City of Bradford Main Street program receives 2020 National Main Street Accreditation

City of Bradford Main Street program receives 2020 National Main Street Accreditation

Bradford, PA – The City of Bradford’s Main Street program has again been designated as an accredited Main Street America™ program for meeting rigorous performance standards set by the National Main Street Center. Each year, the National Main Street Center and its partners announce the list of accredited Main Street America programs to recognize their exemplary commitment to preservation-based economic development and community revitalization through the Main Street Approach™.

“We are proud to acknowledge this year’s 860 nationally accredited Main Street America programs that have worked tirelessly to strengthen 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 jobs were created, and 10,412 buildings were rehabilitated in Main Street America communities.

The Bradford Main Street’s performance is annually evaluated by the Pennsylvania Downtown Center, 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.

“We have some wonderful businesses located within our city’s historic district,” said Community/Economic Development Manager and Main Street Manager, Anita Dolan.  “We are also fortunate to have some building owners who are making significant investments in the buildings.  These are not easy times for brick and mortar businesses, especially in rural Pennsylvania, but we, as a Main Street program, work very hard using the Main Street Four Point Approach to promote and improve our downtown business district.”

Since Bradford’s Main Street program began, its façade improvement program has received approximately $367,000 in grant funding from DCED.  That funding has leveraged more than $1,000,000.00 in exterior building improvements to downtown buildings.  In 2019, six new businesses opened within the historic district and more than $1.7 million of private investment dollars were invested in building improvements.  Total investment within the historic district (public and private) was $2.8 million.

The Main Street program is gearing up for a very busy 2020.  Construction for Phase I of a multi-phased streetscape improvement project is almost complete, construction on Congress and Pine Streets will begin soon and construction for Phase II (Festival Way to E. Main Street) is scheduled to begin in August.  

ABOUT MAIN STREET AMERICA

Main Street America has been helping revitalize older and historic commercial districts for more than 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.

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