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2018 Best Adaptive Reuse Project Wake Forest , NC Amy and Brian Burkhardt purchased a 1940s one-story building located at 153 White...

2018 Best Adaptive Reuse Project Shelby , NC A local couple, Cliff and Angela Franklin, purchased the Historic Campbell building, located...

2018 Best Adaptive Reuse Project Goldsboro , NC 109 East Ash Street was the site of a WPA project to build the Goldsboro Fire Department Headquarters in 1939. The historic building served the City until 1976. Forty years and numerous owners later, in 2016, David and Bethany Perry purchased the building and brought in David Maurer and Billy Brock to complete the design through the construction of the historic tax credit rehabilitation of the building . The 12,000 square

2018 Best Adaptive Reuse Project Fuquay- Varina , NC 128 South Fuquay Avenue served as the Town of Fuquay-Varina fire department for more than thirty years, followed by a variety of businesses until 2017. Anthony Adams purchased the building and partnered with Ben and Alex Somerville with the dream of opening a coffee shop. Cultivate Coffee is Fuquay-Varina’s first all-inclusive coffee shop with roasting capabilities, and it offers a coffee subscription service. The busi

2018 Best Economic Development Incentive Marion, NC Seeking to reverse the decline in local entrepreneurs and new small business start-ups, the Marion Business Association, the City of Marion, the McDowell Chamber of Commerce, and the McDowell Technical Community College Small Business Center initially partnered in 2016 to create the Growing Entrepreneurs Marion, or GEM program. Using the REAL Entrepreneurship curriculum, GEM offers an eight-class training program to tea

2018 Best Image-Building Campaign Lenoir, NC The TOGETHER WE CREATE Downtown Lenoir story-brand and comprehensive image-building campaign took a year to complete and required countless hours by a dedicated volunteer branding team. By telling the stories of entrepreneurs and innovators who embody downtown’s spirit of creativity and entrepreneurship, the campaign is aimed at attracting a target audience of like-minded people with goals of opening a business and investing in

2018 Best Retail Promotion Morganton, NC The F.A.B. Crawl, which stands for Food. Arts. Brews., was developed in the spring of 2018 to showcase downtown Morganton businesses. Initially discussed as a brewery crawl, it was decided that including restaurants and art-based businesses would support and expand the downtown economic development strategy that all of downtown is an arts incubator. Established as a quarterly event, the intent is to incentivize residents and v

2018 Best Downtown Special Event or Event Series Mocksville, NC Twas the Night Before Bed Race is a fun, wacky, and creative family-friendly event held on the third Friday in November each year in historic downtown Mocksville. Now in its sixth year, participating teams create beds according to specifications provided in the entry packet. Each team develops its own theme for the bed, such as running chickens, the Minions, or Hawaiian surfers. The racers compete in he

2018 Best Downtown Special Event or Event Series Lenoir, NC Lenoir’s Carolina Tattoo and Arts Gathering is special event that is designed to attract the creative class in an authentic and overwhelmingly creative way. The furniture industry initially brought the creative class to Lenoir, and now it is done through data centers such as Google. Lenoir’s new brand, “TOGETHER WE CREATE,” and the Tattoo and Arts Gathering illustrate Lenoir’s “WE CREATE” spirit. The Gathering

2018 Best Volunteer Recruitment, Training and Recognition Lenoir, NC The heart of any dynamic Main Street program is its people. Their enthusiasm should be fueled by training and guided by objectives. Lenoir’s “Be a Part of What Makes This Work” volunteer training and recognition program equips its dedicated people with the concepts and principles of the Main Street America Approach. The four-point approach, volunteer opportunities, and responsibilities are present

2018 Best Innovation Lenoir, NC Watch Video HERE! The City of Lenoir Main Street program had a desire to address misconceptions and stifle myths about redevelopment of downtown commercial properties. The $16,000 Moving Lenoir to the 2nd Floor program began with a workshop held locally for downtown Lenoir property owners, business owners, bankers, real estate agents, accountants, city council and administration, the Fire Marshal, and building inspectors. The workshop, ca

2018 Best Public-Private Partnership in Downtown Revitalization Goldsboro, NC Watch Video HERE! In partnership with the National Main Street Center, OneMain Financial created a grant program and awarded six $25,000 Action Grants for innovative community transformation projects across the country. Goldsboro, the first grant recipient, developed a project that would further enhance its economic development strategy as the center for arts and cultural development in Wayne Cou

