Pioneer Times Photo/Gloria Austin
DOWNTOWN — Houlton’s Historic Downtown was the subject of a recent meeting of business and building owners. Members of the Downtown Institute toured many of the Shiretown’s businesses to give a comprehensive review of their conditions to suggest directions the town may wish to pursue for development.
By Gloria Austin
Staff Writer
HOULTON — Though many people just see empty storefronts and mismatched architecture in Market Square in Houlton, the downtown can have a promising future, if a feasible plan is put into motion.
At the May 4 Maine Downtown meeting held at the Courtyard Café, business and building owners alike were challenged to be creative in their marketing and to look for ways to increase value of their downtown property.
“I thought the program was very informative,” said Nancy Ketch, Houlton’s economic/ community development director. “I have already been talking to someone who attended the meeting and wants to try to incorporate some of the ideas. I think it’s good to make people aware of the resources that are available for projects and allow them to take a realistic look at their properties and their plans. I hope this spins off further discussion.”
Lorain Francis, Mike Lyne and Greg Paxton of the Downtown Institute toured the buildings in the downtown.
“We spent about three hours on Main Street,” said Francis, senior program director for the Maine Downtown Center. “We toured a lot of the buildings and talked to some of the owners and merchants. So, we have a good feel for what is happening in Houlton.”
Houlton is a Network Community affiliated with the Maine Downtown Center.
“You actually joined with 20 other communities, like yourselves, who are doing downtown revitalization with a volunteer effort,” Francis said. “The program works on what we call the three-legged stool. It is residents, businesses and the local municipality that partner together to revitalize the downtown.”
“I would like to say, based on the tour we took, you are really lucky to have a fantastic collection of solidly built buildings that you could not afford, or any other community afford, to build them,” said Paxton, executive director of Maine Preservation. “It is not that they don’t need additional investments at this point, but you have some really fantastic assets. So if you decide as a community, what are the little things we can do — incremental things moving along — you will have success.”
Lyne, former project manager with JHR Development of Maine, spoke about investing in Main Street. Lyne noted all over the state there is “blight” to downtown buildings and some landlords have difficult assets.
“So, what does the landlord do? Let it go? Or get creative and make the necessary improvements to make the building relevant once again,” said Lyne. “The route of the Main Street program is turning the downtown blight into revitalized and relevant spaces in the community.”
Lyne said that a majority of Maine downtowns look pretty good. But, there are underlying issues that prevent them from looking great.
“You have examples of that here on your Main Street,” he said. “The point is not all under performing real estate looks horrific. But, it doesn’t mean it is a thriving asset either. Help is needed. So this is where we talk about creative sources. There are tools your community needs to take seriously.”
Lyne described several ways for building owners to make necessary improvements including an owner finding family/friends to help with the investment, taking a large area and dividing it to tax credit equity and historic preservation for rehabilitation.
“Smaller projects with historic tax credits is the scale of projects I see in your downtown,” he said.
Lyne also addressed the changing retail paradigm.
“The typical retail stores that we have known in the past, we probably are not going to see downtown anymore,” he explained. “Internet sales have changed everything.”
“So, what is causing change in the economy? Demographics. Younger people are driving the changes, technology, and Millenials like to talk about locally-sourced goods, green initiatives, being able to walk to a destination and to being interactive. This is progressive thinking for a lot of Maine. But, if you want to attract a younger set of building owners, tenants and investors in your downtown, you have to think about speaking their language.”
Lyne, using excerpts from an article in Main Street Now written by Kennedy Smith in the fall 2015 edition, cited that downtowns have seen stiff competition.
“At one point, your Main Street was hopping,” he said. “It was thriving … steaming with activity. A successful Main Street of the future will be small industry; improved infrastructure and wired.”
“Millenials like to work together, they are not so possessive, they like to share,” said Lyne. “Hopefully that means, one business owner will work with the next business owner.”
Francis encouraged merchants to meet together for a cohesive unit to see what is happening and to share ideas or promotions, as well as using local assets. And from there, building what their community values.
“Create a downtown organization that goes to work on all of your behalf, ideally that organization can get up to speed and raise enough money that it is a self-sustaining organization,” Lyne added. “Be nimble and tout business development.”
In the past, downtown business owners and merchants in Houlton did meet together. But, that faded out.
The downtown program initiates community building, community vitality, uses the Main Street Program, which is organization, bringing volunteers together, it is designed about a town’s heritage and aesthetics, along with promotions and economic development.
“There are things we have [in Maine] that a lot of other communities would drool over,” said Lyne, “[especially] the quality of life.”
Lyne sees small industry makers, owner/occupants filling buildings, the arts and just doing the small things well as the future of Main Street.
Paxton addressed the economic benefits of historic preservation to buildings much like those in downtown Houlton.
“You need to think about these buildings you have in the community as an asset,” he said. “They were done by someone else for your benefit. That is your stewardship role for the time being. Hopefully, you will pass that along to someone else.”
Downtown revitalization is almost always based on historic preservation, Paxton said.
“People think of historic preservation as making museums out of everything. It is not. What it is, is the practice of redoing buildings in a way that it is feasible and durable,” he explained. “If you take out the entire insides of the building — by the way, you have some beautiful interiors in your commercial buildings like I have not seen before with more interiors that are intact than any place I have ever visited — you take those and begin the process of revitalization.
“If you tear [down those buildings] here, what is going to happen? You are going to spend a lot of money. So, we like to look at things from the inside out,” said Paxton.
Historic preservation tax credit is a dollar for dollar reduction in tax liability, applying to only income-producing buildings such as commercial, industrial, residential and affordable housing, along with buildings listed in National Register of Historic Places or in a historic district. There is a three-part approval process, which may not be easy, but well worth it in the end.
“Here is the future needed in historic preservation,” said Paxton. “You need to understand its broad, unqualified successes. It works everywhere people try it. It has not failed anywhere. Understand it’s an enormous economic impact. It is training building professionals and craftpeople to do preservation and understanding its sustainability and community vitality.”
Paxton suggested using the Main Street model fully.
“You really have to commit to it,” he said. “It is a model based on success, not on theory. It is based on what has worked on the ground in 2,000 communities. It takes time to get an agreed upon vision. In fact, you have a really good downtown revitalization plan. Of the phase one items that were laid out for Houlton to do five out of six were done. So, things have been moving along.”
Paxton noted, the model works when everyone decides it is going to work.
“If you decide it is not going to work, it won’t work. It is that simple,” he said. “We have seen thousands of towns use the Main Street models successfully.”
“We can move forward and bring the past with us,” Paxton added. “Believe me, you have a particular outstanding and solid past in this downtown to bring into the future. It is your time. This is your turn to take on these buildings that have been around for more than 100 years and to figure out a way to bring them into the future. It is broader engagement, getting projects to happen and getting your downtown back.”
After the discussion, the town of Houlton and Greater Houlton Chamber of Commerce is holding an informational meeting to discuss setting up a formal effort for the downtown. The meeting is Thursday, June 4 at the Houlton Town Office starting at 6 p.m.
“We will be reviewing and proceeding as a Maine Downtown Network Community,” Ketch said. “I think this is a good step in the process. We will review the potential for a Downtown Committee, evaluate concerns and discuss the direction the effort may take. We need to bring people together to determine what the next step is.”
