The value of a downtown

New Bern a national model for Main Street revitalization

Downtown New Bern has changed and grown over
the decades to what visitors and residents now experience.

In the 1991 book, “Edge Cities, Life on the New Frontier,” Joel Garreau argued the shopping center replaced the downtown as the city center. As a passionate advocate for downtown, I acknowledge that many downtown's have died, however, as Don Repkema points out, “they don’t die because they have been replaced by shopping centers, they are lost to history because the importance of the downtown to its community has not been recognized.”

We all agree, shopping centers play an important role in the economy and meet a range of customer needs, but to believe they take the place of the city center, village square or heart of the community is to fail to understand the nature and importance of downtown and their value. 

In a successful downtown there is a sense of community ownership, “it is our downtown.” It is home to the institutional leadership of the community, local government, financial institutions, law firms and others. It serves as the city center offering a range of cultural activities, museums, shops, parks, and historic attractions … a place of diversity and interaction among the entire community and most importantly, as a barometer on the economic health of the community.

Our downtown under the Main Street program has emerged as the nexus of the interests of economic development, historic preservation and the community-at-large. In 1980 when North Carolina became one of six pilot states for a new program called Main Street, under the leadership of Mayor Leander Morgan, New Bern was one of five communities chosen to participate. Since we already had a preservation based downtown revitalization effort in place for many years, the local government determined Swiss Bear should remain a free-standing organization with the same responsibilities and serve a pivotal role. The city planner and Swiss Bear director were designated to serve as co-project managers of the downtown effort. 

The waterfront in downtown New Bern looked
much different in the 1960s.

For 33 years New Bern has been a national example, not just of a successful Main Street program, but of how historic preservation can be the foundation for sustainable economic development. New Bern is the embodiment of the Main Street Principles: incremental, comprehensive, partnerships, self-help, identifying and capitalizing on existing assets, change, quality and implementation.

Aerial photo shows downtown New Bern in the 1960s.
The Trent River is in the foreground and the Neuse
River in the background.

Communities all over the country look to New Bern to see how it’s done.

Since 1981, in our downtown the cumulative net new jobs is 591; cumulative net new businesses 138 and private investment $97,045,495. Swiss Bear’s cumulative efforts over the past 34 years resulted in an investment to the greater downtown effort of over $204 million. Total public and private investment has been $320 million, the most of any Main Street City.

As one of the original demonstration states for Main Street, North Carolina has collected a wealth of data from participating towns. Local program managers are required to submit annual reports on activities in their districts to the state office. For most of the years these reports have included number of facades redone and number of buildings rehabilitated; number of net new jobs, number of net new businesses, amount of private investment and amount of public investment.

At the recent Main Street conference held in New Bern, keynote speaker , Donovan Repkema presented an overview of the results of  his analysis of statistical data in a report, “North Carolina Main Street, Decades of Success, The Economic Impact of Main Street in North Carolina, prepared for the Department of Commerce and the NC Main Street Communities.”

Repkema is the principal of Place Economics, a Washington D.C. based real estate and economic development consulting firm.

In the report’s introductory letter, Sharon Decker, Secretary of Commerce, NC Department of Commerce, pointed out, “…since North Carolina  began its Main Street Program in 1980, $2 billion has been invested in Main Street districts — over half of which has come from the private sector. There has been a gain of more than 18,000 net new jobs and 4,700 new businesses.

“We must acknowledge that we are at a point where public budgets are stretched thin and we simply have to do more with less. Main Street is a champion in this regard. The net new businesses each year in Main Street Districts pay five times in sales revenue what the entire Main Street program costs. This is a program that provides the kind of return on investment that any corporate chair would envy.

“Main Street works because it builds on the assets, the traditions, and most importantly, on the aspirations of the citizens of the community. It is a form of economic development. And North Carolina communities are the better for it.”

We agree.