Rogers City, Grand Haven, Lapeer, Old Town – Lansing, Coldwater, Three Rivers, Saline, Blissfield, and North End – Detroit were awarded a total of $130,250 in Main Street Vibrancy Grant funds
LANSING, Mich: Nine communities around Michigan have been awarded a total of $130,250 in grants to support downtown enhancement and improvement projects as part of the state’s ‘Make It in Michigan’ economic development strategy to develop attractive places across the state. Communities receiving Main Street Vibrancy grants are Rogers City, Grand Haven, Lapeer, Old Town – Lansing, Coldwater, Three Rivers, Blissfield, Saline, and North End – Detroit.
“Michigan’s future depends on creating vibrant, welcoming places where people want to build their lives,” said Gov. Whitmer. “With today’s investments in nine main streets across the state, we are building up our downtowns to drive local pride, support small businesses, and create more exciting spaces for people to live, work, visit, and play. These Main Street Vibrancy grants will strengthen our communities and help us build a Michigan where everyone can thrive. Together, let’s keep helping more individuals, families, and small businesses ‘make it’ in Michigan.”
The Main Street Vibrancy Grant Program provides grants of up to $15,000 to Select or Master level Michigan Main Street communities for projects that enhance the vibrancy and economic vitality of Michigan Main Street downtowns. Projects could include pop-up shop programs, implementation of a marketing or advertising campaign, physical improvements such as new seating, seasonal infrastructure, signage, or art, and other transformative projects that help create a sense of place and a more vibrant community.
Applicant Entity and Project
Three Rivers: Creation of a Downtown Historic Walking Tour with installation of wayfinding and interpretative signage, self-guided tour bro-chures, and online ArcGIS Storymap. Project also includes a re-connaissance level survey of historic assets in the downtown and the creation of a comprehensive digital database of historic buildings.
Rogers City: Community Nook – creation of a community gathering space in a vacant, underutilized location downtown with the addition of tables and chairs and native plantings.
Grand Haven: Installation of backless benches, banners, and wayfinding signage as a catalyst for continued implementation of the community’s Vibrant Spaces Initiative, creating inclusive, attractive and functional public spaces through installing accessible seating, tables with chess boards, bike racks and repair stations, improved landscaping and planters, uplighting to trees, and replacing outdated wayfinding with cohesive, easy to read maps, markers, and ban-ners. Vibrancy grant funds are only a portion of the entire pro-ject.
Lapeer: Addition of amenities focusing on history, recreation and com-munity interaction including creating a History Walk and installa-tion of Historic Lapeer plaques, installation of an English-style phone booth with specialized recordings to garner community engagement, addition of amenities to increase accessibility and cleanliness including bike racks and installation of cigarette disposal ballot boxes that can include interactive polls, addition of another community painting, and subscription to a software package focused on engagement, volunteer recruitment, event planning, and fund development.
Old Town: Installation of string lights over the sidewalk of the 1200 block of Turner Street to solidify Old Town as destination for festivals, events, and create a stronger pedestrian presence. This project is a pilot, which will help the community pur-sue additional lighting throughout the district.
Coldwater: Public Art Program includes installation of 12 painted murals, one 16-ft sculpture and two additional sculptures created by local youth and regional professionals, implementation of an Open Late event to feature the new artwork, and promotional campaign to include a digital walking tour, social media promo-tion, and video campaign.
Blissfield: A new sound system for the entire downtown, and supplies for a new mini-art gallery that would activate a vacant alley using six student-created art pieces that rotate annually.
Saline: Activation of Leather Bucket Alley, an underutilized space, with a 78 x 14.5-foot sidewalk mural that will invite the community to co-create the piece of art in a “color-by-numbers” format dur-ing community painting events that are documented with pro-fessional video.
North End: North End/Milwaukee Junction Summer Sundays on the Blvd – a vibrant, community-centered market series featuring diverse culinary talent, local artists, farmers, and craft makers. The mar-ket will also feature art installations, family-friendly activities, and live music throughout the summer
“On behalf of the MEDC, we’re pleased to support these nine Main Street communities, who all exemplify a commitment to enhancing the sense of place and adding vibrancy to their downtowns,” said Michelle Parkkonen, Managing Director of Technical Assistance Programs at the MEDC. “These grants support the Places pillar of the state’s ‘Make It in Michigan’ economic development strategy, which focuses on developing attractive places across the state by supporting local priorities that strengthen communities where people want to build a business, a career, and a life.”
About Michigan Main Street
Michigan Main Street supports local communities across Michigan as they implement the Main Street Four-Point Approach®, a community-driven, comprehensive strategy encouraging economic development through historic preservation in ways appropriate for the modern marketplace. The program aims to create communities distinguished by a “sense of place.” The rationale is based on a range of studies that show investing in creating a sense of place is an integral part of developing vibrant city centers and downtowns, thereby making the state economically stronger and culturally diverse.
As part of the Select Level of Michigan Main Street, communities receive five years of intensive technical assistance from MEDC with a focus on revitalization strategies designed to attract new residents, business investments, economic growth, and job creation to their central business districts.
After communities have completed the Select Level of the program, they can participate in the Master Level, a two-year commitment that includes additional training and networking and mentoring opportunities.
A total of 23 communities currently participate in the Michigan Main Street program at the Select and Master levels. To see the full list, visit https://tinyurl.com/MI-Main-Street
Over the past year, Michigan Main Street communities generated more than $49 million in private investment, 136 new businesses and 117 façade and building improvements. For over 20 years, Michigan Main Street has been a catalyst for job growth, private investment, and community engagement leading to comprehensive economic development creating more vibrant downtowns and traditional commercial districts in Michigan. From 2003 through 2024, 2,033 new businesses have been launched, with a total public investment of more than $152 million and total private investment of over $473 million. In addition, more than 922,796 volunteer hours have been recorded by Michigan Main Street communities in revitalizing downtowns across the state.
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