Our Main Street Program

The Colorado Main Street Program is a program to revitalize traditional downtown districts within the context of historic preservation. The program uses an approach that advocates a return to community self-reliance, local empowerment, and the rebuilding of central business districts based on their traditional assets of unique architecture, personal service, local ownership, and a sense of community.
The Colorado Main Street program provides technical assistance and services in the four areas of the Main Street Approach™ economic restructuring, design, organization and promotion) to competitively selected communities that are working in historically relevant business district settings and that meet certain threshold criteria. Main Street's Eight Guiding Principles provide a comprehensive approach to district and downtown revitalization.

National Main Street History

Concerned about continuing threats to Main Street's commercial architecture and aware of the need to stimulate economic activity in small-city downtowns, the National Trust for Historic Preservation (Link to www.nationaltrust.org ) launched a community demonstration project (1977-1980) that resulted in the creation of the Main Street Four Point Approach TM and establishment of the National Main Street Center in Washington, D.C.

Nationally, the Main Street Program has proven to be incredibly successful, making it one of the most powerful economic development tools in the nation. Today, the Main Street approach has been implemented in 44 states and more than 1,600 communities.

Colorado Main Street History

Colorado was selected by the National Main Street Center for a state pilot Main Street project in 1980 – 1983. Delta, Durango, Grand Junction, Manitou Springs and Sterling were Colorado's Main Street communities in the initial program. The Colorado Department of Local Affairs (DOLA) administered this three year pilot program. Although the Main Street approach to downtown revitalization proved very successful in Colorado, the state discontinued the program after completing the three-year pilot project. In 2000, CCRA restarted the Colorado Main Street program with a grant from the State Historical Fund of the Colorado Historical Society.
Because of the emphasis on historic preservation and the impact the program has had in revitalizing Colorado’s downtowns, the State Historical Fund continues to generously support the Colorado Main Street Program.

Current Colorado Main Street Communities
The Colorado Community Revitalization Association is proud of the revitalization efforts of all of our Main Street Communities

2001 Brush, 970-842-2666,
2001 Greeley, 970-356-6775,
2002 Arvada, 303-420-6100
2003 Berthoud, 970-532-5199,
2005 Lake City , 970-944-DIRT (3478)
2006 Monte Vista , 719-852-2692
2006 Steamboat Springs , 970-879-4555
2008 Granby, 970-887-2858

If you would like a brief program description, please download the Main Street Program Fact Sheet PDF.
Learn more about the Colorado Main Street Program Impacts, Application and Selection Criteria, Main Street Training Institute, and Important Program Dates.
The Colorado Main Street Program is funded by the State Historical Fund of the Colorado Historical Society.

The Main Street Four Point Approach

The Main Street methodology addresses the following four areas and combines activities in these areas to develop a community’s individual strategy for strengthening and redeveloping its central business district. The four points are:

Organization – Establishing consensus and cooperation by building effective partnerships among all downtown stakeholders. The Main Street approach to central business district revitalization requires the effort of the entire community. The merchants, property owners, local government officials, and civic leaders must agree to support common goals for revitalization and join together in a partnership. Successful Main Street programs are usually structured as nonprofits guided by an active working board. The board will create four standing committees (design, organization, economic restructuring and promotion) that will develop projects and work plans for implementation. Local programs hire a paid program manager to coordinate the efforts of volunteers in implementing the program.

Promotion – Creating and marketing a positive image based on the unique attributes of the downtown. The promotions of the central business district as a single, unified commercial area – in the same way that a major shopping mall is promoted – will help attract customers and strengthen Main Street’s role as a viable business center. The Main Street organization can coordinate an aggressive promotion and marketing campaign that includes a program of special events, retail promotions, image promotion and on-going public relations.

Design – Enhancing the unique visual quality of downtown by addressing all design elements to create an appealing environment. Good design is essential to all aspects of downtown revitalization. The Main Street design philosophy is rooted in historic preservation and seeks to use and enhance those elements of quality design that remain in our communities. Neglect and misguided improvements may have taken a toll on the appearance of downtown, affecting its perceived economic potential. Renovated facades and creative merchandising displays, appropriate landscaping and public improvements are all part of downtown’s long-lasting visual appeal and a well-functioning physical environment.

Economic Restructuring – Strengthening downtown’s existing economic assets and fulfilling its broadest market potential. In the twentieth century the retail environment changed profoundly. To become competitive, downtown must reposition itself. With a thorough understanding of today’s market, downtown can develop strategies to enhance the competitiveness of existing merchants, recruit new businesses, create new anchors and convert unused space into new uses.