2017 Small Town Main Street Awards – Promotion Warrenton and Edenton, NC The stamped passport qualifies tourists to register online for prizes and drawings. Discover History Worth Repeating was conceived as a collaboration project between the towns of Edenton, Halifax and Warrenton to promote tourism in some of North Carolina’s most historic communities. The promotion highlights seminal moments in state and national history such as the Halifax Resolves that predates the Dec

2017 Best Outdoor Space Improvement Sanford, NC Nine of the seventeen municipal service district blocks in downtown Sanford were transformed. Nine of the seventeen municipal service district blocks in downtown Sanford were transformed through an eighteen-month streetscape project that made downtown safer, more walkable and more aesthetically pleasing. The project included new sidewalks, trees and landscaping, underground utility work, new street lighting, and repaving street

2017 Best Historic Rehabilitation Project Wilson, NC The historic rehabilitation cost $432,000 and is fully occupied with City of Wilson administrative offices. The 1892 Rountree-Roney-Brett House, located at 206 Nash Street, was acquired by the City of Wilson in 2014. Situated in a highly visible West Nash Street location in historic downtown Wilson, the Queen Anne style house is a nationally designated landmark structure of substantial significance. The West Nash Street

2017 Best Historic Rehabilitation Project Tryon, NC The Missildines, Bank and Jackson buildings, located at 13-17 South Trade Street, Tryon, NC The Missildines, Bank and Jackson buildings, located at 13-17 South Trade Street, were built in the 1910's and 1920's at the geographic and cultural center of Tryon, NC. Located across the street from the train depot, the three buildings served locals and visitors as the home for a pharmacy, weavers, a grocery, hardware stores and oth

2017 Best Facade Rehabilitation Project for More Than $15,000 Boone, NC The Appalachian Theatre in Boone, NC The Appalachian Theatre, located at 555 West King Street, was designed by Clarence Coffey, who apprenticed with Frank Lloyd Wright. It opened on November 14, 1938, and became the social center for Watauga County, showing films and presenting live entertainment. Over the years, the marquee was removed and the Art Deco facade was replaced. In 1982 it was converted to a t

2017 Best Facade Rehabilitation Project for Less Than $15,000 Smithfield, NC Facade improvement in Smithfield, NC In 2017, the former Capital Department Store, located at 224-228 East Main Street, underwent facade improvements because of a change in tenants, the need for building maintenance and the availability of an awning grant from the Downtown Smithfield Development Corporation. The facade improvement plan was developed by the North Carolina Main Street and Rural Plannin

2017 Best Historic Rehabilitation Project Goldsboro, NC Renovated Goldsboro Drug Company buiilding The Goldsboro Drug Company building, c. 1885, located at 101 North Center Street, was purchased by brothers Jim and Jeff Daniels in 2014 after sitting vacant for six years. The owners enlisted the architectural services of Maurer Architecture to develop a sensitive rehabilitation for a new use, utilizing historic tax credits and a facade grant from the City of Goldsboro. The bui

2017 Best Historic Rehabilitation Project Garner, NC Full Bloom Coffee and Craft Cafe in Garner, NC Garner entrepreneurs Patrick and Michelle Byrd completed a full renovation on a c. 1910 historic bank building located at 141 West Main Street in downtown Garner. The under-utilized, deteriorated property, last used as a barbershop, was renovated for the Full Bloom Coffee and Craft Cafe. The owners preserved the original vault in the building for their cafe kitchen, rehabilitat

2017 Best Historic Rehabilitation Project Elkin, NC Maggy's Place in downtown Elkin, NC The 523 square foot space, formerly used as offices for the Elkin Manufacturing Company and the Elkin and Alleghany Railroad in downtown Elkin, is the last remaining wooden structure on Main Street. The c. 1870 building located at 231 West Main Street was covered in aluminum siding. A major concern for the renovation was the condition of the wood underneath the siding, but the German lap s

2017 Best Endangered Properties Rescue Effort Goldsboro, NC John Street Properties downtown apartments in Goldsboro, NC 205, 207 and 209 North John Street are three valuable historic commercial properties that were once slated for demolition due to city council's frustration that stemmed from their negative appearance. Of the three, 85% of the square footage was used for junk storage and the remainder was used as a storefront church. It took ten years of aggressive work by th

2017 Best Adaptive Reuse Project Wilson, NC Revitalization in downtown Wilson, NC The 200 Block of South Street and 217 Brew Works redevelopment project was realized when developers Tom Curran and Barbie Conklin decided to put their efforts and financial commitment into Historic Downtown Wilson. This area of downtown was abandoned five years ago. The project serves as a backdrop to the $10 million Vollis Simpson Whirligig Park. The 200 block of South Street, built in 1934 and