Logan Downtown Alliance
160 North Main | Logan, Utah | (435) 752-2161 | ext. 105

Downtown Stores

 What is the Logan
 Downtown Alliance?

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 Downtown Alliance
 Member

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      Thank you for your interest in our "downtown initiative." I hope to easily explain the Logan Downtown Alliance, its origins, and its goals. First, the Alliance is a non-profit (501)C 3 organization that is part of a National and State Foundation. That foundation is The National Trust for Historic Preservation. It is based out of Washington D.C., and started as a program to basically preserve the historic buildings and heritage of Downtown Areas. In 1987, out of that trust was formed The National Main Street Center, or program, which focused on the entire process of Downtown Revitalization. The process includes specific strategies encompassing Building Design, Business Development, Promotional Activities, and Committee Organization.

      Though the Logan Downtown merchants had a "business and/or merchant association" since 1988, or even before, it lacked organization, focus, or even a vision of improving our downtown. In fact, in recent years, it existed only to have a "sidewalk sale" and Christmas promotion campaigns. In May of 2002, Mayor Doug Thompson and Director of Community Development, Jay Nielson, attended a National Main Street Conference in Forth Worth, Texas. From that visit, Logan was accepted into the National Mainstreet Program, and became a member of the Utah Main Street/Pioneer Communities Program headed by Bim Oliver. This means we have state and national exposure to services and resources to improve Historic Downtown Logan by a prescribed methodology.

      In July of 2002, The Logan Downtown Alliance was formed with its four committees and a board consisting of top business people and community leaders. Gene Needham IV was named President. I was hired in February of 2003, and I am a full time employee of the Alliance, and my salary is subsidized by the state and city. For The Logan Downtown Alliance to do any work, it has to rely on Historic Downtown Merchant's "membership-investments" and donations.

      What is historic is the fact that nothing can happen in Downtown Logan without approval from the Committee involved and the Board of the Alliance itself. The Mayor intended it to be that way. You can choose not to be a part of the Alliance , but that leaves you to do what has always been traditional."go fight City Hall".by yourself. But you can be a part of a unified effort that has the very city folks that are often misunderstood working side-by-side with the merchants, service organizations, professionals, and property owners to strengthen your business! The City knows what is at stake. It is improving Historic Downtown through the inception of the newly proposed Downtown RDA, which the Logan Downtown Alliance assists with. It is improving parking, lighting, sidewalks, and landscape architecture. It stretches even further than that.a vital Historic Downtown Logan .with its events, improved businesses, and lively entertainment.make a significant economic impact on Cache Valley! Tourism is enhanced. The University has a better environment to offer its student population. Most important, however, is the opportunity to provide an "epicenter" that is attractive to major corporations that want to move into the valley and provide a wholesome way of life for their transferred employees. That alone can even stimulate "The Cache Valley Initiative" which will one day provide a full service airport that can meet the needs of corporate executives and the community at large.

      Your tax-deductible Membership-Investment is just that, an investment into Historic Downtown Logan, where your investment comes back to you threefold, at a minimum. The very promotions that bring people downtown bring a return to you.in one way or another. Whether you are a service organization, a wholesale business, a professional, or a property owner, the value to your clients or your property is enhanced without question. Your hard-earned revenues support those promotions and include you to be amongst an elite group that has resources in the form of grants and low interest loans to assist your business expansion, or improvement.

      What probably concerns me most is the fact that those who choose not to be a part of the Alliance , benefit from the "investments" of those that do. The efforts and contributions, physically, by very busy business leaders go towards to those who are apathetic and have "chips on the shoulders" because of the past.

      So let me close in saying that at my recent attendance at the National Town Meeting on Main Street Conference in Cincinnati, Ohio in May, over 1500 Downtowns all had a majority of the same gripe: lack of parking and 20-30 years of city tyranny that destroyed Downtown businesses. If that is indeed fact, then we can celebrate that it is out in the open, and that Logan City wants that to change!

Sincerely,

Bob Marcolese
Logan Downtown Manager