The Importance of a Comprehensive Approach

Real estate appraisal theory holds that, for a commodity to have value, it must have four elements: scarcity, purchasing power, desire (for the object) and utility. If a commodity has these qualities, it has value. These criteria do not exist in a vacuum, though; they are affected by social, political, economic and physical forces. Value, therefore, is not a fixed state – it fluctuates within the market. If a downtown has lost value through declining sales (desire); market erosion (purchasing power); lack of maintenance, traffic and parking (utility); and the proliferation of other commercial centers (scarcity), it makes sense that, through the following steps, it can create an image of value again.

. Organization - Bring together the groups necessary to make changes happen;
. Design - Create better access, public improvements and building maintenance;
. Promotion - Target the most appropriate markets for promoting the downtown and the goods and services it offers;
. Economic Restructuring - Strengthen existing businesses while recruiting new one;
. Capitalize on the unique historic assets that create a scarce commodity.

The image created through the Main Street program’s comprehensive approach reinforces the sense of scarcity that exists with an historic area; the desire that people have to shop and spend time in a downtown or central area; and utility through increased access to and design of buildings and public improvements. Through a Main Street program, the downtown’s image will again become one of worth and value in the marketplace – the essence of historic preservation and economic revitalization.

Main Street’s Eight Guiding Principles

1. The Main Street Program is a Comprehensive Approach to Downtown Revitalization. Unlike many downtown revitalization strategies that have been tried in the past, the Main Street Approach is comprehensive, addressing all the areas in which action must take place. Only one aspect of revitalization – design – has been addressed by most downtown program, such as those which covered entire block of downtown building facades with aluminum slipcovers, adopted false historic themes and applied them artificially to the fronts of buildings or demolished portions of the downtown in hopes of attracting a developer to build something new. Design improvements alone will not bring about meaningful changes; effective marketing, a strong organizational base and solid economic development strategies are all necessary to reverse the cycle of decay from which many downtown suffer and to sustain preservation activity.

2. The Main Street Approach Relies on Quality. Downtown architecture tells the history of the community. Traditional commercial buildings reflect the pride past generations felt for their communities. These buildings embody quality in construction, craft and style that cannot be replicated today- and which no shopping center can really imitate. Downtown is unique in the marketplace and has many marketing advantages due to the quality inherent in the commercial architecture and in the services offered by its businesses. The projects undertaken by the local Main Street program should reflect this high level of quality to reinforce the downtown’s special characteristics.

3. The Main Street Program Requires Public-Private Partnerships to Make Meaningful Long-term Downtown Revitalization Possible. To make a downtown revitalization program successful, both public and private entities must be involved, as neither can bring about change alone. Each sector has unique skills and particular areas in which it works most effectively; combining the talents of both groups brings together all the skills necessary for revitalization to occur in a unified program.

4. The Main Street Program Involves Changing Attitudes. The economic changes experienced by downtown commercial areas in recent decades have made shoppers and investors skeptical about the downtown’s ability to regain economic viability. Because of its physical decay, many people have forgotten how important the downtown’s historic commercial buildings are to shaping the community’s identity and explaining its unique history. Changing people’s attitudes – demonstrating that positive change is taking place downtown – is central to a successful downtown revitalization program.

5. The Main Street Program Focuses on Existing Assets. Each community is unique, and each downtown has special characteristics that set it apart from all others. By creating a strong revitalization effort based on the downtown’s unique heritage, each local Main Street program creates an organizational structure that builds on its own specific opportunities. In this way, the Main Street program is adaptable. Main Street must capitalize on the unique assets it already has – qualities such as distinctive buildings, neighborly shop owners, good service, and a human scale.

6. Main Street is a Self-Help Program. Without the will to succeed and the desire to work hard to create change, no downtown revitalization program will succeed. Grant programs can help fund pieces of the work plan and consultants can provide guidance, but without local initiative, the Main Street approach will not work. In Colorado, as across the country, local initiative and resources are what power Main Street success. The assistance provided to communities through the CCRA Main Street program is valuable, however, long-term local commitment is what must sustain revitalization.

7. The Main Street Approach is Incremental. Downtown commercial areas did not lost their economic strength overnight; it happened over a period of years, with a number of small declines gradually leading to a sever downward spiral. Improvement must be gradual, too. Cataclysmic changes, like those brought about by large-scale land clearance programs and massive infusions of funds to build pedestrian malls, have rarely created long-term downtown economic growth. There is no quick fix for Main Street. Success at planning and implementing basic, simple activities leads to a deeper understanding of the revitalization process, and these skills allow the community to tackle more complex problems and ambitious projects.

8. The Main Street Program is Implementation Oriented By identifying and prioritizing the major issues that downtown must confront, revitalization organizations can develop work programs that break down the large issues into smaller tasks. Then, by developing a strong network of volunteer support, Main Street programs can build organizational structures capable of achieving the quantifiable tasks mapped out in the work plans.