The Main Street Program has been incredibly successful, making it one of the
most powerful economic development tools in the nation, by focusing on
historic preservation and retaining community character to facilitate the
vitality of downtown and its businesses. Reinvestment statistics have been
tracked annually since 1980 in over 1,700 communities.
Reinvestment figures are a nationally accepted standard for measuring the
vitality of a business district. The statistics indicate to the public and
governing bodies that those businesses have faith in the continued success of
their Main Street District, in turn reinvesting in the future growth of that
district. They reflect the private dollars invested in capital improvements,
renovations or development of businesses and acquisitions of commercial
property, the net number of new businesses in the District and the net number
of new jobs created within a fiscal year.
Additionally, a
“Reinvestment Ratio” can be extrapolated to indicate the amount of new
investment that occurs for every dollar a participating community spends to
support the operation of its Main Street program per fiscal year. It gives the
community a way to gauge return on investment and can be compared with other
Main Street Programs and business districts across the country.
