About
Lewisburg Downtown Partnership
Our Mission:
We work to ensure that downtown remains the heart and soul of Lewisburg.
We envision Downtown Lewisburg as the cultural and economic magnet for the region.
The Lewisburg Downtown Partnership (LDP) leads the charge for Lewisburg to become and remain a vibrant, thriving downtown business community. In 1999 Market Street, Lewisburg had 13 vacant first-floor businesses. The LDP was formed when the Borough of Lewisburg, Bucknell University, and the downtown business community began an effort to fill the vacancies, market downtown as a destination, and forge partnerships to encourage collaboration.
In a small rural community like Lewisburg, where fewer people live in the county than in several city blocks, strong downtowns with enough foot traffic to support a shopping district are rare.
Since 2004, downtown has enjoyed a 2% vacancy rate and the spirit of collaboration that formed the LDP has broadened and strengthened, resulting in Lewisburg’s burgeoning vibrancy. But there is a level of vibrancy that we have not seen yet downtown, and the current strategic plan sets a road map to get there.
The LDP will work in four pillar areas to achieve its vision:
- Economic Development
- Promotion
- Historic Preservation and Design
- Organization
Ongoing LDP Initiatives
- Maintain lewisburgpa.com and the Facebook page, @downtownlewisburg
- Heart of Lewisburg Ice Festival and the Polar Bear Plunge
- Summer Craft Fair and town-wide Sidewalk Sales
- Fall Festival featuring the Woolly Worm Winter Weather Prognostication
- Sales event & promotional planning
- The Ambassador Program where LDP volunteers visit downtown businesses several times a year to share information and receive input
- Support for existing and new business prospects
- Partnerships with community stakeholders that create community and economic opportunity
The Lewisburg Downtown Partnership was created to ensure that downtown Lewisburg remained the heart and soul of Lewisburg, as such we find it imperative that we publicly acknowledge the suffering we are going through as a nation.
The LDP commits to doing all we can to create constructive spaces where justice and peace can flourish. We must work harder towards encouraging a racially and culturally diverse local business community.
Our vision of having downtown Lewisburg be the cultural and economic magnet for the region greatly depends on us, the business community, to cultivate diversity of thought and provide space for all races, ages, and genders in our town.
We have much work to do in this country, and indeed in our own community, to acknowledge and shift a legacy begun hundreds of years ago. The LDP is a community non-profit organization that condemns racism in all of its forms. We recognize that we must do better and we are committed to that effort. While we offer these words of assurance and support, we recognize that our actions going forward must speak to our sincere promise. As we approach the hard work of creating our next 5 year strategic plan we commit to exploring and implementing what we can do as an organization to foster this process in our community.
