The North Carolina Department of Commerce announced December 18 that the City of Shelby and the Town of Warrenton have been awarded up to $75,000 each from the Main Street Solutions Fund.
“We are very excited about these two new projects,” said Liz Parham, director of the North Carolina Main Street Center. “The hope is to not only preserve each community’s historic character, but also revitalize their commercial districts.”
The project in Warrenton relocates and expands an existing business in two full floors of an historic building. The renovated facility will serve as showrooms, classrooms, service center and administrative offices for an expanding quilt and sewing shop.
The Shelby project rehabilitates an abandoned department store building in uptown Shelby and converts it into a micro-brewery and tasting room.
Shelby and Warrenton, along with other Main Street and Small Town Main Street communities in North Carolina, are successfully following the principles of the National Main Street Center’s Four-Point Approach to downtown revitalization. North Carolina Main Street and Small Town Main Street have experienced $2.1 billion in public and private investment and a net gain of more than 18,000 jobs since the inception of the program in 1980.