Birmingham, Alabama – Main Street Alabama announces of its programs have been designated as accreditedNational Main Street Programs for meeting the commercial district revitalization performance standards set by the National Main Street Center®, asubsidiary of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Alexander City, Athens, Birmingham, Florence, Gadsden, Monroeville and Oxford eachreceived the national accreditation.
Each year, the National Main Street Center and its partnersannounce the list of accredited Main Street® programs inrecognition of their exemplary commitment to historic preservation andcommunity revitalization through the Main Street Four Point Approach®.
“We congratulate this year’s nationally accredited Main Street programs for their outstanding accomplishment in meeting the National Main Street Center’s 10 Standards of Performance,” says Patrice Frey, President & CEO of the National Main Street Center. “As the National Main Street Center celebrates its 35th Anniversary, it is also important to celebrate the achievementsof the local Main Street programs across the country, some of whom have been around since the beginning. These local programs work hard every day to make their communities great places to work,live, play and visit while still preserving their historic character.”
The organization’s performance is annually evaluated by Main Street Alabama, which works in partnership with the National Main Street Center to identify the local programs that meet ten performance standards. These standards set the benchmarks for measuring an individual Main Street program’s application of theMain Street Four Point Approach® to commercial district revitalization.Evaluation criteria determines the communities that are building comprehensiveand sustainable revitalization efforts and include standards such as fostering strong public-private partnerships, securing an operating budget, trackingprogrammatic progress and actively preserving historic buildings.
“We are very pleased that seven of Alabama’s Designated communities successfully reached these benchmarks, especially in their first full year with acoordinating program,” stated Mary Helmer, President and State Coordinator ofMain Street Alabama. “Supportingcommunity efforts while providing tools to quantifiably measure progress has helped these programs build a solid footing for future success. We are pleased to announce that in 2014, forevery dollar invested in public improvements in these communities, there was aprivate return of $27. In addition, therewas a net gain of 122 new jobs, net gain of 37 new businesses and almost 5,000hours of volunteer service. There is a reason for these communities to be proud!”
Main StreetAlabama focuses on bringing jobs, dollars and people back to Alabama’s historic downtowns.
Established by the National Trust for Historic Preservationin 1980, the National Main Street Center helps communities of all sizesrevitalize their older and historic commercial districts. Working in more than2,000 downtowns and urban neighborhoods over the last 35 years, nationally, theMain Street program has leveraged more than $61.7 billion in new public and private investment. Participating communities have created 528,557 net new jobs and 120,510 net new businesses, and rehabilitated more than 251,838 buildings, leveraging an average of $26.52 in new investment for every dollarspent on their Main Street district revitalization efforts.
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