The good outweighed the bad for Seymour Main Street in 2020.
Despite the unknown impact of the COVID-19 pandemic this year, 2021 already is shaping up to be a record year for downtown investment.
During a time when many businesses struggled to keep their doors open, downtown Seymour welcomed 14 new businesses, including five retail, five food service, three professional services and one automotive service.
“All of those employ roughly 50 individuals downtown,” said Bri Roll, executive director of Seymour Main Street.
But those gains didn’t come without some loss, as Bullwinkle’s Family Restaurant, Beautiful Chaos and Project You, closed their doors permanently and another business, Reno’s Cigar and Martini Lounge, remains temporarily closed due to COVID.
Not even two full months into 2021, several new businesses and entities already have made plans to open in the downtown.
“We have some exciting things coming down the pipeline,” Roll said. “We’ve got seven businesses that are already scheduled to open this year.”
Child Care Network is currently renovating the former Seymour Harvest Church on Chestnut Street into a child care center.
Also opening downtown this year are a Mexican ice cream and dessert shop, a coffee shop, a gluten-free bakery and a men’s spa. A vintage clothing store, RETROBROS812, opened in January.
Two other businesses, Creative Concepts Cabinetry and the Community Health Center, are moving to new downtown locations.
During a meeting Monday night, Roll updated the Seymour City Council on Seymour Main Street’s work last year and gave a preview of what’s to come.
“I value our partnership with the city and think it’s important to bring you up to speed on what’s going on so that you can continue being community advocates for our organization,” Roll said.
With a commitment to planning, promoting and preserving historic downtown Seymour, the organization’s ultimate goal is community transformation, she said.
The pandemic led to a significant loss of revenue for Seymour Main Street in 2020, but the lasting impact of the pandemic is not yet known.
One project that didn’t happen last year was the painting of another downtown mural.
“We were hoping to accomplish a mural project,” Roll said. “We did cut that last year.”
The organization also had to cancel 10 of its 16 annual events and made the decision to extend memberships from 2019 through 2020.
“Although that decision was made to support our downtown businesses and to alleviate some financial pressure, we did absorb a 75% shortfall in our membership donations,” she said.
Roll remains hopeful Seymour Main Street can come back this year and host all of its signature events, utilizing the five new downtown kiosks to display a calendar of events so people know what’s going on and when.
The organization continues to work with the Jackson County Health Department on developing event contingency plans based on the state’s COVID-19 color-coding system for the county.
“We’ve also planned for additional volunteers to help at events to monitor masks and social distancing,” Roll said.
Ticketed events may be limited based on state mandates, and some events, such as the Jingle All the Way 5K in December, may be conducted virtually.
But interest in the downtown is only continuing to grow, she added.
Seymour Main Street distributed the most money it ever has last year, funding $151,839 in grants.
That amount included six build-out grants for roofs, HVAC systems, sub floors and structural enhancements, two awning grants, five business signage grants, three façade grants for painting and tuck pointing, seven advertising grants, three rental assistance grants for new businesses and one down payment assistance grant to help with the purchase of a building.
The grant program already has 19 applications for funding this year for a total of $165,692 in requests that include two roof stabilization projects, five build-out projects, four rental assistance grants, three signage grants, four façade grants, one awning and one down payment assistance.
“That’s about $14,000 in additional requests year over year, and we’re not even two months in,” she said. “We are excited by that because it shows how much passion and desire there is to reinvigorate and renovate our downtown.”
But facing a 38% budget shortfall, Roll said Seymour Main Street won’t be able to meet all of those needs this year.
Long-term goals for the organization include a building and business inventory and assessment to help analyze the downtown and identify problem areas. That information will be used to shape Seymour Main Street’s programs and response to community needs.
Roll also is looking to address vacancies downtown. Of 114 downtown buildings, she said 17 have vacant or inactive first-floor space, giving the downtown an 85% occupancy rate.
“We want to strategically plan what type of businesses benefit from that location as well as what will our downtown benefit from,” she said. “What is our community asking for? What does the market allow? Do we have a surplus? Do we have a leakage?”
By answering those questions, Roll said Seymour Main Street can strategically locate occupants for vacant spaces.
Other future projects include improving and unifying downtown crosswalks to increase safety for pedestrians and make the downtown more walkable.
The organization also is committed to enhancing a downtown alley that connects Indianapolis Avenue to Chestnut Street, finding ways to improve downtown signage, façades and wayfinding and developing and planning outdoor active space.
“I think we have a lot of energy downtown,” Roll said. “There is a lot of positivity. Not every community has this much support for small business. We really are a community that wants to support each other.”