Generous Donations Help Fund Main Street Wilmington Program

Downtown Visions was recently awarded grants from Comenity Bank, Bank of America, and M&T Bank to support the efforts of the nonprofit’s Main Street Wilmington program. Without this generous support from our donors, Downtown Visions would not be able to run the programs, events, and initiatives for the Downtown community.

From its inception, Downtown Visions’ mission has been to help ignite business creation, enhance service delivery of businesses within the Downtown Wilmington Business Improvement District (BID), and ensure the BID is aesthetically pleasing, clean, and safe at all times.

These grants will be used to support DTV’s Main Street Wilmington Program, which provides the following services to the Downtown BID:

• Improve the façades and signage of businesses operating in Wilmington's Downtown BID and ensure authentic restorations of historic buildings by working with the City of Wilmington's Design Review and Preservation Commission and local historical nonprofits, such as the Delaware Historical Society, through our Facade Improvement Program.

• Boost economic development of businesses operating in the Wilmington Downtown BID by providing marketing and event support, and event creation, such as Curbside Wilmington.

• Continue with the visual transformation of Wilmington's Downtown BID to create a vibrant and visually pleasing shopping, dining, and living area through cleaning efforts

• Facilitate connections between civic officials, developers, and business owners to support strong economic growth and investment in the Downtown Business Improvement District.

Main Street Wilmington Program Receives 2021 Accreditation

Downtown Visions’ Main Street Wilmington program has been designated as an accredited Main Street™ program of 2021 for meeting rigorous performance standards. Each year, Main Street America and its partners announce the list of accredited programs to recognize their exceptional commitment to preservation-based economic development and community revitalization through the Main Street Approach™.

Main Street Wilmington’s performance is annually evaluated by Delaware on Main, which works in partnership with Main Street America to identify the local programs that meet 10 national performance standards. Evaluation criteria determines the communities that are building meaningful and sustainable revitalization programs and include standards such as, fostering strong public-private partnerships, documenting programmatic progress, and actively preserving historic buildings.

As a Main Street America Affiliate™, Main Street Wilmington is part of a national network of more than 1,200 neighborhoods and communities who share both a commitment to creating high-quality places and to building stronger communities through preservation-based economic development.

In 2020, Main Street Wilmington also established programs to help our Downtown Business Community reopen after the COVID-19 shutdown.

• Curbside Wilmington introduced expanded outdoor dining to support local businesses and encourage patrons to return to the rejuvenated Downtown District during the Coronavirus Pandemic. Expanded outdoor dining allowed Downtown restaurants to expand their patio spaces and outdoor dining into former parking spaces directly in front of their businesses, thereby allowing more seating at safely spaced distances in accordance with Governor Carney’s guidelines. Also, curbside pull-in spots were designated throughout the Downtown area for all businesses, both retail and restaurants, to use for pick-up and curbside delivery. 

• Dine Downtown Deal rewarded customers for supporting downtown restaurants. After submitting 5 eligible receipts from Downtown eateries, diners received a gift card in the amount of 20% of the total meals purchased to the business of their choice in the Wilmington Downtown Business Improvement District (BID).

• Free Valet Parking was started during the pandemic to make it as easy as possible for patrons to visit Downtown Wilmington. It is available on Friday and Saturday evenings from 5-10 PM at 7th & Market Streets.

• Free Shipping Promotion covered the cost of standard shipping for all online purchases made from participating Downtown Wilmington DE retailers.

To date, Main Street Wilmington has helped to build a better Downtown by:

• Helping to create 1,800+ jobs

• Restoring 53 building facades

• Removing 28 roll down security gates

• Providing grants to 72 businesses

“We are proud to recognize this year’s 889 nationally accredited Main Street programs that have worked tirelessly to advance economic vitality and quality of life in their downtowns and commercial districts,” said Patrice Frey, President & CEO of Main Street America. “During an incredibly challenging year, these programs demonstrated the power of the Main Street movement to drive impressive local recovery efforts, champion small businesses, and foster vibrant downtown districts. I am inspired by their hard work and confident that these accredited communities will continue to help their downtowns flourish in the next stages of recovery.”

Downtown Visions' Lani Star Schweiger Featured as It's Time Wilmington's #PeopleofWilmDE!

Our very own Lani Star Schweiger was recently profiled as one of It’s Time Wilmington’s #PeopleofWilmDE!

Lani is the Senior Brand and Marketing Manager for Downtown Visions and the Program Manager for Main Street Wilmington. As a Wilmington native, Lani’s view of the city is uniquely personal.

“I have lived in the City of Wilmington since I was 3 years old; I grew up in the Triangle neighborhood, and have worked Downtown at Downtown Visions since 2008. I am definitely a city girl at heart.

