Downtown Joplin sees new growth in 2025
JOPLIN, Mo. — The Downtown Joplin Alliance says Main Street is starting off 2025 strong, building on growth trends from last year.
'Just kind of cleaning it up, securing it, kind of figuring out what the what the steps are to kind of get it underway,' said Lori Haun, DJA exec. dir.
The historic Carnegie Library in downtown Joplin.
The property had fallen into disuse and disrepair in recent years, but work is already underway to fix that.
'Lori Anderson is the purchaser of that. She is from the Bentonville area and does a lot of event planning with her job. And so she's actually looking at possibly doing the rehabbing the Carnegie to be kind of an event space,' said Haun.
Downtown Joplin sees new growth in 2025
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But it isn't just history on tap in downtown Joplin this year.
The Downtown Joplin Alliance is also excited about a brand new building set to open on Main, the Moss-De Graff building near 9th and Main.
'It's the first time we've had new construction in downtown Main Street in decades, probably the eighties. And so that's really neat to see that – you know it's a location that had a beautiful building before. It had been neglected. It caught on fire, you know same old story kind of thing. But it took an empty lot on Main Street and now there's a building there,' said Haun.
The Empire Market is opening for its 8th season, after hitting half a million dollars in sales in 2024.
They're spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in grant funding to improve the building.
'We will have five brand new bathrooms, kind of more within the market hall. We're getting new roofing on part of this facility and doing paving out front. So it's going to be create a really, much more accessible facility and a much more comfortable facility to use,' said Haun.
The 'Third Thursday' series is set to kick off its 2025 season in just a few days – the 18th year for the Main Street festival.
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