Next Stop Beech Grove working to revamp Main Street
BEECH GROVE, Ind. (WISH) — A group of business owners and volunteers in Beech Grove are at work to give Main Street a face lift.
The group is called Next Stop Beech Grove and was created more than a year ago on behalf of the city’s Chamber of Commerce. It was formed as a way to give business owners a voice and allow them to apply for programs available for Main Streets.
The group has gained momentum and was awarded a planning grant last year through Indiana’s Office of Community and Rural Affairs, often referred to as OCRA.
That planning grant will allow the group to see what they have already and what is needed to revitalize Main Street.
“I think in order for us to become a bustling area again, having business working together, having business owners coming in who want to see us all succeed, they want to succeed but also want the neighbor next to them to succeed,” said Jim Coffman who is the Owner of Eckstein Shoe Store and with Next Stop Beech Grove.
The planning grant is a step towards a facade grant which would be $600,000 and be able to rehab store fronts. Business owners would have to buy into the grant and make a 20 percent match.
“We want to be that next stop. There are other cities and areas around central Indiana that people think of when they want to go shopping, when they want to go to eat and Beech Grove, I think is slowly becoming another one of those places. We kind of get lost here in the I-465 loop and people kind of forget that we are here but we’re only seven, eight minutes away from downtown Indianapolis,” Coffman added.
The grant would focus on new paint, doors, and windows. Coffman said they hope to be able to have 12 businesses get new storefronts.
“I think it’s good and just like the greenway, almost all of the cities around central Indiana are doing this or have already done it except for us so we have to catch up with the times. I think it will be good for the city, it will be good for Main Street,” said Beech Grove Mayor Dennis Buckley.
A similar project like this was done last year in Greenwood.
“When they would have new businesses wanting to relocate into Greenwood, I have been told they would avoid downtown Greenwood because they would not want new businesses to see it. We could have left it the way it was but it just looked kind of sad,” said Jennifer Hollingshead, President and Founder of the Restore Old Town Greenwood project.
Hollingshead said 21 of the 33 businesses had facades redone.
“To me, it’s the heart of the city and it should be the shining star so that’s why it was important to me for it to look nice and to be something that we highlight,” she added.
Hollingshead said at first it was difficult to get residents to realize that it was important to invest downtown but since that project was completed, there are now more renovations in the works. She added that since the project was done a year ago, about five new businesses have opened in that area in Greenwood.
Next Stop Beech Grove meets monthly on the second floor of City Hall. The next meeting is Tuesday at 10:30 a.m. and is open to the public.