Investing in downtowns pays off, speaker tells South Shelby Chamber

The head of a nonprofit agency devoted to helping revitalize communities across Alabama encouraged members of the South Shelby Chamber of Commerce to invest in downtowns as a means to spark economic revitalization at the chamber's luncheon on Thursday, July 9.

“My message is to help cities understand the economic impact that downtowns can have on their communities. When you ignore your core, you have issues outside of the core,”  said Mary Helmer, president of Main Street Alabama, a statewide agency that reopened in Birmingham two years ago after a 10 year absence.

Main Street Alabama is a statewide organization, and works with 16 different community agencies, such as REV Birmingham, that provide small business seminars and other services for entrepreneurs and would-be business owners. In her luncheon address at the Columbiana United Methodist Church, Helmer talked about how cities can reuse traditional downtowns in a new way.

“Main Street Alabama works with cities desiring to spark economic development by focusing on small businesses and entrepreneurship, and how that adds to the greater development of the city,” Helmer said. “Instead of always trying to recruit new industry, why don’t you help train some of your city residents on how to run a business? Create your own.”

April Stone, executive director of the South Shelby Chamber, hopes Helmer’s address planted seeds that will inspire some of the business and city leaders to take action. Among those in attendance were the mayors of Wilsonville, Columbiana and Harpersville.

 “We work closely with six communities, and three of them have traditional downtowns - Columbiana, Vincent and Wilsonville, which has a square,” Stone said. “Each of them are unique."

Stone said she “would love to see investment” in old buildings instead of tearing them down.

“I like the way she talked about reusing historic buildings,” Stone said. “All of them have downtown space that can be utilized. Why not use what you have? I would love for some of our towns to take that history and use it to plan for their future.”