Downtown Assistance

The City of El Campo was the recipient of a downtown assessment performed by Texas Downtown in 2014 and that was the catalyst that we needed to get our process started. Just organizing the merchants and creating the buzz about the efforts planned set us in a forward motion towards a collaboration that has paid off extremely well by getting all stakeholders involved. Many of the suggestions from Texas Downtown have been put into place and ultimately helped lead to the creation of a Planning Director position to help guide us with updating our ordinances. We have seen a great effort on the part of the merchants to clean up, renovate and create new spaces downtown. It has been very contagious and things are looking great with lots of activity occurring on a regular basis with Farmer’s Markets that the City sponsors and Block Parties that a vendor has sponsored. Many of the buildings that had been vacant for many, many years are now housing a thriving business. It has been a great success story so far and we are still seeing it unfold as we go. We cannot thank Texas Downtown enough for offering a very affordable option to our community to assist us with the outside perspective, experience, and knowledge that we needed.

Mindi Snyder, City Manager
City of El Campo

The Glen Rose CVB asked the Texas Downtown to do a Downtown Assessment to help us figure out what we can do to make our downtown better… The outcome has been even more positive than we had hoped. Since the assessment, the downtown business owners have taken a more active role. They have started meeting monthly to decide how to further enhance our downtown area. The City has repainted all of the benches and light posts downtown black and just that alone has given our downtown a classier look. The Native Plant Club has pulled out overgrown shrubs from the planter boxes around the square. We will be getting the rock work repaired and new plants put in the planters.

Glen Rose will host their very first Wine and Arts Festival in June. Part of the proceeds will go to the Somervell County Cancer Support Group but the other portion will go to the Glen Rose Downtown Business Owners Association Revitalization Program. We now are a 501C3 and have thought of other ways to be able to fund downtown projects. Some of these projects would be signage and updates of some public areas on the square.

We have one Facebook Page for downtown and are working on training everyone to use it. It is Glen Rose Downtown Square. The County is looking into some wayfinding signage. The businesses downtown have come together to follow the suggestions of the Assessment and work together for the greater good of the community.

Thank you Texas Downtown Association!

Kelly Harris
Glen Rose CVB

The Texas Downtown downtown assessment propelled our downtown development program forward in an exponential fashion. This service provided Mesquite with specific, results-driven recommendations. Moreover, the presence of the Texas Downtown experts provided awareness, information, encouragement and assurance that we too could be one of those Texas Downtown success stories.

Beverly Abell, Downtown Development Manager
City of Mesquite