Preserving Our Communities
Colorado Main Street The Colorado Main Street program, run by the Department of Local Affairs (DOLA), is affiliated with the National Main Street Center, a national organization promoting revitalization of central commercial districts across the country through historic preservation. Established in 1980 as a program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the National Main Street Center has worked with over 2,000 communities across the country. Colorado first participated in the program in 1982 through a three-year pilot project. Downtown Colorado, Inc. administered the program between 2000 and 2010, before DOLA assumed responsibility for the program in 2011. Reflecting the program’s emphasis on historic preservation, it has received around $1.7 million (adjusted for inflation) in grants from the State Historical Fund since 2000, supplementing funding for historic preservation and economic development efforts available through the program.
In addition to preserving and protecting individual historic assets within a community, historic preservation efforts can lead to tangible economic benefits that are shared across the community or a specific neighborhood or district. The community-scale economic benefits discussed in this section sometimes result from programs targeted exclusively at historic preservation, like local historic districting programs, as well as other programs that leverage historic preservation to accomplish related community goals, like the Colorado Main Street program. As we look forward to the next 50 years of historic preservation in Colorado, it is essential that a range of such programs continue to be supported and developed in order to strengthen the linkages inherent between historic preservation and economic development.
Colorado Main Street Program Economic Impacts, 2014
$19.7M
Public Money
$53.3M
$33.6M
Total Public and Private Investments
14
98
Building Rehabilitations
Private Investments
111 19
Participating Communities
Part-time Jobs
17
Facade Improvements
266
Full-time Jobs
