National Small Business Week is a week-long spring celebration to honor the thousands of small and locally owned businesses that make up the country’s local economies (May 5 – 11, 2019). Celebrations span the local, state and federal levels, as consumers, elected officials, Main Street, and small businesses come together to recognize the important impact … More Celebrate Small Business Week: May 5 – 11, 2019
Register now to attend Downtown Intersections, presented by the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development‘s Virginia Main Street Program, in partnership with the Downtown Lynchburg Association and the city of Lynchburg. This event promises a packed schedule full of sessions spanning topics geared toward economic vitality and design, as well as a practitioner’s studio … More Downtown Intersections: Early Bird Registration Now Open!
Main Street Idea Pitch! Wednesday, July 24, 2019 Do you have an idea for a new Main Street revitalization project idea you would like to start? Are you positive it’s something that will be a slam-dunk success? Then you do not want to miss Virginia Main Street’s second annual Main Street Idea Pitch competition. Main Street … More 2019 Virginia Main Street Idea Pitch: Making Ideas Happen!
NOW ACCEPTING AWARD NOMINATIONS 2019 Virginia Main Street Revitalization Merit Awards Virginia Main Street invites you to submit nominations for outstanding achievements in comprehensive downtown revitalization efforts, recognizing best downtown business promotion, outstanding fundraising effort, and best public improvement project, to name a few. Awards will be presented during a special celebration at the Virginia … More Now accepting nominations for the 2019 Virginia Main Street Merit Awards
SAVE THE DATE Downtown Intersections July 22-24 | Lynchburg, Virginia Save the date and mark your calendars to attend Downtown Intersections, presented by the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development, on July 22-24 in Lynchburg, Virginia! This two-day event promises a packed schedule full of sessions spanning topics geared toward strengthening your downtown revitalization … More Save The Date: 2019 Downtown Intersections
Guest Blogger Diana Schwartz, executive director of Danville’s River District Association, is a native of Dickenson County, Virginia, and was previously director of business retention for the Ocala/Marion Chamber and Economic Partnership in Florida, as well as director of the Ocala Main Street Program. Danville, Virginia may be best known for the railroad system, including … More A Jewel Worth Saving: Re-imagining Danville’s North Union Street
The full book club toolkit for Dar Williams’ What I Found in a Thousand Towns is now available! Use the toolkit to build “positive proximity,” and start local conversations around the key identity-building assets in your community–who knows what next steps you will take. What I Found in a Thousand Towns emphasizes the role of projects … More Finding Main Street Toolkit Available
How can Main Street organizations create a supportive, business-friendly community? What are the elements of a community that make it viable to attract business and expansion for the existing ones? And what are the trends that best produce the desired entrepreneurial advancement? These are some of the questions driving Entrepreneurial Ecosystems in Appalachia, a recently published … More Fostering Successful Businesses in Your Community
The Downtown Crozet Initiative, a DHCD Commercial District Affiliate community organization, is embracing cutting-edge technology to help make visiting downtown a convenient, zero-emission experience, shuttling customers from a parking area into the commercial core. While it may sound more Jetsons than Main Street, this is the real deal. Crozet’s Perrone Robotics, Inc., JAUNT, Inc. and … More Autonomous Transit Shuttle Service to Launch in Crozet
At the 2018 Downtown Intersections in Harrisonburg, we continued the tradition of acknowledging outstanding achievements in comprehensive downtown revitalization efforts through Merit Awards. They recognize the hard work, dedication and success of Virginia’s Main Street communities and their achievements across the four points of the Main Street Approach®. This is the fourth in a blog … More Recognizing the Hard Work on Main Street: Western Front Hotel
Virginia Main Street 