Photo of the downtown arch. (Courtesy Photo)Silver City MainStreet/Arts & Culture District has been designated as a 2020 Accredited Main Street America™ program. Accredited status is Main Street America's top tier of recognition and signifies a demonstrated commitment to comprehensive commercial district revitalization and proven track record of successfully applying the Main Street Approach™.
"We are proud to recognize this year's 860 Nationally Accredited Main Street America programs that have dedicated themselves to strengthening their communities," said Patrice Frey, President & CEO of the National Main Street Center.
"These Accredited Main Street programs have proven to be powerful engines for revitalization by sparking impressive economic returns and preserving the character of their communities. During these challenging times, these Main Street programs will be key to bringing economic vitality back to commercial districts and improving quality of life during the recovery process."
In 2019 alone, $6.45 billion of public and private reinvestment was generated, 6,466 net new businesses were opened, 32,316 net new were jobs created, and 10,412 buildings were rehabilitated in Main Street America communities.
The Silver City MainStreet Project's performance is annually evaluated by New Mexico MainStreet, 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.
In the past 12 months alone, Silver City MainStreet has completed the Main Street Plaza, The Kelly Street project, installed wayfinding signs, street light banners, and promoted downtown to our community with Love Local promotions, the Urban Challenge Fun Run, Lighted Christmas Parade, and Shop Small and continue engaging merchants with the Merchant Mingles and communication about events they can participate in. We continue to publish the Downtown Guide and Map and maintain the brochure rack program. These are just some of our ongoing projects and programs.
Since the Covid-19 pandemic, we have been a vital clearing house of information for merchants to connect them to resources. We ran a gift certificate promotion to encourage take out dining, run promotional radio ads, promoted state programs that help merchants, provided a forgivable loan program, a GoFundLocal program, and had NM MainStreet Revitalization Specialists help merchants get websites and facebook pages so they could stay connected to customers.
Silver City MainStreet celebrates 35 years of service this year and is one of the states oldest and most successful programs in the state, winning a Great American MainStreet Award in 2011, the only NM MainStreet program to win the award. Only three MainStreet programs from across the country are awarded this honor each year.
About Main Street America
Main Street America has been helping revitalize older and historic commercial districts for 40 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 $85.43 billion in new public and private investment, generated 672,333 net new jobs and 150,079 net new businesses, and rehabilitated more than 295,348 buildings. Main Street America is a program of the nonprofit National Main Street Center, a subsidiary of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
The mission of Silver City MainStreet is "To encourage a vibrant, historic downtown Silver City which is recognized as the heart of our diverse community." Please visit our website, www.silvercitymainstreet.com to learn more.