VILANO BEACH MAIN STREET, Inc
a FL Non-Profit Corporation
Mail: P.O. Box 6, St. Augustine, FL 32085
3101 First Street (next to Community Center)
904-540-0402,
Vilano Beach Main Street Receives
2015 National Main Street Accreditation
For Immediate Release: Vilano Beach / St. Augustine, Florida – Date: April 24, 2015
Contact: Sallie O’Hara, Program Manager, Vilano Beach Main Street, (904) 540-0402
St. Augustine, FL- 04.24.2015–Vilano Beach Main Street, Inc. 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 10 Standards of Performance,” says Patrice Frey, President & CEO of the National Main Street Center. “As the National Main Street Center celebrates its 35th Anniversary, it is also important to celebrate the achievements of the local Main Street programs across the country, some of whom have been around since the beginning. These local programs work hard every day to make their communities great places to work, live, play and visit while still preserving their historic character.”
The organization’s performance is annually evaluated by the Florida Main Street Program, 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.
Over the past year Vilano Beach Main Street has been instrumental in bringing over 18, 000 visitors to the Town Center to experience our unique coastal quality of life – enjoying the beaches, the restaurants, the entertainment, heritage sites and embracing all that is good about living in a small beachside community.
As Vivan Browning, President of Vilano Beach Main Street, professes, “We are a community that others are striving to become: pedestrian friendly, business oriented balanced with residential concerns.” The mission of Vilano Beach Main Street is to educate, and empower all stakeholders with thetools to revitalize their downtowns, following the National Main Street Four Point Approach to historic preservation and economic revitalization. Since its inception in 2003, Browning reports that “Vilano Beach Main Street Program has brought nearly 200 jobs to the Vilano Beach Town Center.” More is on the horizon.
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 2,000 downtowns and urban neighborhoods over the last 35 years, the Main Street program has leveraged more than $61.7 billion in new public and private investment.Participating communities have created 528,557 net new jobs and 120,510 net new businesses, and rehabilitated more than 251,838 buildings, leveraging an average of $26.52 in new investment for every dollar spent on their Main Street district revitalization efforts.
Vilano Beach Main Street is a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the quality of life and preserving the historic 1927 Vilano Beach Town Center historic properties. The town is located two miles over the Intracoastal Waterway from St. Augustine, the oldest city in America founded in 1565. It became a Florida Main Street Community in 2003. Visit our web sites for more on this remarkable transformation and economic revitalization to benefit both residents and visitors.
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