In 2015, the small city of Wheeling, West Virginia launched a “Main Street” program to revitalize its downtown core where the vacancy rate stood at 32 per cent. The community, like so many in North America, was hurting.
A century earlier, Wheeling was the richest city per capita in the United States. But time had not been kind to it. After the local steel mill cut employment, people began leaving. The population dropped from 48,000 in 1970 to just 27,000 in 40 years.
But the community began fighting back with a downtown revitalization plan. The plan leveraged the town’s historic assets. It supported local businesses. And it created an energetic shopping, dining and cultural scene by, among other things, turning a former department store into multi-family apartments.
The plan began to pay dividends. In 2019, Wheeling won the Great American Main Street Award for turning “their once blighted downtown into an economic engine for the community.” In the space of only four years, “they have generated $50 million in total investment, rehabbed 124 buildings, and lowered their downtown’s vacancy rate from 32 percent to 15 percent.”
Success built upon success.
In September 2022, the state governor Jim Justice kicked off a project to beautify Wheeling’s downtown that included widening sidewalks, adding decorative brickwork and planting trees.
In April 2023, the geography website WorldAtlas included Wheeling in an article entitled, 8 Towns in West Virginia That Have the Best Main Streets. The Brookings Institution also investigated Wheeling’s success — along with two others, Laramie, Wyo., and Emporia, Kan — for its report, Why Main Streets are a key driver of equitable economic recovery in rural America.
It is a remarkable and uplifting story. I’m not suggesting Wheeling’s formula can be replicated everywhere. But there is a lesson here for many: don’t give up on revitalizing your own downtown. It is a crucial step to re-energizing your whole community.
My own city of Edmonton developed what’s called the Ice District. This includes a new hockey arena, a 356-room hotel with 30 floors of residential condos above it, new high-rise office towers, a public plaza and an array of restaurants and bars. The City of Calgary is starting on its own similar revitalization project.
But downtown revitalization should not be limited to large cities. Rural communities can also revamp their cores to include more housing, restaurants, social spaces and sporting centres.
The challenge for rural communities is that their downtowns do not have a daytime influx of workers. And they certainly do not have the tax base of a large city.
These dynamics can make rural communities reluctant to take the plunge into revamping their downtowns. Residents are afraid their taxes will be increased, that money will be wasted on a lost cause, that shops and businesses will be forced to close or will lose business because of construction.
But all of those obstacles can be overcome.
Virtually every jurisdiction in North America has money they can tap into for economic development.
Wheeling received money from the state. Crucially, though, the community also set up a non-profit agency called Wheeling Heritage that recruited volunteers and raised money through charity events to “improve the quality of life in Wheeling by preserving and investing in our city, collaborating with others, and engaging the citizens of Wheeling in our work.”
One of the key elements to a successful downtown revitalization project is getting residents involved. It is an exciting opportunity. It is a way to attract newcomers and businesses. Many rural communities also have a proud history that includes historic buildings that have been spared the kind of sweeping development that bulldozed similar structures in larger centres.
Odds are your community can take advantage of a beautiful, character-rich and historic downtown by growing the number of restaurants, lounges, social activities in its core, and its strong sense of community.
Some residents might think it is a waste to plant trees downtown or widen the sidewalks. But you’d be surprised by how much traction you can get from beautifying your downtown.
As for construction problems, a manageable downtown revitalization plan with input from residents can avoid headaches.
I have spoken to numerous rural communities across North America about the challenges and rewards of re-energizing their downtown cores. As I have said many times, communities need to keep moving to not only survive but thrive. Standing still means going backwards.
Communities like Wheeling are a wonderful example of what is possible when you put plans in motion.
