Kent Downtown Partnership receives 2015 National Main Street accreditation

For the Reporter

Kent Downtown Partnership has been designated as an accredited National Main Street Program for meeting the commercial district revitalization performance standards set by the National Main Street Center, a subsidiary of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Each year, the National Main Street Center and its partners announce the list of accredited Main Street programs in recognition of their exemplary commitment to historic preservation and community revitalization through the Main Street Four Point Approach.

“We congratulate this year’s nationally accredited Main Street programs for their outstanding accomplishment in meeting the National Main Street Center’s 10 Standards of Performance,” says Patrice Frey, President & CEO of the National Main Street Center. “As the National Main Street Center celebrates its 35th Anniversary, it is also important to celebrate the achievements of the local Main Street programs across the country, some of whom have been around since the beginning. These local programs work hard every day to make their communities great places to work, live, play and visit while still preserving their historic character.”

The organization’s performance is annually evaluated by the Washington Trust for Historic Preservation program, which works in partnership with the National Main Street Center to identify the local programs that meet 10 performance standards. These standards set the benchmarks for measuring an individual Main Street program’s application of the Main Street Four Point Approach® to commercial district revitalization. Evaluation criteria determines the communities that are building comprehensive and sustainable revitalization efforts and include standards such as fostering strong public-private partnerships, securing an operating budget, tracking programmatic progress and actively preserving historic buildings.

“Since December 2014, the downtown has seen seven new businesses move into downtown, and a new lease just signed and moving in come May 1,” said Barbara Smith, executive director of the Kent Downtown Partnership. “The new apartment complex, The Platform, as of two weeks ago was 75 percent leased; they have 176 units. That is a lot of new feet downtown. Kent Station is working hard on their new apartment complex which will house 150 new tenants. Downtown Kent is hopping; all aboard! KDP is on track for a great 2015.”

The goal set by the Kent Downtown Partnership’s (KDP) Board is to “bring more people downtown in 2015.” To do this, KDP has already created 14 new events for 2015.

The initial goal of KDP is to revitalize historical downtown Kent and this is done not only by bringing more people downtown but by beautifying downtown and working directly with the city on multiple projects to protect our historical buildings, through design guidelines, etc.