Downtown Development Coordinator Tracy Madigan brought news to the Henderson City Council Monday that the city’s Main Street status has officially been upgraded from an affiliate program to a full-fledged community program.

Madigan explained that administration of the Main Street program is one of the major roles of the position she holds, and she will be meeting with the newly established Downtown Advisory Board to develop a plan for training and coming up with a meeting schedule going forward.

Having its own board was one of the criteria the Main Street program had to satisfy, and last year, the city approved moving ahead with that plan. Madigan said, however, that the new board would continue to work in partnership with the Downtown Development Corporation for continued success in the future.

“I see a lot of potential with our downtown,” Madigan said. Whether through beautification projects or other initiatives, she said she hopes others will see past the boarded-up windows across the 20-plus square block area to what the downtown can become.

One goal of the advisory board, in addition to supporting economic development, is for the downtown to be “the cultural, dining and entertainment hub for Vance County and surrounding counties by attracting investors and businesses to downtown Henderson,” Madigan said.

The official downtown area is made up of Garnett, William and Chestnut streets from Andrews Avenue to Spring Street – it’s basically a big rectangle. A really big rectangle.

In fact, Madigan said it’s one of the larger footprints of cities and towns that participate in the Main Street program.

There are 233 commercial spaces within the area, with 29 vacant buildings and upwards of 1.9 million square feet of commercial space. Madigan keeps a downtown building inventory that she hopes to have available on the city’s website in the near future.

She acknowledges that this is a “fluid” document, with information changing as buildings are bought and sold, occupied and vacated.

Madigan said she attended the recent N.C. Main Street directors’ conference and expects to get guidance from that group, as well as the N.C. Department of Commerce as the program moves forward.

The DDC has the downtown domain for web addresses, so Madigan said the Main Street program information and the Downtown Development will have a presence within the City of Henderson website. Stay up to date on current information at  https://henderson.nc.gov/

The hope is to develop a vacant building policy, Madigan said, and indicated that she and city staff are discussing and reviewing existing policies in other municipalities as the local policy is developed.

With regard to the city initiative of affordable housing, Madigan said there are 72 apartment units located within the footprint of the downtown area – 30+ at the former Senior Center property at the corner of Garnett and Breckenridge streets and others at the former Maria Parham Hospital on Chestnut Street.

• One of the downtown initiatives addresses redevelopment in the form of façade grants. Madigan said more than $10,000 has been received by building owners to make improvements.
• Last year, the downtown area has seen more than $300,000 in public investment and $1.2 million from private investment.
• In the last year, 14 businesses were added to the downtown area and seven businesses closed their doors for a net gain of 23 new jobs.
• One area the downtown advisory board is set to work on is building rehabs. Last year, six buildings were fully rehabbed, she said. And she observed a new roof going in on another building in the last couple of weeks.

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