today, Mineral Point is a town of 2,600 residents with 17 galleries and 30 artists living in town.

Marian Van Landingham spoke about her involvement with the Torpedo Factory in Old Town Alexandria. Her work is an excellent example of how an artist studio and workshop can become a top tourist destination.

The keynote address was given by Mayor Joseph Riley of Charleston. He gave examples of how art has enhanced the renaissance Charleston has experienced since his first term in 1975.

After several more speakers, the day concluded with a bus tour of South Boston and Halifax including a visit to artist Bob Cage’s Sculpture Farm, Parson-Bruce Gallery and Convergence Art Guild. Later that evening, many folks from the conference attended the Suzanne Vega concert held in the Chastain Theater.

Welcome VMS intern Margaret Barre

Virginia Main Street welcomes its newest team member, 2009-10 intern Margaret Barre. Margaret will graduate in 2010 from VCU’s Masters program in Urban and Regional Planning  with a focus on urban revitalization.

After growing up in New Orleans, Margaret received her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Louisiana, Lafayette. She then  followed a dream of living at the beach by moving to San Diego where she pursued a variety of jobs including mortgage loan processor, interior plantscaper and pastry chef. Ten years of fun in the sun later, an opportunity to start a real estate appraisal business brought her to the east coast and eventually to Richmond. She and her husband Max are both Certified Real Estate Appraisers and live in Ginter Park with a brown dog.

At Virginia Main Street, Margaret will work with communications projects including the Virginia Main Street Monitor, the monthly electronic updates, and the VMS Blog (look for her upcoming entry on South Boston’s Art and the Creative Economy conference). She’ll also get out in the field with VMS staff, and assist in providing support, training, and technical assistance to VMS communities.  Welcome Margaret.

The Art of Downtown: Revitalization with an arts and culture approach

Download the Fall 2009 Main Street Monitor for a look at revitalization efforts centered on arts and cultural assets around the commonwealth. 

The Art of Downtown: Revitalization with an arts and cultural approach features include

• 10 tips for building on your community’s cultural assets
• 7 best practices for implementing a mural program
• 3 elephants, a wolf, and one big chair.

Downtown Lynchburg shines for cabinet community day

Governor Timothy M. Kaine, his cabinet and members of his senior staff conducted their sixteenth and final Cabinet Community Day on a sundrenched, autumn Tuesday, Oct. 20 in downtown Lynchburg.  The Governor holds four Cabinet Community Days every year, visiting eight regions of the state twice over the course of the administration.  Executive Director Angela Hamilton of Lynch’s Landing enjoyed showing off the inspiring results of the local revitalization efforts.

After helping administer H1N1 flu vaccines to students at a local elementary school and lending a hand to the James River Association’s Extreme Stream Makeover, Kaine and his crew lit up downtown for lunch at the Depot Grill, a long-time local favorite and former train depot on Lynchburg’s Historic Riverfront, followed by a walking tour. 

Hamilton led the group up a steep 9^th Street incline from the waterfront to the shops on Main Street.  Once there, they were rewarded with a warm greeting from 9^th Street Parlor owner, Ralph “Chopper” Wilson, and the sweet aroma of fresh cupcakes from the new Taste Selects Confectionery.   Chopper recently completed work on the Parlor Lofts residential space above these storefronts.  For the residents, that baked goodness must be a temptation not easily refused. 

Market On Main Grocery Under Construction

The tour continued down to a neighboring storefront under renovation, where the Market on Main, a downtown grocery owned by Rodney Taylor, will be located.  Nearby, the recently-opened Celebration Bridal and High Peak Sportswear demonstrated a thriving retail presence that has returned to Lynchburg’s Main Street.  When asked by the Governor what incentives were used for the rehabilitations, the property owners gladly praised the Historic Rehabilitation and New Market Tax Credits as essential.

Special thanks to Angela Hamilton and Lynch’s Landing for advocating a vibrant vision for downtown Lynchburg and representing the potential of Main Street efforts for Virginia.

It’s getting scary downtown

So blend the turrets and shadows there
That all seem pendulous in air,
While from a proud tower in the town
Death looks gigantically down.

Some words from Edgar Allan Poe (“The City in the Sea”, 1845) warm us up for the tricks, treats, and other Halloween horrors planned on Main Street this year. 

