Last week, after three years of preparation, The Town of Centreville was made into a “Main Street Maryland” community, a designation granted by the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development to towns committed to attracting new businesses while remaining invested in smart growth decisions.
One of only three communities in Maryland to receive the status this year, the “Main Street” designation will enable Centreville to become eligible for state grants for the revitalization of its historic downtown.
As one of the instrumental players in achieving the “Main Street” designation along with Centreville’s downtown business league “Centreville Alive”, Town Council President Tim McCluskey agreed to sit down with the Spy to discuss the present status of Centreville’s downtown and how he expects the “Mainstreet” designation to pay dividends towards future economic development.
To McCluskey, many factors have contributed to the unstable business environment Centreville’s downtown has experienced since the millennium. While he cited the introduction of new housing developments like North Brook, Providence Farm, and Symphony Village as economic drivers for the construction of the large shopping center south of Centreville (which may have detracted from the traditional business community’s viability downtown), McCluskey emphasized that regardless of the era, Centreville’s downtown business owners have always struggled to keep their domain vibrant.
“This isn’t just a problem that’s occurred in the past five years or eight years or just in this past decade, it’s something that has plagued Centreville for a long time,” he said, referencing an article he read in the Record Observer about the local business association’s struggles 25 years ago.
“When I got on the Council three years ago, we really wanted to see what we could do to revive the business association or start something new. So we [McCluskey and Centreville Alive] went down to the Maryland Municipal League’s yearly conference, and what really struck us was the “Main Street Maryland Program.’”
At the time of their initial inquiry, the MSM program included 23 communities throughout Maryland, none of which were in Queen Anne’s County. According to the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development’s blog, since MSM’s inception in 1998, 1,392 new businesses were created, along with 5,574 new jobs.
The MSM program is designed around five points; “Design”, “Organization”, “Promotion”, “Economic Restructuring” and “Clean, Safe and Green”.
While the MSM program was not accepting applications during the period McCluskey and Centreville Alive were made aware of its existence, the program’s director told the group that by observing the program’s five point criteria preemptively, they would immediately improve Centreville’s chances of being considered.
“We were told to act as if we already were a “Main Street” community,” said McCluskey, “so that when an opening presented itself, we could simply slide into that designation.”
“Having the designation is a big thing,” he continued. “In terms of name recognition, it’s huge. And it enables us to now say ‘we are a branded “Main Street” community.’ This is a nationwide occurrence, and here we are, the first in our county. It gives another air of legitimacy to what we are trying to do.”
“From a monetary standpoint, it enables us to apply to certain grants and low-interest loans that would help develop facades and other form of beautification, like Denton has been able to do [through their MSM designation]. I’m not saying the Town gets the low interest loans, but we have the ability to help businesses get them. ”
“As for grants, there are a lot of grants that have dried up. So I don’t believe that we will suddenly get a lot of money. But the designation will help us in the long term. The business cycle will change again, and this “Main Street” designation will make it so we are eligible for these grants in the future.”
“I think that national, historic, main streets are under attack, so we need to do what we can to protect them–that is not to say that we don’t need to protect our other business communities–but I think we need to pay particular attention to the historic downtowns, because that is a driver for other people coming in, and in my opinion we need to have a downtown that is vibrant just to complement the rest of the town. People come to this town, and Centreville is known for its historic heritage–we were founded in 1794, and we have the oldest operating courthouse in Maryland– that’s an important thing, and I think it’s important that we put a focus on maintaining our downtown business community.”
Sykesville and Ocean City were also given MSM status this year.
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