Iron Mountain Main Street receives 2010 National Trust Main Street Accreditation

There's always a lot happening in downtown Iron Mountain, and that's reflected in a recent designation from the National Trust Main Street Center.

The Iron Mountain Downtown Development Authority/Main Street is now an accredited National Main Street Program, which means it's met national commercial district revitalization standards from the Main Street Center.

In partnership with the National Trust, each year, Main Street programs become accredited through a process of revitalization that aims at strengthening local businesses and protecting historic buildings.

"We congratulate this year's nationally accredited Main Street programs for meeting our established performance standards," says Doug Loescher, director of the National Trust Main Street Center. "Accredited Main Street programs are meeting the challenges of the recession head on and are successfully using a focused, comprehensive revitalization strategy to keep their communities vibrant and sustainable."

Among those standards, met by Iron Mountain, were developing a mission, fostering strong public-private partnerships, securing an operating budget, tracking its economic progress, and preserving historic buildings.

The Iron Mountain Main Street program was started in 2006 with the help of the DDA, and has channeled more than $392,000 in private investment and $1.5 million in public investment into the downtown since then. Nineteen businesses have opened or relocated there, and more than three dozen full time jobs and 90 part-time jobs have been added. Other projects include rental rehabilitation in vacant upper stories of commercial buildings, eligibility as a historical district and the accompanying tax credits, and tree inventory, removal, replacement and maintenance.

Writer: Sam Eggleston
Source: Doug Loescher, National Trust Main Street Center