Downtown Muncie Goes Main Street

The final meeting of the Muncie Downtown Business Council will be a symbolic transition into a new era of downtown revitalization.


Indiana Main Street will be the focus of the group’s last public meeting on Wednesday, April 29th, at 4:30 pm at Muncie Civic Theatre. Refreshments will be available in the lobby.


Guest speakers will be Indiana Main Street program manager Shae Young, and Darrin Murrell of Historic Farmland USA. Some time will also be dedicated to other community announcements at the end of the presentation.


Anyone with an interest in downtown Muncie is urged to attend this meeting, as we take the first step toward becoming a Main Street community. The public will have the opportunity ask questions about Indiana Main Street, and to learn more about how the downtown neighborhood, as well as the entire Muncie community, can benefit from the program.


“There is so much enthusiasm from various groups in the community, centered around developing downtown Muncie as an arts and entertainment district,” said Carey Hays, manager of munciedowntown.com and president of the Downtown Business Council. “My personal vision is to see all these organizations working together with the new Heart of the City, and creating a unified environment in pursuit of our common cause.”


The Muncie Downtown Business Council and Heart of the City organizations voted in March, 2009 to join forces and apply for Main Street designation as a combined group.


The group will keep Heart of the City’s name and not-for-profit status, and will maintain the Downtown Business Council’s membership base. Meetings will continue to take place on the last Wednesday of every month, at 3pm in the Star Press building conference room.


ABOUT INDIANA MAIN STREET


Main Street was created by the National Trust as an approach to commercial district revitalization, a methodology that combines historic preservation with economic development. Today, it advocates preservation-based commercial district revitalization as an ethic that all communities can use to revive their traditional commercial areas.

Main Street uses a “four point approach” to provide a framework for downtown development, focusing on organization, promotion, design and economic restructuring.

There are no fees or financial obligations to become a Main Street community.

Program benefits include fundraising opportunities and increased eligibility for improvement grants, networking with other Main Street communities and valuable resources, technical assistance provided through a partnership with Ball State University’s center for Historic Preservation, as well as access to a building site locator database.

Other recognized Main Street communities in Indiana include Farmland, Madison, Bloomington, Indianapolis, Richmond, and dozens more.

For more information on Main Street, visit www.ocra.in.gov or www.mainstreet.org.

For more information about Downtown Muncie, and updates on our Main Street project, visit www.munciedowntown.com or www.mainstreetmuncie.com .



Contact:
Carey Hays
President, Muncie Downtown Business Council
Phone (765) 760-3187
Email info@munciedowntown.com



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