Relocation, incubation and redevelopment were just some of the highlights from Emporia Main Street’s 2019 and Director Casey Woods joined KVOE’s Talk of Emporia Monday to discuss what is coming next.
Woods says last year the downtown area alone saw roughly $11.4 million worth of redevelopment which carried several benefits for the local job and housing markets. In addition, 2019 saw Main Street fully relocate to its new home at 727 Commercial Street.
Woods says the move has been great especially for when it comes to hosting large scale meetings.
Last year also saw the organization’s new incubation space come online which is currently being utilized by Kaila Mock for her new art gallery Trox. As we continue to work our way through the early part of 2020, Woods says Main Street plans to capitalize on last year’s success with several new initiatives and a special visit from the Brookings Institute of Washington, D.C. in just a little less than two months.
The purpose of the visit is for the institute to conduct a transformative placemaking study. Transformative placemaking is defined by the institute as an effort to ” remake the relationship between place and economy in ways that generate broad-based and locally-led prosperity.” Emporia was one of three main street organizations across the United States to be chosen for the study.
For more information on what’s coming for Emporia Main Street this year visit Emporiamainstreet.org, visit their offices at 727 Commercial or call 620-340-6430.
