MONTEVALLO MAIN STREET
Receives 2019 National Main Street Accreditation
Montevallo, Alabama—Montevallo Main Street has been designated as an accredited Main Street America™ program for meeting rigorous performance standards set by the National Main Street Center. Each year, the National Main Street Center and its partners announce the list of accredited Main Street America programs to recognize their exemplary commitment to preservation-based economic development and community revitalization through the Main Street Approach™.
“We are proud to acknowledge this year’s nationally accredited Main Street America programs that have worked tirelessly to strengthen their communities,” said Patrice Frey, President & CEO of the National Main Street Center. “These programs deserve recognition for generating impressive economic returns, preserving community character, and celebrating local history. Main Street America Accredited communities are part of a powerful movement of changemakers, and their dedication to improving quality of life in the places they call home is inspiring.”
In 2018 alone, Main Street America programs generated $4.93 billion in local reinvestment, helped open 5,310 net new businesses, generated 25,301 net new jobs, catalyzed the rehabilitation of 8,146 historic buildings, and clocked 2.2 million volunteer hours.
The local Main Street Program performance is annually evaluated by Main Street Alabama, the State Coordinating Program, which works in partnership with the National Main Street Center to identify the local programs that meet ten national performance standards. Evaluation criteria determines the communities that are building comprehensive and sustainable revitalization efforts and include standards such as fostering strong public-private partnerships, documenting programmatic progress, and actively preserving historic buildings.
“Since being designated as a Main Street community in 2016, our growth has been unmatched,” says Dr. Hollie Cost, Mayor of Montevallo since 2012. “What’s really most impressive is the way it has been a change of culture in the community. We see our growth and development more as our responsibility, and now we understand how to actively go out and recruit businesses. Having the Main Street Approach™ as a framework enables us to fully connect the dots to strengthen the real heart of our community, which is Main Street.”
Designated Main Street Alabama communities report economic impact in their districts each month. Cumulative totals for the program since June 2016, when Montevallo was designated a Main Street Community:
17 Net New/Relocating Businesses
30 Net New Jobs Created
$6,065,435 Public Dollars Invested
$5,891,972 Private Dollars Invested
6,953 Volunteer Hours
New businesses include Lucky Penny Boutique, Emma Gray Boutique, Kimble’s Boutique, Taco Bell, Frios Gourmet Pops, C’s Cake & Coffee House, La Conchita Bakery, The Dive Bar, Team Lehman – Keller Williams Real Estate, Custom Homes by Jason Pickleseimer, Shampoochies Pet Spa, Elite Bail Bonds, Elite Private Investigation, DRE FIT, Deep Roots Apotheke & Clinic, Southern Vape, and The Art Studio, with Montevallo Makers and Scott Vaughn Owen Studio coming soon.
Cumulative totals for all designated Alabama Main Street Communities since 2014:
379 Net New/Relocating Businesses
2,364 Net New Jobs Created
$83,284,171 Public Dollars Invested
$303,975,745 Private Dollars Invested
78,992 Volunteer Hours
ABOUT MAIN STREET ALABAMA
In Alabama, our downtowns are the heart of our communities. They are the core of our architectural and cultural heritage; they are the places where people gather to celebrate, they are the place where communities big and small are reinventing the way Alabama does business.
The buildings that make up our downtowns tell rich stories of the past and together they stand sentinel to the collective history of our state. Whether it is a bank built by visionary leaders, a hotel that hosted famous guests, a store that sold Sunday clothes, or a restaurant that served locals and visitors – these buildings have come together to create the “place” we all call home. Our downtowns evoke nostalgia, a yearning for old connections and, sometimes, a history that bears telling, no matter how complex.
Today, Alabamians are looking at our downtowns not simply as places for memories but also as places for bold economic opportunity. New restaurants are coming to small towns, long time businesses are discovering new ways to thrive, and creative downtown events are breathing new life into once empty streets. Our communities are rediscovering that the uniqueness of our historic downtowns offer a new frontier for innovation, creativity, collaboration and economic prosperity.
Our state recognizes the importance of our downtowns in preserving history, celebrating diversity, and providing economic opportunity. To that end, we created Main Street Alabama in 2010. Main Street Alabama is a truly unique model, based on time tested techniques, unified by partners across the state with the mission to rebuild Alabama’s traditional commercial districts. Main Street Alabama knows that flowing throughout this great state’s downtowns is a strong economic opportunity that couples with the warmth, charm and bold dreams of Alabamians across the state.
In a few short years, Main Street Alabama has expanded to include small towns, cities, and commercial districts across the state into a network of volunteers, professionals, and partners with simple goals: to provide training, networking, and educational opportunities to galvanize community leaders, merchants, and citizens with tools necessary to help turn their downtowns and neighborhood commercial districts into powerful economic development engines.
Main Street Alabama’s approach inspires people young and old not only to give back to their community but also to come back to their hometowns: to live, to become entrepreneurs, to breathe new life into our downtowns and neighborhood commercial districts, and most importantly to remember what is old can be new and thriving again. Main Street Alabama isn’t just about Building Better Downtowns – it is about making your hometown the best it can be. We invite you to be a part of this movement, we encourage you to celebrate the successes in your hometown, we look forward together to ongoing success in making our state better through the vitality of our downtowns.
ABOUT MAIN STREET AMERICA
Main Street America has been helping revitalize older and historic commercial districts for more than 35 years. Today, it is a network of more than 1,600 neighborhoods and communities, rural and urban, who share both a commitment to place and to building stronger communities through preservation-based economic development.Since 1980, communities participating in the program have leveraged more than $79.12 billion in new public and private investment, generated640,017 net new jobs and 143,613 net new businesses, and rehabilitated more than 284,936 buildings. Main Street America is a program of the nonprofit National Main Street Center, a subsidiary of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT
Courtney Bennett, Executive Director
Montevallo Main Street
mainstreet@cityofmontevallo.com
205-597-9322
