ATHENS — Athens Main Street won five Main Street Alabama Awards of Excellence, including the Main Street Hero Award, at the organization’s conference last week.
The Main Street Hero Award went to the late Doug Gates, a community servant and member of the Athens Main Street Board for more than 10 years. He died July 1.
Gates had a vision for what he wanted downtown Athens to look like, and that was a bustling, thriving, fun place to eat, shop, work, and play. He worked for years to help make that happen, contributing his business sense and smarts to a huge number of downtown projects through Athens Main Street.
“Athens Main Street appreciates the recognition of the great strides being made toward revitalization in our downtown,” said Tere Richardson, executive director of Athens Main Street. “Thank you to those in our community that were so instrumental in the success of these efforts.”
Athens Main Street won Awards of Excellence in placemaking, design, promotion, marketing, and Main Street Hero.
Economic development is at the heart of Main Street Alabama efforts to revitalize downtowns and neighborhood commercial districts across the state. Their focus is on bringing jobs, dollars and people back to Alabama’s historic communities.
The Awards of Excellence recognized winners in the categories of Preservation, Historic Rehabilitation, Fundraising, Public Relations, Public/Private Partnerships, Business Development, Economic Impact, Adaptive Reuse, Promotion, Business Promotion, Marketing, Placemaking, Non-Historic Building Design, and Planning & Public Space.
Local Main Street programs also selected a Main Street Hero that honored an individual, business or organization that made an outstanding contribution to their program.
Excellence in Placemaking – Athens Main Street’s design committee consisting of Tere Richardson, Trisha Black, Denise Williams, Brad Mallette, and Gary Van Wagnen accepted the Excellence in Placemaking award for transforming a blighted alley in the heart of downtown Athens into Merchants Alley where people can relax, listen to live musical performances and enjoy ever-changing art.
The alley features five different art components including the Playing the Sound of the Wind mural, which pays homage to the annual Tennessee Valley Fiddler’s Convention.
Across the alley is a portrait of Brittany Howard, a Limestone County native and Grammy winner; and other components include murals to be discovered behind doors painted by local college students, selfie spots, and children’s art windows.
Excellence in Design – AMBL Studios’ Brad Mallette was the recipient of the Excellence in Design award for the Optimal Geo Renovation, an adaptive reuse project that converted a set of historic 1930s downtown buildings into a modern commercial workspace for growing Downtown Athens businesses.
The project enhanced the buildings’ overall performance, quality and aesthetics by opening up the space, creating multiple indoor/outdoor common areas, restoring original openings to bring natural light deep into the space, bringing the site & buildings up to current code & energy performance standards, and thoroughly modernized the sites’ utilities.
Excellence in Promotion – Athens Main Street’s Promotion Committee members Jen Baxter, Andrew Dollar, Blake Williams, Devin Simmons, Michelle Williamson, Letisha Brinkley, Amy Higginbotham, and Tere Richardson won the Excellence in Promotion award for Merchants Alley Happy Hour Music Series.
The series takes place every Friday night, April 1 to July 29 this year; and September 2 to November 18 in the newly renovated alleyway on Jefferson Street from 5-6:30 p.m.
Excellence in Marketing – The Athens Main Street Promotions Committee won the Excellence in marketing award for their Downtown with Devin videos.
Blake Williams produced the series that featured Devin Simmons, highlighting his passion and energy for Athens’ downtown district while trying to attract a younger, diverse audience to historic downtown Athens to shop and dine.
Main Street Alabama President and State Coordinator Mary Helmer Wirth said the programs represent small rural cities as well as larger, more urban communities.
“The diversity of these communities makes each one unique, each are working within their own capacity to improve, reinvigorate, and revitalize their downtown or neighborhood commercial districts,” she said. “We were inspired by local success stories and by the businesses, organizations and individuals who are dedicated to making their communities the best they can be.”
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