The Mississippi Main Street Association (MMSA) celebrated achievements of Mississippi Main Street Communities at the 30th Annual Awards Luncheon in downtown Jackson.
MMSA Board President Kevin Stafford of Neel-Schaffer and MMSA Past President Ed Gardner of Entergy presented awards to recipients from local Main Street programs throughout the state. The annual awards luncheon honors Main Street directors, board members, and volunteers and recognizes the most outstanding downtown development projects from Main Street communities in Mississippi.
The 2019 Award Acceptors (view online).
“The MMSA is honored to celebrate Mississippi’s downtown communities,” said Stafford. “Our local leaders, partners, and investors are to be admired and commended for their vision and drive to reinvent, rehabilitate, grow, and diversify the downtown experience, all while preserving its historical legacy. I am inspired by their entrepreneurial spirit and impressed by the economic opportunities provided to our communities.”
LPK Architects, neonFROG, Inc. and Renovations of Mississippi sponsored the 30th awards luncheon.
Every dollar spent in this organization results in $80 of private investment, the highest return on investment of any economic activity in the state. Since 1993, MMSA has generated more than $5 billion in private and public investment (including more than $1.2 billion in public investment).
In 2018, Mississippi Main Street Communities generated 247 net new businesses, 68 business expansions to existing businesses, 1,225 net new jobs, 84 façade rehabilitations, 309 downtown residential units, 29 new construction projects and 56 public improvement projects were completed as well as 45, 267 volunteer hours.
MMSA currently has 53 active Main Street programs that include 47 Main Street communities and six downtown network members.
