1999-2009 - Ten Years of Downtown History
The Lewisburg Downtown Partnership began in 1999 as a working partnership between residents, the Borough of Lewisburg, Bucknell University and the business community. Today, the LDP includes a corps of dedicated volunteers, a full time director, and two part-time employees, whose combined dedication and energy have served as a catalyst to strengthen and revive downtown Lewisburg.
In 2001, the borough of Lewisburg received a commitment for $275,000 in Main Street grant dollars for the purpose of establishing a Main Street program in Lewisburg and hiring a full-time director of the Lewisburg Downtown Partnership. Since then, local entities, businesses and residents have invested well over $1,400,000 in downtown Lewisburg in commercial property improvement. For every $1 in state grant money, downtown Lewisburg has reaped $5 in direct, measurable improvements, as well as much more in positive change not measured directly in dollars. Since its last state grant dollars were received in 2005, theLDP has continued its operations through contributions from residents, regional and local businesses, Bucknell University and the Borough of Lewisburg
86 new businesses have begun; 63 have closed their doors.
- From its initial high of 13%, the vacancy rate dropped steadily to 0% by 2004, where it remained. until 2009, when downtown finished out the year with 2 vacancies and a 2% vacancy rate.
- Volunteers spent more than 80,300 hours valued at $1,365,100 working on LDP projects. The National Association of Not for Profits calculated the value of a volunteer hour at $17 in 2000.
- Lewisburg Downtown Partnership received a Pennsylvania Downtown Center Anniversary award for Excellence in Organization.
- The LDP sold more than $200,000 worth of downtown Lewisburg Gift Certificates.
- The LDP created www.lewisburgpa.com, which earned the Excellence in Promotion award from the Pennsylvania Downtown Center. In 2009, the site received 63,546 unique visits from 113 countries. Roughly, two-thirds of the visits (39,000) came from Pennsylvania and of those 16,500 came from Lewisburg. The average visit included 3.9 pages and lasted 2.13 minutes.
- The LDP launched The Heart of Lewisburg Ice Festival, which has grown steadily to include many community partners, including the Donald Heiter Community Center, Bucknell University student groups; Union County Ambulance (check name); Lewisburg Sunset Rotary; Lewisburg Lions and many other volunteers. Between 1500 and 3000 people visit downtown each February during what is typically a slow time for the district.
- The LDP received the Anniversary Award for Excellence in Organizational Development. The award recognized best Board practices over the course of 25 years of the Pennsylvania Main Street program and was designated with Main Street Achiever Status by the State of Pennsylvania.
- The LDP developed a Facebook page for downtown Lewisburg, now at 2500 fans, and has worked to help other downtown businesses understand how to used social media to promote themselves.
