DBi Receives Virginia Main Street Milestone Award
On Friday, March 22, Downtown Blackstone, Inc. was presented with a Virginia Main Street Milestone Achievement Award for the contribution of over 5,000 volunteer hous dedicated to downtown revitalization. The awards were presented at Richmond’s historic Hippodrome Theater.
At the ceremony that focused on the results of Main Street efforts, Virginia Secretary of Commerce and Trade Jim Cheng spoke to the . “Virginia main streets are thriving because of the collaboration between public and private sector, local and state governments and the citizens of each community getting involved to make their downtowns an attractive place to live, work and play,” said Cheng.
The Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development Director Bill Shelton “In the last five years, designated Main Street communities have sparked more than $252 million in private investment in their districts,” said Shelton. “As a result, last year, there was a net collective gain of 424 jobs across the 25 Main Street downtown districts.”
"Historic Main Street communities are much more than bricks and mortar. They serve as the heart and soul of our communities as they evoke the stories of our past while providing incomparable economic and cultural opportunities which sustain the quality of life for all citizens,” said Cate Magennis Wyatt, former Virginia Secretary of Commerce and Trade and the founder of The Journey Through Hallowed Ground Partnership. "Our national surveys have found that 84 percent of potential visitors are, first and foremost, attracted to the region because of our quaint small towns. The work of the Virginia Main Street Program is critically important to creating jobs and attracting these visitors to the commonwealth."
Downtown Blackstone Inc. was recognized at the 2013 Virginia Main Street Milestone Awards Luncheon held March 22nd at the Historic Hippodrome Theater in downtown Richmond. The Milestone achieved was 5,000 volunteer hours! Accepting the award from the Secretary of Commerce was DBi Executive Director, Lafayette Dickens.
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Downtown Blackstone Inc. (DBi) is a nonprofit organization established in 2007 to revitalize the Town of Blackstone's historic business district. DBi is an accredited Virginia Main Street Program. DBi is committed to strengthening the existing businesses in Historic Downtown Blackstone; we are also focused on recruiting and attracting businesses that complement the existing businesses. Our goal at DBi is to work closely with local government and involve local stakeholders (business and property owners) to establish a clear vision of where the town is going and define what it is becoming.
We provide comprehensive leadership, technical assistance, and resources to Blackstone stakeholders. Our organization attends ongoing
in-depth training to acquire insight and knowledge in all areas that are relevant to our mission. The Main Street program directly benefits local stakeholders in a variety of ways. As businesses are successful and grow, downtown thrives and the community-at-large in turn benefits with more goods and services available to them, job creation, as well as with enhanced opportunities for community programming that a healthy downtown area naturally promotes, such as concerts and festivals and a better quality of life. Click here for a look at the work that was done to get us where we are today. You might be wondering what our efforts have yielded beyond a facelift of the building stock so let's cut to the chase and have a look at some bottom line numbers shall we? Here is what we have accomplished so far.
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