…I grew up walking Downtown with my mom. We would often grab lunch together and go shopping at Joy Trimming (now closed). My mother always told me stories about how exciting it was to be Downtown when she was a young girl. She loved going to the Warner Theatre with her friends, eating sweets at Federal Bakery and sundaes at the Woolworths counter. Those stories made me want to continue that feeling for other generations to experience and make memories in Downtown Wilmington. I have always loved Downtown Wilmington. I love the deep history and amazing architecture and caring and advocating for this City has always been a personal passion of mine and now it’s also my professional passion.” 

Continue reading Lani’s full story on Wilmtoday.com!

Best of 2019: Downtown Visions Year in Review!

Image Credit: Andrew Kucienski

As we kick off 2020 and begin a new decade, let’s take a look back at the best year yet for Downtown Visions and Main Street Wilmington. 2019 was filled with growth for Downtown Wilmington, and we are thrilled to have aided in the progress.

Downtown Visions mission is to create, manage, and promote a quality environment for people who live, work, and visit Downtown Wilmington. We do this through a variety of initiatives, including our Main Street Wilmington program. As a Main Street community, Downtown Visions not only preserves historic buildings, but also focuses on small business recruitment, marketing, and promotion.

This past year we achieved our mission through a number of efforts supporting our small businesses. We held monthly Merchant Meetings for Downtown business owners to share ideas and connect with each other. We provided event support for city-wide festivals, like the Ladybug Festival and Downtown Brew Fest, and ongoing marketing support through our social media channels and blog.

Through our Facade Improvement Program, Cavanaugh’s received a grant from Downtown Visions, Comenity Bank and Bank of America to complete a major renovation process that restored their historic building to its former glory in honor of their 30th anniversary on Market Street. We also awarded a grant to LRS Capital Partners for restoring a longtime vacant property on 8th Street.

We also launched two new marketing campaigns to drive traffic during historically slow weeks. Made on Market and Market Made: 12 Days of Christmas were completely free for businesses to participate in simply providing an exclusive offer valid during the week of the campaign. In partnership with New Market Wilm, we handled the creation and promotion of graphics, posters, advertisements, and social media posts during the campaigns.

In March, we attended the National Main Street Conference in Seattle and was an American Express presenter for Small Business Saturday. During the conference, we were awarded a $500 grant towards our Small Business Saturday campaign in Downtown Wilmington.

In December, we hosted the very first Pop-Up Holiday Village and launched our holiday lights display in Willingtown Square. The Pop-Up Village took place after the Wilmington Christmas parade and drew over 600 visitors to the pop-up alone. Vendors saw a boost in sales and expressed positive feedback from the event.

“I thought the event went really well. It was well organized, and it gave us an opportunity to be exposed to new customers,” said Delaware Originals. “I really appreciated the tent being provided as this was a big plus!”

Last, but certainly not least, Downtown Visions celebrated the opening of 20 new businesses within the Central Business District in 2019. These businesses include: Dunkin, BoostMobile, DECO Food Hall, IM Coffee, Wildwich, Girard Craft & Cork, WHYY, Makers Alley, Torbet Social, Faire Market & Cafe, King Creative, Studio Nurture, Drip Café, Three Kings Kustoms, Blitzen, The Chicken Spot, El Diablo, Green Box Kitchen, Jet Phynx, Wilmington Land Bank Conservancy, and ArchCraft.

Downtown Visions works to show the world what an amazing place Downtown Wilmington, Delaware is every day, and we could not do so without help from our incredible community. Please consider donating to Downtown Visions and support our efforts to preserve, progress, and promote Downtown Wilmington all year long!

Making Market Street Beautiful & Welcoming Again: Downtown Visions Security Gate Removal Program

721 N. Market Street receives a face lift and has their security gate removed thanks to Downtown Vision's Main Street Wilmington program. 

One of the first things you notice when you pull onto Market Street for the first time are the gorgeous, colorful historical buildings. What you may not know, is that at one time these beautiful storefronts were somewhat hidden by unsightly security gates. Thanks to Downtown Visions and their Main Street Wilmington Program, many of the gates have been removed.

The goal of removing the security gates was to not only improve the overall atmosphere of Market Street, but to also encourage growth and redevelopment. Perception is critical and new businesses and residents feel much more welcome in an area without security gates. 

Wilmington is not the only city taking down the gates, in 2009, New York City Council voted to ban the kind of security gates that completely shield commercial storefront windows and doors from view — ones that resemble old-fashioned auto garage doors. Removal of solid gates are also a safety precaution, officers and firefighters now have the ability to look inside in an emergency.

Downtown Visions is proud to be paving the way in Wilmington, completely funding the removal project. Security gate removal grants are paid for 100% by Downtown Visions under the Main Street Wilmington program to improve the property value and appearance of each approved applicants. Thus far, Downtown Visions is proud to have removed  27 security gates. 

Lani Schweiger, Main Street Wilmington Project & Communication Coordinator explained, "The original external security gates were very dated.  By removing them it makes the Downtown area look better aesthetically and allows potential customers to view window displays after hours."

701 N. Market Street Wilmington, DE

723 N. Market Street Wilmington, DE

Post by Julia Mason of Enthusiasm Lab