Cedar Falls, Iowa (June 27, 2014 – Community Main Street has been designated as an accredited National Main Street Program for meeting the commercial district revitalization performance standards set by the National Main Street Center®, a subsidiary of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Each year, the National Main Street Center and its partners announce the list of accredited Main Street® programs in recognition of their exemplary commitment to historic preservation and community revitalization through the Main Street Four Point Approach®.

“We congratulate this year’s nationally accredited Main Street programs for their outstanding accomplishment in meeting the National Main Street Center’s performance standards,” says Patrice Frey, President & CEO of the National Main Street Center. “Accredited Main Street programs create vibrant communities by using a comprehensive strategy to preserve their historic character and revitalize their commercial districts, which helps make these great places to work, live, play and visit.”

The organization’s performance is annually evaluated by Main Street Iowa, which works in partnership with the National Main Street Center to identify the local programs that meet ten performance standards. These standards set the benchmarks for measuring an individual Main Street program’s application of the Main Street Four Point Approach® to commercial district revitalization. Evaluation criteria determines the communities that are building comprehensive and sustainable revitalization efforts and include standards such as fostering strong public-private partnerships, securing an operating budget, tracking programmatic progress and actively preserving historic buildings.

Downtown Cedar Falls is a thriving district, as evidenced by the numbers.  Reports show during the past year, $1,392,654 private dollars were invested in 35 rehabilitation projects and over $5,190,000 in new construction and property acquisition occurred in downtown Cedar Falls.  Job growth continued for downtown businesses with the addition of 28 full time jobs and 21 part time positions during 2013. “Creating an environment where businesses want to locate is a strong point of Community Main Street.  Our volunteers work diligently to strengthen not only the aesthetics of the district, but to maintain a climate which encourages a balance of retail, service, dining and entertainment options for community guests, residents and employees,” commented Carol Lilly, Director. In 2013, volunteers logged 6411 hours on downtown projects and events and if the current pace continues, 2014 will surpass last year’s total.

Established in 1987, Cedar Falls Community Main Street, Inc. is a volunteer, non-profit organization established to foster economic vitality while preserving and promoting the historic image and character of the downtown.  By integrating business improvement, design, organization & development and promotion into a practical management strategy, the approach produces fundamental change in the downtown’s economic base.

Established by the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 1980, the National Main Street Center helps communities of all sizes revitalize their older and historic commercial districts. Working in more than 2,200 downtowns and urban neighborhoods over the last 34 years, the Main Street program has leveraged more than $59.6 billion in new public and private investment. Participating communities have created 502,728 net new jobs and 115,381 net new businesses, and rehabilitated more than 246,158 buildings, leveraging an average of $33.28 in new investment for every dollar spent on their Main Street district revitalization efforts.

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