by Debra Drescher
Now that the quarterly reporting deadline has passed, I thought I would share with you the ‘Fiscal Year 2017’ (see note below) reinvestment tallies showing the substantial impact of YOUR Main Street revitalization efforts in Texas. The information below compares June 2016 and June 2017.
- Private reinvestment – * Includes the value of improvements ranging from complete rehabilitations to signage and paint projects; the value of real estate transactions in the Main Street district; and new construction in the district.* Overall, the total was UP by $50.7 million to more than $225 million. While the real estate transactions category was down; there were increases in both rehabilitation and new construction. Much of the increase was due to several large projects like banking/financial centers in Amarillo and Denton; the new Shannon Medical Center in San Angelo’s Main Street district; and a mixed use development in McKinney (You’ll get to hear all about the McKinney project at the annual conference in November!).
- Joint Ventures (incentivized projects) – Overall, the total was up by about $15 million = 120 projects with a value of more than $51 million.
- Public projects (infrastructure, public buildings etc.) – This category dropped, but was still substantial= $37.3 million
- Main Street communities in Texas had a net gain of 1,733 jobs and 338 new, expanded or relocated small businesses.
- Reinvestment grand total for FY 2017 was more than $314 million, an increase over FY 2016 of $63+ million.
- Volunteer hours – almost 83,000 hours dedicated to your programs in the 12-month period! Thank you Main Street volunteers!
We are putting finishing touches on a more complete report that will be sent to each of you individually soon, summarizing your individual data.
Note: As you know, you submit reinvestments on a quarterly basis, based on a calendar year (quarter 1-Jan to March etc.). At the state, our fiscal year starts Sept. 1; many local governments start their fiscal years Oct. 1, with some variations. Due to these differences, we generally count the ‘fiscal year’ as far as reinvestments go as June to June, and then we share true year-end statistics each December after you turn them in in January (confusing, I know!)