While this status may not mean much for the average resident, the designation can lead to increased property values, more downtown job opportunities and more reasons to go downtown because “it’s a magnet for development,” said Downtown Middletown Inc. Executive Director Patrick Kay.
There are 30 Ohio downtowns that have Main Street status, though membership has fluctuated over the year, according to Heritage Ohio, the Main Street program administrator. But once communities have received the designation, downtowns have flourished.
“It gives you that higher level of designation out there and shows investors that you’re serious about your downtown,” Kay said.
For the next year, Downtown Middletown will be known as an Emerging Main Street program and after a year could become a full member. Middletown is one of six Ohio downtowns beginning the road to be a Main Street community, said Heritage Ohio Director of Revitalization Jeff Siegler.
“Successful small downtowns, successful historic downtowns are Main Streets,” Kay said. “Having that name here in town doesn’t mean much to the some people (locally). It’s what you get regionally, statewide and nationally.”
An average of nearly $2.5 million in property improvements a year from 2007 to 2011 had been invested in Main Street communities, according to Heritage Ohio. On average, at least two new businesses opened and at least one existing businesses expanded each year during the span, according to the organization.
That work netted a yearly average of more than 18 new full-time and part-time jobs.
Kay doesn’t see why this can’t happen in Middletown, but it just won’t happen right away.
“People will have to understand that it takes time to get things moving,” he said. “Middletown has been in a stopped position for such a long time.”
Siegler said revitalization for a community “is a hard thing to do and it takes a long-term committed group to do it.”
“Middletown and those size communities definitely have a tougher road to hoe than those smaller communities,” he said. “There’s more work to be done but there’s more progress to be had.”
The key to success is diversity among the businesses, Siegler said.
He said having mixed use is equally as important for long-term sustainability of a downtown as having key anchors, which for Middletown are education and the arts.
DMI is the nonprofit downtown champion formed in 2011 to promote and foster growth in the city’s downtown core. Its foundation was modeled after the Main Street program, which means DMI’s core goals are to build partnerships, re-establish the community’s image for visitors and investors, enhance the visual quality and image of the community, and strengthen existing economic assets.
DMI will pay Heritage Ohio $2,500 for its first year in the program and $3,300 every year after. For that yearly fee, the organization will have access to various seminars, discounts on conferences, and technical, training and network assistance, Kay said. But the value is more than just that, he said.
Some granting agencies, Kay said, award extra points to cities that have a Main Street program “because they know you understand what it takes to be successful.”
Lebanon in neighboring Warren County has been a Main Street program since 2009. Historic Downtown Lebanon Inc. runs the Main Street program in Lebanon, and board president Jim Bliss said the model has been proven successful time and time again because of the foundations of the program.
“It’s the difference from having a pilot and not having a pilot,” Bliss said. “(The program) gives you that extra guidance and support.”
“It’s almost asking, ‘Why should you keep your downtown alive?’” he said.
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