Mainly Manitowoc program working with state on several projects, including façade redesigns

By Charlie Mathews, Herald Times Reporter

MANITOWOC — When Jamie Zastrow was hired a year ago to head the Mainly Manitowoc program she said she wasn't coming with a magic wand.

"Good things take good planning with the right people at the table with the right resources," Zastrow said as she approaches her one-year anniversary with the downtown boosters group seeking to revitalize the historic downtown.

"Successful downtown programs evolve over years, not months," Zastrow said. "We continue to be on the path typical of a Main Street program."

In June 2008, Gov. Jim Doyle named Manitowoc one of three new Main Street communities joining the state program in its 20th year.

Mainly Manitowoc territory is roughly L-shaped including 10th Street east to Seventh Street from Marshall Street on the south to Chicago Street on the north and extending west along Franklin and Washington streets to 15th Street.

State commerce officials offer five years of free technical assistance, training and design consultations.
Building owners — representing the American Legion Post, Fat Seagull, Subway and Custom Pharmacy and Natural Market — have received façade design renderings.

"We also have worked on developing an inventory of the historic and design resources we have downtown, including a photographic index," Mike Maher, executive director of the Manitowoc County Historical Society and chairman of Mainly Manitowoc's design committee, said Tuesday.

He said his committee also is working with the city's parks department on possible streetscape improvements — perhaps planters and trees —"to give downtown a more welcoming appearance."

Paul Zencka, co-owner of Westport Bed & Breakfast, is chairman of the economic restructuring committee. He is leading the charge to develop the criteria for business owners to apply for financial assistance if they want to create a new façade.

For 2010, "we need to pinpoint the businesses that are needed," Zencka said. "It will be a challenge as we work with the city's downtown master plan."

Zastrow said in February small business specialists from the state will help put together a detailed plan for recruitment and retention, "what businesses we're missing and who we should go after."

Zencka said that proponents of particular preferred new downtown businesses need to be flexible in attempting to fill empty storefronts in the 34-square block district under the Mainly Manitowoc umbrella. "It would be difficult to (justify stifling) any kind of business," he said.

"I find talking with business owners interesting as I get their perspectives on different issues," Zastrow said of conversations that may range from state and federal matters to how to stop people from littering in their doorways.

But Zastrow said she is not a mall manager, with no clout to tell a building owner when businesses should be open or what rent should be charged.

A key goal is to help create an atmosphere where businesses will want to be located and shoppers will want to come.

That's a goal, too, of Barb Ferguson, a community activist who moved to Manitowoc in 2005 after living in Michigan and becoming familiar with the area through visiting her son.

"I think Mainly Manitowoc can be the impetus for downtown and getting it going again," Ferguson said. "We need more activities downtown so that people will get used to coming downtown."

Mainly Manitowoc partnered with the Wisconsin Maritime Museum in presenting June's River Rendezvous activities celebrating the museum's 40th anniversary.

At 9 a.m. Oct. 17 Mainly Manitowoc will host its first "Decades of Distinction" architectural walking tour with members of the public invited to gather at the Capitol Civic Centre.

Diane Thorson, an M&I Bank vice president, is treasurer of Mainly Manitowoc and chairwoman of its organization committee that staged the "Mainly Entertaining" fundraising event at the Rahr-West Art Museum in August.

Thorson would like to see an expansion of the volunteer base of the organization whose theme is "It's happening downtown," which was developed by marketing consultant Katie Ross who also helped in designing its logo.

Zastrow said the logo is complementary to the city's "M" in design, surrounded by water and a circle symbolizing a united community effort.

To date, the city has awarded nearly $17,000 to Mainly Manitowoc's budget as part of a council commitment to fund the program at 50 cents on the dollar raised by the private organization, to a maximum of $50,000 per year.

The University of Wisconsin Extension recently released data from three studies performed for Mainly Manitowoc, including a business owners' survey as well as trade area and demographics-lifestyle analysis.

To see the results, visit www.uwex.edu/CES/cced/economies/mainstreet/index.cfm.

Mainly Manitowoc's office is at 824 S. Eighth St.; telephone, (920) 652-0372.

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