Nonprofit’s new designation will help revitalize downtown Martinsville

MARTINSVILLE, Va. (WDBJ) - A Martinsville non-profit has gotten a new recognition from the Governor’s Office that will help it further its mission to revitalize the downtown area. Earlier this week Governor Glenn Youngkin announced Uptown Partnership as one of nine new organizations around the state to receive the Advancing Virginia Main Street Designation.

The new designation will give the non-profit greater access to state grants to fund downtown revitalization projects and support existing businesses.

“Virginia Main Street has different designations. So the top tier is Advancing Main Street, and the middle tier, which is where we were, is mobilizing Main Street. So we’ve achieved that top tier, which is a very challenging and very rigorous process that the state has. We have to meet certain requirements and we’re scored through an application process that we submitted in early October,” said Spencer Koger, Executive Director of the Uptown Partnership.

With its new designation, the organization will have access to a much larger pool of state grants.

“When we apply, if we are selected, we are able to go after the maximum amount of dollars and we’re also given priority in certain grant applications versus other communities that may not be at that Advancing Main Street Designation,” said Koger.

In the coming year, the Uptown Partnership will pursue a number of grants for projects downtown, including the Community Vitality Grant and the up-to-$25,000 Downtown Investment Grant that it is now eligible for.

“We can go toward revitalizing a specific area of downtown if we need to, a pocket park from an actual alleyway, to going in and helping with signage, and appropriate things that just need to be helped and revitalized in the area that could be building structures and that sort of thing,” said Koger.

One project the organization is working on is turning an alley behind its office downtown into a useful community space.

“We can hopefully revitalize that space to provide some outdoor seating and lighting for different restaurants and businesses that are out in that area, as it’s a little bit blighted and dilapidated,” said Koger.

Glitzy Memaidz Clothing Boutique opened on Main Street last year. Its owner said for businesses downtown, the biggest need is to bring more foot traffic to the area.

“I feel like the first year has been really good, considering we are a new boutique in Uptown Martinsville. I feel like our biggest challenge is still people not knowing we’re here and then the parking,” said Jennifer Hendrix, co-owner of Glitzy Mermaidz. “Each street has just a few stores here and there, so I feel like there is not a lot of people knowing what is open, their times, what’s down here. If they just drive by and stores look empty because people have all different kinds of hours, then they’re not seeing who is open.”

Hendrix said there is a good amount of parking downtown, but people often don’t know where it is. She said another way to drive more people to the uptown area could be to hold more city-wide events.

“We would love to see more events uptown, celebrating uptown and small towns. We do an Octoberfest, which does really well, so we’re always saying they should do something in the spring, do something in the summer to bring in more people to uptown to realize there is a lot of stuff up here,” she said.

Uptown Partnership said the new Advanced Virginia Main Street Designation is only held by 28 communities and the recognition will help businesses.

“That just really will broaden what we are able to bring to our business owners through organizational capacity, through also just increased foot traffic, and it also will impact tourism,” said Koger.

Other new recipients of the designation included Main Street Buena Vista and Downtown Galax Grows.