Bringing Vitality to Downtown Vienna
November 1, 2032 | Ben White
Vienna Main Street is currently in the Community Empowerment Grant program, a competitively selected grant for services that provides training, community-led direction, and support. As part of the USDA Rural Community Development Initiative (RCDI) grant, Vienna received Branding, Economic Vitality, and Design services. This process allowed the community to come together through input sessions to determine what is important for the future of downtown and their community.
Ben Muldrow of Arnett Muldrow & Associates brought his expertise to:
- Speak about the Promotion point of Main Street.
- Solicit the needs and wants of the community to provide a comprehensive and cohesive branding service that brought an identity for the local Main Street organization.
- Provide incremental implementation steps to roll out the new brand system.
Randy Wilson of Community Design Solutions provided design services including:
- Speak about the Design point of Main Street.
- Work with three building owners on façade renderings to showcase the potential of the properties. This process helped show visions for three key buildings in the downtown. The building owners were eager to make improvements to their buildings.
- Design-related recommendations including ordinance review, beautification, vibrancy amenities, façade improvements, a streetscape rendering, and remediation of buildings.
Jim Thompson, the Downtown Economic Development Specialist for the State of Iowa, delivered Economic Vitality services to:
- Speak about the Economic Vitality point of Main Street.
- Offer materials for business support and retention.
- Provide resources to market available properties in downtown Vienna.
- Give ideas on locally-led financial support for business and property development.
This service helped bring resources, examples, and target short-term and long-term recommendations for the downtown and community. Main Street Vienna has already accomplished a lot of good in such a short time and Missouri Main Street Connection is excited to see the continued growth using the resources and recommendations of this service.
