People attending a tour of downtown Denison, Texas © Mel Climer — Climer Design
Thursday, June 20 at 2:00 p.m. CDT
How many vacant spaces are in your Main Street district? Where is there room to add more housing, businesses, and gathering spaces?
Main Street America recently launched a property and vacancy inventory tool, the Building Opportunities on Main Street (BOOMS) Tracker. Join the Main Street America Research Team for a webinar on June 20th where they’ll showcase the tool’s functionality, lead a live demonstration of how quick and easy it is to enter data, and answer any questions you might have about how you can use this tool to understand and unlock opportunities in your community.
Registration is recommended. This webinar will be recorded and made available for replay.
Designed for local leaders, this user-friendly property inventory tool allows users to easily gather, store, and showcase information about buildings and lots in their districts. The Building Opportunities on Main Street Tracker (BOOMS) Tracker is available to all designated Main Street districts in our network.
The Historic Tax Credit Growth and Opportunity Act would open opportunities for Main Streets to access funding to rehabilitate historic buildings.
Data from the past year and updates on our building inventory tool, the Building Opportunities on Main Street Tracker
Key takeaways from six sessions at the 2025 Main Street Now Conference.
Creating real change in business ownership starts with local communities leading the way, backed by strong partnerships and collaborations.
Meet BOOMS Tracker super user, Brian Kramer, and learn how he is using to tool to build a deeper understanding of his Main Street district.
Matt Wagner, Ph.D., breaks down how context and outreach can help you build a stronger market analysis.
Becky Axilbund, Executive Director at Main Street Middletown, MD Inc., shares lessons learned from their renovation of two downtown buildings.
Urban Impact Inc., harnesses strategic investments and collaborative efforts to foster a vibrant and sustainable future, from visionary adaptive reuse ventures to transformative development grants for small businesses and property owners in Birmingham, Alabama's historic 4th Avenue Black Business District.
We are excited to announce the Building Opportunities on Main Street (BOOMS) Tracker, a new free tool to help designated Main Streets unlock the potential of their vacant properties. This user-friendly property inventory tool allows local leaders can gather, store, and showcase information about their district’s built environment to plan and advocate for new property uses.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced $20B in federal Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF) awards distributed to eight national non-profit consortiums. Main Street America looks forward to partnership and engagement with awardees and local programs to identify projects and expand impact throughout our network.
Hillsboro, Oregon © Alicia Gallo
Answer 12 questions to find out the "personality" of your district and resources that cover related housing topics.
Macon, GA
Middlesboro Main Street in Middlesboro, Ky., Puerto Rican Cultural Center in Chicago, Ill., and Sugar Creek Business Association in Charlotte, N.C., have each been awarded $100,000 through The Hartford Small Business Accelerator Grant Program in partnership with Main Street America.
Learn how the HUD Pro Housing Program and other opportunities can help you increase affordable housing in your community.
Learn how Majd Alsaif, Celeste Constancio, and Leilani Commons supported Main Street America this summer.
Learn how the National Clean Investment Fund (NCIF) and the Clean Communities Accelerator Fund (CCIA) will pump billions of dollars into reducing carbon emissions from the built environment in the coming years.
Main Street America is leading a coalition urging that the EPA make available the GGRF funds for adaptive reuse and location-efficient projects because of the substantial greenhouse gas emissions reduction offered by such developments.
Spencer Main Street's Main Street Micro Grants is injecting key funding into their small business ecosystem.
Spencer, IA © Spencer Main Street
From 19th-century mill girls to Maine's mill redevelopments and the regional manufacturers of tomorrow, learn about the amazing history and promise of the New England mill.
Biddeford, ME © Heart of Biddeford
A practical and easily digestible report containing practical “how-to’s” designed to help local leaders support housing development in their communities.
Main Street America's research team takes a look at the data presented in the At Home on Main Street and offers relevant insights for Main Street managers looking to understand downtown and neighborhood commercial district housing trends.
In Fall 2022, MSA partnered with infill developer and small-deal guru Jim Heid and the Incremental Development Alliance to conduct surveys on the barriers to small-scale real estate projects across the United States. Here we share the results.
This article was published on January 10, 2023, by Next City, a nonprofit news organization focused on socially, economically, and environmentally sustainable urban practices.
Learn about the City of Boston’s efforts to invest in economic equity.
Learn how this West Virginia community redirected façade improvement funds to revive local commercial kitchens.
Interested in implementing a small-scale development project in your district? Mike Scholl of Ayres Associates, who worked with Downtown Laramie Wyoming on their Empress Lofts project, lays out some of the key considerations for Main Streets working on development projects.
Laramie, WY © Mike Scholl
Main Street America launches a project to learn more about the specific barriers to small-scale real estate development on our Main Streets and identify solutions for financing small-scale deals.
learn how Rethos: Places Reimagined is encouraging upper-floor development through their program funded by the Paul Bruhn Historic Revitalization Grant Program.
Red Wing, MN © Megan Tsui
Insights from Main Street leaders and Main Street-oriented housing developers who recently participated in a virtual convening on this topic.
California communities to share their latest developments, including innovative initiatives, once-in-a-lifetime opportunities, and profoundly place- and people-based projects.
Fremont, CA © City of Fremont
Read how Virginia Main Street programs have driven progress downtown through key small-scale real estate projects.
Leverage NC, a partnership between North Carolina Main Street and the North Carolina League of Municipalities, hosted a four-part webinar series titled Better Community Planning & Economic Development led by Ed McMahon, Chair Emeritus of Main Street America and a leading national authority on land use policy and economic development.
Building Small: A Toolkit for Real Estate Entrepreneurs, Civic Leaders and Great Communities provides a What, Why and How of small-scale, incremental development or Small
Charleston, SC © Jim Heid
The Main Street America Institute (MSAI) partnered with the National Development Council (NDC) to offer Historic Real Estate Finance, part one of a two-course certificate program, in Des Moines, Iowa.
In the midst of this human and cultural disaster, the Main Street program, managed by the Ellicott City Partnership, collaborated with Preservation Maryland to provide a variety of disaster relief financing that helped expedite the recovery.
In contrast, the Main Street Program in Laramie, Wyoming, is thriving, having successfully cultivated millions of dollars to help fill these vacant, blighted spaces with permanent structures.
In 2016, the North Carolina Main Street & Rural Planning Center partnered with the University of North Carolina at Greensboro’s Department of Interior Architecture (UNCG) to provide design assistance to Main Street communities.
In Winchester, Virginia, one woman’s vision and commitment to downtown’s revitalization created an innovative community space for the Creative Class.
