The Department of Commerce’s Office of Urban Development will hold their annual N.C. Main Street Conference January 29-31 in New Bern. The conference theme – Main Street: Two Billion Reasons to Celebrate – is a nod to the state’s Main Street communities surpassing the $2 billion mark in combined downtown investment.
With Main Street reaching this milestone and downtown investment in Small Town Main Street communities fast approaching $100 million, the Office of Urban Development facilitated a study on the economic impact of Main Street in North Carolina with noted preservation economist Donovan Rypkema. This six-month study, funded by 71 of the two programs’ communities, will be completed this month. The results will serve as a centerpiece for the conference.
Keynote speakers include Rypkema, principal of the Washington, D.C. based firm PlaceEconomics; N.C. Secretary of Commerce Sharon A. Decker and National Main Street Center, Inc. President and CEO Patrice Frey. Looking beyond the statistical data, Rypkema will present his findings regarding the economic, social and physical impacts of these investments and show the vital role that downtowns play in North Carolina’s economy. In her remarks, Decker will discuss another aspect of the study: the impact of the Main Street Solutions Fund and the pivotal projects it has helped to leverage in downtowns across the state. Frey will cover major trends affecting downtowns today, share highlights of Main Street’s national success story and provide an overview of the newly restructured National Main Street Center, now a subsidiary of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
Sessions scheduled throughout the three days will cover a variety of downtown-related topics, including renewal of North Carolina’s historic tax credits, economic development and the arts, volunteer recruitment and management, social media, downtown housing and micro-business lending among others.
In conjunction with the conference, the annual North Carolina Main Street Awards Dinner and Program will be held on Thursday, January 30. This event recognizes outstanding projects taking place in Main Street and Small Town Main Street downtowns throughout the state. It also honors the efforts of those dedicated individuals who have gone the extra mile to make their downtowns thriving places.
New Bern, an original national and North Carolina Main Street city, was the site of the first North Carolina Main Street Conference in 2000 and is hosting the event for a record fourth time in 2014. With its charming, historic downtown overlooking two scenic rivers, New Bern is always a popular choice with conference attendees, whose numbers exceeded 450 at the 2013 conference in Salisbury.
Main Street is a downtown revitalization program based on economic development within the context of historic preservation. In 1980, North Carolina was one of six original states selected to launch the work of the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s National Main Street Center. N.C. Main Street and Small Town Main Street, which provide technical assistance to smaller participating towns and cities throughout the state, are part of the Office of Urban Development in the Department of Commerce’s Rural Economic Development Division.