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Main Street Beatrice reports business grants, events and downtown-building outreach
Summary
Main Street Beatrice updated the council on Q2 activity (Jan–Mar), including $15,000 in business grants dispersed to nine businesses, downtown events that drew participants from multiple states and work to inventory buildings and create an online business directory.
Main Street Beatrice presented its quarter-2 report (January–March) to the council on April 21, summarizing grant awards, marketing assistance, building inventories and planned downtown events.
Staff reported distribution of a $15,000 ‘‘E3’’ business grant among nine businesses and a $315,000 list of grant recipients in the packet (detailed recipient information was included in the Main Street report). Main Street said it completed the Chocolate Lovers event on Feb. 1 with 25 participating businesses and 92 registered participants; the event attracted visitors from across Nebraska, Kansas and other states, and survey results showed 95% of participants who visited every partnering business discovered at least one downtown business they had not known about.
Work in progress includes construction of a downtown business directory (primarily digital) and inventorying downtown buildings in the Booms Tracker (building occupancy, maintenance level, number of stories and upper-floor occupancy). Main Street reported 50% completion on website refresh and 16% completion on the downtown inventory in the Booms Tracker; staff said they expect to have 50% of the building inventory done by the end of the fiscal year.
Main Street also reported 15 commercial property inquiries, five properties undergoing or planning renovations, and 13 businesses that requested marketing and advertising assistance during the quarter. Upcoming community events noted in the report include a beer-and-wine festival on May 3 and Ribfest on June 21.
Council members asked clarifying questions about the directory and Booms Tracker inventory; Main Street said the directory will be available on its website and updated annually, and the Booms Tracker inventory will record vacancy, occupancy, maintenance needs and whether upper floors are occupied.
