Main Street Alabama presents revitalization potential for downtown Madison

Tanya Maloney, Field Service Specialist at Main Street Alabama, gave a presenttation at Madison City Hall on Monday about how a potential revitalization effort with Main Street Alabama in downtown Madison would benefit the city.

MADISON – Tanya Maloney, Field Service Specialist at Main Street Alabama, a coordinating program of the national program Main Street America, gave a public presentation on Monday about the economic improvement possibilities of a further partnership between the city of Madison and Main Street America.

The Main Street programs offer resources and support to facilitate economic development in the downtown areas of cities and towns across the country. Main Street Alabama has 33 designated towns and 29 affiliated towns, including Athens, Oxford, South Huntsville, and Florence, whose downtown or commercial business areas they have helped transform into thriving business centers.

Monday’s talk picked up where the city of Madison left off with Main Street Alabama when the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

“We had a preliminary discussion on Main Street pre-COVID, and we had to put that on pause, and so, we’re resuming that talk just to see what kind of interest there is and to educate everybody about the program,” prefaced Madison City Director of Development Services Mary Beth Broeren.

Madison is already a network city in the Main Street Alabama program. This means the city pays $600 a year for access to and discounts on workshops, webinars, and conferences, technical assistance, and access to Main Street’s resource library.

Maloney’s presentation detailed the services Main Street provides through its Four-Point Approach to downtown revitalization and the potential for downtown Madison with a closer partnership between the city and Main Street.

Using their Four-Point Approach, Organization, Promotion, Design, and Economic Vitality, Main Street Alabama establishes coordinating programs in individual communities with an executive director heading a team of volunteers. Main Street teams use the organization’s resources and services to perform market surveys, host special events that attract customers to downtown businesses, design downtown areas, assist with historical preservation, and create branding for the city and downtown area.

Owner of Main Street Café and Lanier House and organizer of the annual Wassail Fest, Tammy Hall, voiced her interest in the structure and special event support a Main Street team could provide to downtown Madison business owners.

“Right now, outside of Madison Street Festival, outside that particular event, all the activity that is planned and performed in downtown Madison is done by business owners. The problem that we have is that we’re all busy. We really don’t have the time, and I’ll use myself as the perfect example of the Wassail Fest that we have in December, which is a great opportunity, but it takes so much of my time to try to plan and put that together, and I’m one person. And even though people help you throughout, it’s still not organized like it needs to be. So, that’s the main reason I think that we have constantly come back to this Main Street approach because we need the organization,” she said.

As of now, the city’s future plans for its partnership with Main Street Alabama is unclear but the door remains open for Madison to become a designated Main Street town and apply the Four Point Approach to bring increased economic opportunity and visibility to the downtown Madison area.

Store fronts in Downtown Madison.