The National Main Street Center announced today the winners of its first-ever “Innovation on Main Street” awards. This award recognizes Main Street organizations for successful, sustainable initiatives that represent new approaches to an existing downtown revitalization challenges or opportunities. Awards were announced as part of the National Main Streets Conference in Atlanta, March 30-April 1, 2015.

“Our hats are off to each of the programs selected for the Innovation on Main Street awards,” says Patrice Frey, president and CEO of the National Main Street Center. “For the Main Street movement to continue to be successful and relevant, we will need to capitalize on changing trends, demographics and economies. We applaud these programs for daring to innovate and for energizing the field of downtown revitalization with fresh ideas.”

Main Street New Jersey was selected for its “NJ350 Pop-Up Store program” which gave participating Main Streets in New Jersey the tools to create temporary retail shops in vacant storefronts. The program, timed to coincide with the 350th anniversary of New Jersey’s founding, provided state-related merchandise, furniture, signage, marketing, technical support and training to help the local Main Street organization develop and promote the pop-up store. The program succeeded by drawing shoppers downtown, supporting local craftspersons and entrepreneurs, and attracting business owners to underutilized or vacant retail spaces. By the end of 2014, 89 percent of the empty retail spaces that were used as pop-up locations were rented.

Shaw Main Streets was honored for its “Art All Night” festival which was expanded to four other Washington, D.C. Main Street programs this year. Based on Paris’ Nuit Blanche, an all-night citywide arts festival, Art All Night is a free overnight arts festival that transforms businesses, vacant commercial spaces and warehouses, libraries, recreation centers and parks into performing and visual arts venues for one night only. The event is a win-win-win as artists and performers get greater exposure, local businesses get a bump in foot traffic and neighborhoods that may be unfamiliar or only thought of as daytime destination get a boost. Using mostly free social media promotion, Art All Night drew 45,000 visitors to five commercial districts. Shaw Main Streets is a designated DC Main Streets program.

Winnsboro Main Street in rural Texas was recognized for its “Shop Our Town First” program. With three Walmart stores in the vicinity, local leaders saw the value in educating the community on the importance of supporting Winnsboro’s many specialty shops, restaurants and service providers. Events, coupon books, branding and advertising have made the program a great success, as evidenced by greater business receipts and increased sales tax revenue—the latter was up by $10,000 compared to the same period in 2013. Winnsboro Main Street is a Texas Main Street City.

The award is open to any Standard, Designated or Coordinating Program member of the National Main Street Center.

For conference updates, follow @MainStreetsConf on Twitter. More information on the program is online at: http://www.mainstreet.org/

About the National Main Street Center

Established in 1980 as a program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the National Main Street Center works with a nationwide network of communities to encourage preservation-based economic revitalization that utilizes the Main Street Four-Point Approach.® The Center participated in the renewal of more than 2,000 older commercial districts during its 35-year history. Now a subsidiary of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the National Main Street Center provides information, offers technical assistance, holds conferences and workshops, and conducts research and advocacy on critical revitalization issues.