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march 23 & 24, 2015
hanah country inn, margaretville
a two day intensive training and
networking conference designed to help
us embrace opportunities and address
issues on our main streets
$15 for a single day
(includes continental breakfast, lunch and afternoon break)
$25 for both days
(includes continental breakfast, lunch, afternoon break and Monday night
networking event)
this program is hosted by the MARK Project with support from NYS Homes and Community Renewal
and the Housing Fund Trust Corporation, Catskill Watershed Corporation
and The A. Lindsey and Olive B. O’Connor Foundation
monday am
8:00-8:30 am
Boot Camp Registration
All sessions will offer a postsession “Mess Tent,”
where conference-goers can
meet presenters and ask
additional questions.
8:30 am
Welcome and Opening Remarks
Peg Ellsworth and Kathy Dorgan
9:00 am
Session 1: Creating a Main Street Strategy − A Roadmap to a Community’s Future
Presenters: Victor and Robert Dadras, Dadras Architects, Downtown Revitalization Group
Are you interested in breathing life back into your downtown? Do you feel like there is ample opportunity, but you don’t
know where to start? Main Street redevelopment reports are written every day, with basic or generic recommendations that
end up sitting on a shelf. Learn how communities in New York State began their revitalization processes, how they learned to
capitalize on their assets, and how the extensive amounts of information were organized into a comprehensive strategy with a
specific work plan for implementation. This session will also include the first two steps in the process of creating a Main Street
Strategy: Main Street Assessment (a detailed review & analysis of a community’s current situation) and the Visioning Process
(in which a community begins to work together, developing consensus on a future direction for their revitalization efforts). This
session will describe this unique approach that helps communities to achieve downtown revitalization success.
10:00 am
Session 2: Market Analysis and Marketing
Presenter: Laurissa Ortiz, Downtown Revitalization Group
How do you use market data to define your commercial revitalization strategies? How can you ensure that your marketing
activities are informed by market realities and an understanding of your customer base? This session will help you identify
key data sources, provide some basic insight into how to use and interpret the data, and show you how to turn that data in to
actionable strategies to help your downtown.
11:00 am
Session 3: Place-making as an Integral Part of your Main Street’s Revitalization: Including
Streetscape and Design / Civic Spaces
Presenter: Victor Dadras, Dadras Architects, Downtown Revitalization Group
This session will focus on the art of Place-making, which is defined as a multi-faceted approach to the planning, design and
management of public spaces. Designing our downtowns and Main Streets for people and social activity is both a philosophy
and a process that capitalizes on a community’s assets and potential. Through careful planning, design and programming of
urban spaces, we can promote the social life of urban spaces as a positive goal for revitalization of our cities, towns and villages.
Case studies and examples of specific urban design and place-making efforts throughout New York State will be discussed.
12:00 noon
Lunch and Keynote Address: Doing your Homework — Getting Ready to Apply for Assistance
Presenter: Helen Budrock of Sullivan Renaissance
monday pm
1:00 pm
Session 4: Envisioning Main Street — Building Community in the Age of Facebook and Twitter
Presenter: Kathy Dorgan
This session will explore strategies for building an active supportive Main Street community in the current media and retail
environment. The synergies between crowd sourcing, social media and local movements will be highlighted. The program
will include discussions about the opportunities as well as the pitfalls of combining Main Street and cyber communities. The
audience will be engaged in brainstorming potential strategies for their Main Street including breaking the third wall, dynamic
ephemera and personality driven retail.
2:00 pm
Session 5: Quality Façade Restorations on a Budget — Preservation and Adaptive Re-Use
Presenter: Robert Dadras, Dadras Architects, Downtown Revitalization Group
Main Streets throughout New York State are filled with wonderful historic buildings, and these Main Streets are very special
places worth preserving. The unique and special historic architecture of these existing buildings, as well as the sense of place
that they help create, are perhaps the most critical physical design feature in all of our villages and towns. Preservation,
restoration, rehabilitation and quality adaptive re-use of these historic buildings on our Main Streets and downtown areas are
absolutely critical to the revitalization process. This presentation will focus on the very important role that historic buildings
play in the revitalization of our Main Streets. Specific project examples and case studies of successful projects throughout New
York State will be presented and discussed.
