Pekin Main Street Recieves 2012 National Trust Main Street Accreditation
Pekin
Main Street has been designated as an accredited National Main Street Program
for meeting the commercial district revitalization performance standards set by
the National Trust Main Street Center®. Each year, the National Trust and
its partners announce the list of accredited Main Street® programs that have built strong revitalization organizations and
demonstrate their ability in using the Main Street Four-Point Approach®
methodology for strengthening their local economy and protecting their historic
buildings.
The organization’s performance is annually evaluated by Illinois
Main Street which works in partnership with the National Trust 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 developing a mission,
fostering strong public-private partnerships, securing an operating budget,
tracking economic progress, and preserving historic buildings. For more
information on the national program accreditation program, visit http://www.preservationnation.org/main-street/about-main-street/the-programs/national-programs.html.
The mission of Pekin Main Street is to “preserve, restore and
revitalize Pekin’s downtown area, both aesthetically and economically, through
educating the entire community to the benefits of Pekin’s downtown.” Pekin Main
Street was officially chartered on April 5, 1999.
The
National Trust for Historic Preservation, a privately funded nonprofit
organization, works to save America’s historic places to enrich our future. www.PreservationNation.org.
Established in 1980, the National
Trust Main Street Center® helps communities of all sizes revitalize their older
and historic commercial districts. Working in more than 2,200 downtowns and
urban neighborhoods over the last 30 years, the Main Street program has
leveraged more than $53.6 billion in new public and private investment.
Participating communities have created 448,835 net new jobs and 104,961
net new businesses, and rehabilitated more than 229,164 buildings, leveraging an average of $18 in new investment
for every dollar spent on their Main Street district revitalization efforts.
