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$2.4 million invested with MSWB help
by Gregory R. Norfleet · News · April 10, 2014
Main Street West Branch surpassed the $2 million milestone for downtown district spending by businesses whom the group helped since organizing in 2006.
Actual investments amounted to more than $2.4 million, for which MSWB will be recognized at the annual state meeting of Main Street communities next month.
According to Main Street Iowa, private dollars spent here on rehabilitation added up to more than $1.4 million, while private dollars spent on property acquisition amounted to more than $1 million.
Some 32 buildings were rehabilitated for the $1.4 million and nine buildings were sold for the $1 million figure.
These businesses sought help from MSWB through low-interest loans, grants, designs and paint schemes, trend data and consulting services available to Main Street communities, MSWB President Brad Larson said.
“It shows that the Main Street program works,” he said.
He said Main Street’s successes are an “incremental process.”
“It takes time, volunteers and commitment,” Larson said. “The City of West Branch is a huge supporter of the program and we’re all working toward that common goal to make it a better place to live and work and do business.”
Gov. Terry Branstad is expected to attend the annual Main Street ceremony on May 2 and present honors like the investment milestones.
A Main Street Iowa report also shows that West Branch had a net gain of 38 new business starts, expansions or relocations in those eight years, and a net gain of 59 jobs.
The Main Street downtown district reaches westward to about the West Branch Ford dealership and eastward to the creek near Agave’s Mexican Restaurant, plus a short distance north on Downey Street. Larson pointed to business start-ups like Patton Family Health, Presidential Motors, Marg’s Little Red House, the Hoover House, Main Street Sweets, Integrity Financial, Cotton Creek Mill (formerly Cedar Valley Quilts), Brick Arch Winery, Reid’s Beans, Pink Pony, West Branch Treasurers and West Branch Emporium for helping boost the district.
“I came to town in 1999 and saw some stores closing and leaving,” he said. “In 2005, there were a lot of storefronts vacant with buildings in disrepair. Main Street gave people a reason and pride in restoring those buildings and building new.”
Larson talked about how Norm and Pat Bickford helped rehabilitate the building that houses Main Street West Branch’s offices and then built the veterans’ memorial, and how Wayne Maas fixed up three other buildings to prepare them for occupancy.
MSWB also counted more than 27,000 volunteer hours, just under 3,400 hours per year.
“The Main Street program is founded on volunteers,” Larson said. “All that is done behind the scenes, like watering flowers, cleaning up certain parts of town, Hoover’s Hometown Days, or whatever other event that is going on.”
Larson also credited the program directors, like Mackenzie Krob and her predecessor, Rod Ness, for being “the engine behind the project.”
“(These volunteers) are what drives communities to grow,” he said.
Larson said MSWB has its eyes set on filling the storefront closest to where Downey connects to the Herbert Hoover National Historic Site, a building on the east side that had been owned by Joseph “Brett” Gordon, who died in December.
“Hopefully we’ll stimulate that (into becoming) another successful business venture,” he said.
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