Main Street Kent seeks to develop the downtown area

The city of Kent recently granted Main Street Kent $70,000 for the next two years in order to help further develop and revitalize the area.

Main Street Kent, formed in 2006, is a non-profit organization whose main goal is to revitalize downtown Kent. The organization comes from a parent company called Heritage Ohio, which oversees all Main Street America branches in the state.

Heritage Ohio calls itself “Ohio’s official preservation and Main Street organization”. Per their mission, they seek to create economic development and sustainability by preserving history but also commercializing and revitalizing Ohio neighborhoods and promoting tourism in these areas.

The national Main Street America initiative takes pride in being a “grassroots network” to make residents and tourists feel at home in the communities they live in and visit. It was founded in 1980 by the National Trust for Historic Preservation and since has expanded to over 2,000 communities across the United States. 

Organizations must gothrough an application process, have a full-time staff in place and complete fundraising before Heritage Ohio and the national organization accept it as a Main Street program. According to Heritage Ohio, there are 23 Main Street programs and 28 downtown affiliate communities currentlyoperating in the state.

Main Street Kent performs a multitude of services for the downtown area.

The organization’s four committees help to handle these categories. This includes marketing, events, design and public art projects.

Main Street Kent members and volunteers participate in graffiti removal and clean-up days. They are also responsible for the Adopt-A-Spot flowerbed and hanging flower basket program, business restoration, and bringing in events such as Oktoberfest and Wizardly World of Kent.

“We really just try to get people into the businesses as much as we can year-round,” Heather Malarcik, executive director of Main Street Kent, said. “We’re here to really just support and bolster our downtown businesses and make sure that our downtown is a vibrant place.”

Malarcik has been involvedwith Main Street Kent for the past seven years. Her job is to direct all of theactivity and lead the organization’s committees and volunteers.

The organization also has a Boardof Directors, which contains 13 people including a president, vice president,treasurer and secretary. In addition to the executive board, professionals ofvarious organizations and businesses in Kent make up the rest of the board.  

In addition, members of the community may reach out to Main Street Kent to become a volunteer for various events or just contribute to funding.

Tom Wilke is the economic development director for the city and a member of the Board of Regions for Main Street Kent. Wilke’s role (that he’s had since 2015), he said, makes him very aware of the organization’s efforts to help the area.

Since the beginning of Main Street Kent’s presence, the city has helped it financially, which Wilke said isfor two reasons.

“You don’t want to take a non-profit organization and immediately put them into a situation where they have to go out and generate enough revenue to support their activities,” Wilkesaid.

The city also helps to fund the organization due to its purpose in the community.

“Many of the activities MainStreet Kent does, the city would have to do otherwise,” Wilke said. “…If they didn’t do it, the city would have to find another way of doing it and wouldcost money regardless.”  

Main Street Kent will receive the $70,000 on a quarterly basis and is accountable for informing the city in their quarterly report (2018’s report is attached below, courtesy of Malarcik) how the money will be used.

“While they don’t have to show exactly how they spent every dollar, it becomes apparent as to how they’re using that money to help maintain the economic vitality for downtown.” Wilke said.  

Wilke expects the money to be used towards beautification, staging events to bring visitors to downtown Kent, and marketing. 

“Almost all of those efforts are designed with one main goal in mind,” Wilke said. “That’s to bring more people into downtown Kent and presumably to spend more money in downtown Kent.”

The organization seems to have achieved their goal.

In the future, Malarcik hopes to continue to increase marketing and bring inmore public art projects to downtown Kent, in addition to using the money forstandard operations.

Main Street Kent is also looking forward to using some ofthe money for activities and displays for the upcoming 50^thanniversary of the May 4 shootings in 2020.

“Commerce in this city haschanged dramatically over the last 10 years, much in part to establishing [MainStreet Kent],” Malarcik said. “The organization is here to revitalize thedowntown, maintain it, and keep it vibrant and the businesses busy and healthy.”

To find out more about Main Street Kent, sign up for their mailing list, or become a volunteer, you may visit their website or send them an email at info@mainstreetkent.org.