Main Street Alexander City
21 Main St.
Alexander City, AL 35010
Phone: (256) 329-9227
“A healthy, viable downtown is crucial to the economic health and civic pride of the entire community”
- National Historic Preservation
Mission Statement: Main Street Alexander City's purpose is to promote our downtown assets by preserving its resilient history, sustaining community spirit and increasing economic development. Main Street fosters revitalization and collaborative partnerships through its four-pronged approach: Economic Development, Promotion, Design and Organization."
The Classic Main Street program is designed to improve all aspects of the downtown or central business district, producing both tangible and intangible benefits. Improving economic management, strengthening public participation, and making downtown a fun place to visit are as critical to Classic Main Street’s future as recruiting new businesses, rehabilitating buildings, and expanding parking. The Main Street approach has rekindled entrepreneurship, downtown cooperation and civic concern. It has earned national recognition as a practical strategy appropriately scaled to a community’s local resources and conditions.
The 4 Point Approach to Downtown Preservation and Economic Revitalization
Design
Design enhances the attractiveness of the business district. Historic building rehabilitation, street and alley clean-up, colorful banners, landscaping and lighting all improve the physical image of the downtown as a quality place to shop, work, walk, invest and in alive. Design improvements result in a reinvestment of public and private dollars to downtown.
Organization
Organization involves building a Main Street framework that is well represented by business and property owners, bankers, citizens, public officials, chambers of commerce and other local economic development organizations. Everyone must work together to maintain a long-term effort.
Promotion
Promotion creates excitement downtown. Street festivals, parades, retail events and image development campaigns are some of the ways Main Street encourages customer traffic. Promotion involves marketing an enticing image to shoppers, investors and visitors and also positioning the downtown in the market place.
Economic Vitality
Economic Vitality involves analyzing current market forces to develop long-term solutions. Recruiting new businesses, creatively converting unused space for new uses and sharpening the competitiveness of Main Street’s traditional merchants are examples of economic restructuring activities.