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A recent webinar on bringing back downtown retail after COVID-19 outlined strategies to revive downtowns, including smaller downtowns. The pandemic was not an “extinction-level event” for downtowns, said Michael J. Berne, president of MJB Consulting, adding that “it’s been quite striking how well they’ve gotten through this.” The unique, often historic location of downtowns can protect downtown retailers from e-commerce. E-commerce is more of a threat to shopping centers than to downtowns, according to Berne. Smaller downtowns are more tied to a town’s overall economic well-being and subject to a smaller population and labor force. N. David Milder, founding editor of The American Downtown ...

West Virginia is seeking applicants for Ascend Lewisburg, the second phase of its incentive program to attract remote workers to the state. The Ascend West Virginia program offers $12,000 in cash, plus annual passes for outdoor recreation, two years of free outdoor gear rentals, free coworking space, social programming, and professional development and entrepreneurial assistance, making up a package worth more than $20,000. Ascend Morgantown accepted 1 percent of its 7,500 applicants, which has translated into 110 new residents for the college town. The new West Virginians hail from 21 U.S. states (with the greatest number from California), Washington, D.C., and even Europe, and work in a variety of fields including technology, ...

A number of smaller colleges are investing significant sums to revitalize their host communities in an effort to aid recruitment of students and faculty. “A lot of universities, especially in tertiary cities, are finding that creating a more revitalized downtown is just as important as making sure everything is tight within the four walls of the campus,” Michael Cady, vice president of marketing for Charlestowne Hotels, a firm that specializes in managing university hotels, told the New York Times. Colgate University has invested about $30 million in the downtown of Hamilton, N.Y., since 2000, including for a historic inn with a tavern, bookstore and movie theater. The school now is funding construction of affordably priced ...

Homegrown Tools is a new website that showcases successful economic development strategies in small communities across the United States. The site connects practitioners, public officials, and researchers to economic development strategies in which small towns leverage their unique assets. Users can explore communities, browse strategies, and customize their searches to get inspiration from towns most similar to theirs. Two of the dozens of cases currently featured on the site are Hillsborough, N.C., and Ayden, N.C. Hillsborough embraces historic preservation and has created a vibrant heritage tourism economy while also fostering commercial and industrial development. Ayden partnered with North Carolina’s Small Town Main Street ...

By Hannah Burke, IEDC intern For many small towns, business recruitment isn’t a viable strategy. More effective are efforts that focus on improving the community and investing resources into existing businesses. The Vermont League of Cities and Towns brought local leaders and public officials together to talk about achievable economic development strategies in small communities. The National League of Cities highlighted five low-budget strategies leaders discussed. Build your civic infrastructure. Civic infrastructure refers to the capacity of people in a community to come together to solve problems and work collectively. Leverage municipal resources to support and grow local businesses. Bethel, Vt., created a ...

The hourly minimum wage in effect in Martinsville-Henry County, in southwest Virginia, is $7.25. But to attract needed talent, the local EDO says manufacturers need to offer more than twice that amount (Martinsville Bulletin). The county lost approximately 18,000 manufacturing jobs between the early 2000s and 2018. But even with programs in place to build up the local workforce pipeline, the skills gap has left more than 1,000 jobs unfilled in advanced manufacturing. In response, the Martinsville-Henry County Economic Development Corporation is planning a recruitment program to help manufacturers attract talent from outside the county. The focus is on filling positions that pay at least $15/hour. That salary floor, combined with a low ...

America is full of small towns, so why should anyone visit yours? You need to find what makes your community special and put that front and center, according to Becky McCray of Small Biz Survival. For reference, McCray points to Pretty Prairie, Kansas, which uses its welcome sign to promote one thing and one thing only – the “largest night rodeo in Kansas.” Too often, small-town marketing takes the “something for everyone” approach, wanting to project a broad message. But when a place tries to appeal to everyone it ends up appealing to no one, and is left with a weak, imprecise brand. Very few people go out of their way to visit a place because it has “something for everyone.” They visit a place ...

Locals know what makes their communities special, but that isn’t always apparent to the outside observer. It can be hard for small cities to stand out from a sea of similar localities, but creative placemaking is a powerful tool that can put small towns on the map. The following communities are investing in new amenities and the arts both to attract new residents and visitors, but also to boost local pride. Like many small towns, Salisbury, Md., is shedding population. Thirty-four-year-old Mayor Jake Day has made it his mission to make Salisbury “cool” by radically re-envisioning the town (Delmarva Now). The mayor’s $640 million plan includes a complete streetscape redesign, with new buildings and bridges along the ...