First, 2009 brings the bicentennial anniversary of the birth of the Poe, America’s favorite hair-raising man of letters, and Virginia  is celebrating his legacy–especially around Halloween.    There are exhibits, stagings of plays based on Poe’s work, readings, and tours.  For more information, visit: www.poe200th.com.

Poe statue on the Capitol grounds in Richmond

You don’t have to have Poe history to celebrate his spirit locally–especially on All Hallow’s Eve– and historic downtowns are a great place to give folks a fright.  Poe knew that people love to be scared. Here’s how downtowns are doing it.

Ghostly Tours: Harrisonburg and Abingdon offer ghost tours of their haunted streets, including local lore of a long departed Harrisonburg shop owner who still minds the store, and the gripping tales of Donnamarie Emmert, resident storyteller of Martha Washington Hotel and Spa in Abingdon. For a video look at the Abingdon tour, check out this YouTube posting. Lynchburg offers candlelit cemetery tours, if you have the nerve.

Trick or Treat. For the smaller celebrants, Marion invites the kids downtown for trick or treating, as does Staunton, where the little ones will find witches, contests, and more.  Winchester has Spooktacular, afternoon trick or treating with merchants, and Culpeper offers it in the early evening at the downtown shops, inlcuding the “Poe”etically named “Raven’s Nest” coffee house. 

Weak and wearie greetings of the season from the Virginia Main Street Staff.  Evermore.

Virginia Main Street celebrity siting

U2 lead man Bono with downtown Culpeper locals.

The Star Exponent says it was Culpeper’s “cool and unassuming” nature that drew a rock  icon to town last week.  And there’s probably something to that. 

The town’s Main Street effort, led by Culpeper Renaissance, Inc., has done much to foster the  town as an epicurean destination. A vibrant farmer’s market, gourmet food and wine shops, and fine dining options in a comfortable and friendly setting have built the town a reputation that just might have lured Bono of the Irish band U2 for lunch at the Hazel River Inn. 

Thanks to Jessica Brewer for sending in the picture. Forward your downtown celebrity sightings to douglas.jackson@dhcd.virginia.gov.

A press interview with Rocky Mount’s Katie McElroy

A recent Roanoke Times article gave newly hired executive director Katie McElroy an opportunity to promote the  work of the Community Partnership for Revitalization, the nonprofit organization that coordinates Rocky Mount’s uptown and downtown revitalization efforts.

Rocky Mount's Katie McElroy: Roanoke Times photo by Stephanie Klein-Davis.

The article, “Future the Focus in Rocky Mount”, spotlighted McElroy, who used the media’s interest in her hiring to get word out about the organization’s strategies for the future.

Main Street managers play a critical role in communicating their organizational message, and thinking through the specific, relevant points in context of a broader public relations strategy is an important preparation step just prior to an interview with a reporter.

Here are two tools to help any Main Street stay on message: Leveraging Public Relations to Promote your Main Street, an October 2008 article from Main Street News, and The Strategic Communications Plan Template, from The Spin Project.

Congratulations to Katie for a successful first Main Street interview.  Don’t forget to share your downtown revitalization media coverage with Virginia Main Street by e-mailing: Douglas.Jackson@dhcd.virginia.gov.

Abingdon puts policy tools to work

The Barter Theater is one of Abingdon's key cultural and historic assets.

Public policy can direct private investment. By creating opportunities and incentives that align with a community’s economic development strategy, a locality, whether small or large, can put the tools in place to turn the vision into a reality.

Abingdon, the historic Washington County town, recently approved two new tax credits to help local property owners invest in the historic, culturally vibrant community.  

One adds the benefits of a local tax credit for the the rehabilitation of historic structures to the federal and state incentives already available. 

The other establishes an arts and cultural district. Newly allowed in 2009 across the commonwealth under House Bill 1735, the districts allow communities to give tax incentives and regulatory flexibility to meet the goals of designated arts and cultural districts. At least six other designated Main Street communities are currently pursuing the districts in their localities.

Abingdonwas able to pass both of these ordinances because of a clear sense of who and what the community is:  a cultural, historic, and tourism hub in the region. In fact, they spell it out in their arts and culture ordinance:  “The Town of Abingdon enjoys a rich heritage of arts, culture and history and desires to support and sustain the continued growth, development and success of its diverse arts and cultural venues through providing incentives geared toward steady growth and progression.”

For more information on implementing arts- and culture- related strategies, read the Fall 2009 Main Street Monitor.