3:00 pm
Session 6: Linking Housing Development with Community and Economic Development
Presenters: Colin Knight and Blair Sebastian, NYS Rural Housing Coalition
This workshop will discuss the rationale for incorporating housing development into Main Street revitalization efforts. Specific
topics include: different models for redeveloping upper story spaces as housing; zoning and building code issues; mixed income
housing; housing for special needs populations; financing options for affordable housing on Main Street; using white elephant
buildings for housing on Main Street; and preserving existing privately-owned affordable housing on Main Street.
4:00 pm
Session 7: Creating a Regional Revitalization Program — New York State Success Stories
Presenters: Victor and Robert Dadras, Dadras Architects, Downtown Revitalization Group
Communities around New York State are bursting with growth, energy and potential. Research shows that a healthy and
vibrant downtown commercial and civic district boosts the economic health and quality of life in a community. Our experience
working with villages and towns over the past 25 years has clearly shown that a regional approach is ideal. Local hamlets,
villages and towns often lack the capacity to undertake this important effort properly, and are frustrated by their inability to
revitalize their communities. They face difficult issues like preserving scale and character, helping to encourage and maintain
small independent businesses, attracting new businesses, streetscape, traffic and parking, pedestrian improvements and
public spaces. This session will explore these issues using the Delaware-Esopus Regional Economic Development Study as a
model. Possible services that can be offered include visioning, assessments, place-making, grant writing, marketing, technical
assistance workshops, and assistance in organizational capacity building.
5:00 - 7:00 pm
Main Street Networking Event with Complimentary Hors D’oeuvres, Cash Bar
tuesday
9:00 am
Session 1: Panel Discussion on Community Growth and Connecting our Main Streets
Representatives from regional economic and community development, environmental and agricultural organizations discuss
working together to connect and strengthen our Main Streets
10:00 am
Session 2: Complete Streets Program
Representatives of Cornell Cooperative Extension and Delaware County Planning discuss how to best incorporate a complete
streets program in your downtown..
11:00 am
Session 3: Roundtable Discussion on the Nuts and Bolts of Community Event Planning and
Implementation that Drives Traffic to Downtown
Representatives of local organizations and business associations discuss planning and implementing events that drive traffic to
downtown. Panelists include representatives from the Business Association of Margaretville, Fleischmanns First, Fleischmanns
Alliance for Business, Greater Roxbury Business Association, Andes Works!, Central Catskills Chamber of Commerce and the
MARK Project.
12:00 noon Lunch
12:30 pm
Session 4: Roundtable on How to Balance Preserving Historic Character with Business-Friendly
Economic Development, Cultural Heritage Tourism, the Arts & Outdoor Recreation
Panelists: Liz Callahan (Hanford Mills Museum), Jenny Rosenzweig (Roxbury Arts Group), Peg Ellsworth (MARK Project), Alan
White (Catskill Center for Conservation and Development), Mary Beth Silano (Delaware County Chamber of Commerce), Jeff
Sentermen (NY/NJ Trail Conference).
1:30 pm
Session 5: Roundtable on Regional Marketing and the Media
Panelists will discuss how to stretch your budget through cooperative marketing and utilizing local media to get the word
out. Panelists include Sonia Janiszewski (Delaware County Tourism), Joe Piasek (WIOX Community Radio), Leigh Melander
(Spillian, Cool Catskills), Julia Reischel (Watershed Post), and Joan Lawrence Bauer (Catskill Mountain News).
2:30 pm
Session 6: What’s in the Hopper — Projects and Ideas that are Underway, from Regional Food
Hubs to Building Community Resiliency
Individuals like artist/farmer Steve Burnett, as well as representatives from Pure Catskills and Transition Catskills, discuss big
ideas for creating sustainable projects and communities.
3:30-4:30 pm
Session 6: Implementation Panel Discussion on Available Resources for our Downtowns
Panelists include representatives from Delaware County Planning, MARK Project, Delaware County Economic Development,
Delaware County Tourism, Catskill Watershed Corporation, and the Southern Tier Regional Council.