Latest news with #DowntownFrederickPartnership
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Downtown Frederick Partnership has accreditation renewed
The Downtown Frederick Partnership has had its accreditation renewed for 2025 by the Main Street America organization for its work promoting business in the city's downtown. The Partnership joins 820 other communities across the country that have met the standards of the national organization, committed to maintaining economic development and community revitalization in towns and cities around the country. Downtown Frederick Partnership Executive Director Kara Norman said in a press release that the designation shows the organization's ongoing efforts to maintain a vibrant and resilient downtown that reflects the cit's character, history, and entrepreneurial spirit. To be accredited by the national organization, communities have to demonstrate a proven record of exceptional performance in six areas, according to a press release from the Partnership. The criteria are: •broad-based community commitment to revitalization •inclusive leadership and organizational capacity •diversified funding and sustainable program operations •strategy-driven programming •preservation-based economic development •demonstrated impact and results. In 2024, the Partnership facilitated more than 3,146 volunteer hours and supported the opening of 20 new businesses downtown, according to the release. It also hosted the Main Street Maryland Conference to discuss best practices in downtown revitalization, the state's first such conference. Along with the Partnership, Frederick County has five other Main Street communities — in Brunswick, Middletown, Mount Airy, New Market, and Thurmont.
Yahoo
10-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Businesses seek to tap community in fundraising effort
The line of customers was steady at Twin Bears Bakery in Frederick on Thursday. It took Andrew Roy a few minutes to get a chance to chat. After a few months for the business at its new location, 'we're suffering through the curse of success right now,' Roy said with a laugh. He owns the South Carroll Street bakery with his wife, Emily. The bakery is looking to upgrade its facilities to meet customer demands. The upgrades include a new walk-in refrigerator and a new stone mill that will allow them to grind their own whole wheat, rye, and spelt flours on a larger scale, Roy said. Twin Bears is one of three downtown businesses taking part in a unique crowdfunding effort to raise money for various improvements and projects. The others are the downtown taphouse and restaurant Frederick Social and Tenth Ward Distilling Company. The program is run through the fundraising platform NuMarket and promoted through the Downtown Frederick Partnership. It lets customers and community members contribute to a business's campaign in exchange for receiving 120% of their contribution in store credit from the business. The Downtown Frederick Partnership learned about the program through its participation in the Main Street America program, Executive Director Kara Norman said Friday. After learning more about the NuMarket program and feeling like it had potential, the Partnership told its members about it. It creates an opportunity to introduce businesses to new customers, which is always good, Norman said. It also encourages donors to come back to the businesses multiple times to use their store credit, she said. While there, they might stop into another shop downtown and buy something else. Tenth Ward and Twin Bears' campaigns began April 30 and will last 30 days. Frederick Social's campaign began May 7. Frederick Social is looking to upgrade its oven and enlarge its outside patio space, said Mike Nagi, who owns the business with his wife, Audi. Nagi said they're always looking for ways to upgrade the business and thought the NuMarket program made sense. It's not just asking people for a donation. — they get something back in return, he said. Tenth Ward owner Monica Pearce said she would use the money raised to help provide a 'face lift' for the business's early-1900s building, including to the hardwood floors and the distillery's event space. After learning about the program from the Partnership, she talked to some other businesses who worked with NuMarket, and heard good things, she said. Like Nagi, Pearce liked the mutually beneficial aspect of the fundraising effort. 'It's a win-win. Everybody gets something out of it,' she said. Roy said Twin Bears Bakery, Tenth Ward, and Frederick Social all represent the best of what makes downtown Frederick special. 'These are truly homegrown businesses,' he said. After about a week of fundraising, the bakery was closing in on $30,000, just about enough to afford the walk-in refrigerator, he said Thursday. The stone mill would cost about another $25,000, he said. Roy said he and his wife wouldn't have felt right just asking patrons for donations to help support their improvements. But he looks at the program as a type of community financing. 'It feels good to know that our community recognizes how much we care about them,' he said.
Yahoo
27-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
McClintock, Partnership plan food hall along creek
The space on South Carroll Street in Frederick doesn't look like much right now. Plaster and debris cover parts of the dirt and rock floor. Light shines in dimly through the windows. But Braeden Bumpers and Tyler Hegamyer of McClintock Distilling are hoping that the space will become a go-to dining spot in downtown Frederick. McClintock is partnering with the city of Frederick and the Downtown Frederick Partnership to create a food hall at the distillery's location along Carroll Creek. The facility will feature four food stalls of between 200 and 350 square feet each, as well as a bar with McClintock's offerings and a market stall in a 6,000-square-foot space within a lower-level space within a historic building owned by McClintock. The building initially housed the service center and paint shop for a car dealership in the early 1900s, then was a series of shops and other businesses, said Alison Hegamyer, a co-owner of the building. The project will create a cool venue to showcase new restaurateurs and new styles of food for downtown, said Bumpers, one of McClintock's owners. He's hoping the location along the creek will help draw in visitors. Bumpers said they hope to have most of the construction done by the end of the year. The distillery has had the space, and has been talking to various people and groups about adding a food component to it, he said. Bumpers said he thinks the space will be conducive to entrepreneurs, especially younger ones or ones without the capital to open full restaurants. The shared space will allow businesses to have lower overhead and rent, he said. The hall will provide a spot for start-up culinary entrepreneurs, and expand the business and food offerings available downtown, said Kara Norman, executive director of the Downtown Frederick Partnership. The project will not be set up as an incubator, with businesses housed for a set amount of time, she said. Instead, businesses will be able to stay as long as they choose, she said. 'Strategically positioned near East Patrick Street, Carroll Creek Linear Park, the future Downtown Hotel and Conference Center, the Police Headquarters and newly planned housing developments, the food hall is set to become a key attraction for both locals and visitors in the area,' the Partnership wrote in a press release about the project. Bumpers hopes the location along the creek will help draw in visitors. 'The creek, every year, it's more and more people,' Bumpers said. The project is supported by a $300,000 grant from Project Restore 2.0, a program by the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development that seeks to revitalize vacant buildings and improve commercial corridors in the state. Tyler Hegamyer said architectural drawings are being finished up now. Applying for permits from the city will be the next step in the process, he said.
