igh, N.C. -- Nearly a dozen Small Town Main Street communities have now achieved Main Street status. Those communities are Ayden, Benson, Bessemer City, Cherryville, Elizabethtown, Tryon, Valdese, Waxhaw and Williamston. These cities and towns have fulfilled the requirements necessary to achieve this designation such as hiring a permanent Main Street director and organizing their downtown revitalization work in accordance with the Main Street Four-Point® program. These communities will benefit from additional training and resources that the NC Main Street Center offers local Main Street directors.
“The new Main Street communities will serve as role models for other municipalities interested in downtown revitalization,” said Commerce Secretary John E. Skvarla, III. “If you can show just one great building reuse in a downtown center, more revitalization projects follow and that means many new jobs.”
In 2014, North Carolina Main Street downtown districts generated 248 new businesses, 110 business expansions, and 1,011 new jobs.
“We are proud of these nine communities along with their downtown revitalization committees,” said NC Main Street Center Director Liz Parham. “In addition to their day-to-day work, Benson, Tryon, Valdese and Williamston are also recipients of Main Street Solutions Funds that they successfully used to leverage building rehabilitations that resulted in business creation and expansion projects. We wish them continued success.
These nine municipalities join 56 other active Main Street communities. The NC Main Street Center utilizes the Four-Point Approach® methodology, a comprehensive downtown revitalization process focused on organization, design, promotion and economic restructuring developed by the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Main Street Center®.
For more information about the NC Main Street Center programming visit, www.nccommerce.com/MainStreet, or contact Liz Parham, director of the NC Main Street Center, at (919) 715-0527 or lparham@nccommerce.com.