Portsmouth Partnership says Main Street work in Oldtown has produced new housing, $2.3 million in investment and a boost in visitors

Michelle Ren, executive director of the Portsmouth Partnership, told the Portsmouth City Council on Feb. 24 that the city’s Mobilizing Main Street program is a two‑year, citywide effort and that the Partnership is one year into implementing a preservation‑based, four‑point approach focused initially on the Oldtown/High Street corridor.

“We are a year into it,” Ren said. She described the Main Street strategy as organized around economic vitality, design, promotion and organization and said the Partnership has cataloged more than 170 businesses and collected 755 community surveys to establish a baseline for the district.

Ren and Liz Cosley, the Partnership’s assistant director, reported early results: since August 2025 the program has tracked about 2,200 volunteer hours, 12 new housing units placed in the district and roughly $2.3 million invested in improvements, most from private sources. Those figures, the presenters said, provide a baseline to measure future growth.

The Partnership said safety and lighting emerged repeatedly in outreach and became the program’s first on‑the‑ground project. “We raised $50,000 from the private sector; the city matched that dollar for dollar,” Ren said. The funds financed uplighting for crepe myrtles and incentives for business owners to upgrade lighting and security systems, including $1,000 grants for participating businesses. The presenters said 27 businesses are engaged: three projects are complete, six are in installation and 18 are in planning.

Partnership staff described several business‑support programs operating under the Bloom incubator, including a healthcare accelerator, a retail accelerator and a seed capital activator that helps entrepreneurs access small, zero‑interest loans administered by Bridging Virginia and KA. Ren said roughly 200 entrepreneurs have used Bloom services and about 20 have moved into larger or brick‑and‑mortar spaces after program participation.

The Partnership also outlined grant wins and next steps. Ren said the group received a $70,000 Unlocking Capital award from a Main Street grant (Robert Wood Johnson Foundation) that will be used to build capacity, add staff support for business advising, and guarantee a $50,000 pre‑development grant (scalable to $125,000) to reduce vacancy through feasibility work on High Street.

On promotion, the presenters described High Street Fest as both a branding and an economic strategy. They said the one‑time production cost was about $142,000 (public and private funding) and reported approximately 2.3 million media impressions, nearly 7,000 visitors on the busiest day and more than 100 street vendors. Vendors and brick‑and‑mortar owners reported notable sales gains; the Partnership cited examples of double‑ and triple‑digit percentage increases for some businesses on the day of the festival.

Council members asked for the Partnership’s leakage study and for more detail on where displaced retail spending occurs; Ren said the retail alliance‑produced study and economic‑development staff can share the full report. Members also discussed signage, neighborhood scaling of the Main Street model and coordination with EDA facility improvement grants, which staff said had been in high demand this fiscal year.

The Partnership emphasized that the Main Street model is intended as a public‑private, grassroots effort that leans on municipal and private partners. Ren closed by urging continued coordination on grant applications and pre‑development work to convert vacant storefronts into active uses. The Partnership said it will pursue the pre‑development grant process and return with proposals for use of those funds.

Portsmouth Partnership leaders left council with materials and offered to provide the leakage study and follow‑up information about pre‑development grant applicants and EDA funding options.