New Castle earns state designation, funding for downtown preservation
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The Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs (OCRA) on Thursday announced New Castle as the state’s 2023 PreservINg Main Street community.
The designation includes a $2 million grant that will be used to revitalize buildings in the Henry County city’s downtown district.
OCRA Executive Director Denny Spinner said the program is designed to build sustainable historic preservation ethics in Indiana communities and serve as a comprehensive model for downtown revitalization, and New Castle checked all the boxes to receive the honor.
Spinner told Inside INdiana Business that New Castle stood out because the city had already begun its preservation journey.
“They have a great program in place that showed the initiative and the desire to do this type of work in their downtown,” he said. “So we felt they were ready to get the boost to move forward with the quality of their impact of the buildings that they’ve already done in New Castle.”
New Castle is located about 50 miles east of Indianapolis.
When the program team went to New Castle for a site visit, Spinner said the city showed a tremendous amount of grassroots support, and the community partners that had been brought to the table were impressive.
“There’s just a strong sense in New Castle that this is the right time to do this in their downtown, and there’s a lot of spirit there and capacity to take on [the effort],” he said. “This is not an easy any task. They have the capacity. The city’s in. The county’s in. There’s a lot of energy, and we want to capitalize on that.”
Carrie Barrett, executive director of New Castle Main Street, told IIB the city’s preservation efforts began years ago after noticing the downtown area was in the midst of a downswing. But interest in revitalizing the area began to grow.
“Now we have these young people who are buying downtown buildings, and they need help because it’s really expensive to refurbish or restore a downtown building,” Barrett said. “And they were interested in history, and they were interested in community.
The organization used funding from the city’s redevelopment commission and grants from other sources to provide capital for the new building owners to help refurbish their buildings.
“That created, one, a revenue stream for the building owner, which is hard to get,” she said. “And also it created a sense of community and a support network around them, even if it was just, ‘Hey, we’re here, and we believe in you.'”
Barrett said earning the state designation brings benefits beyond just funding. The city also has a partner that can give advice and best practices to implement the improvements that it hopes to achieve.
The city didn’t name specific projects that will receive funding, but Spinner noted that it would be a collaborative effort to identify those the best opportunities for success that could create more momentum for the rest of downtown.
All projects using PreservINg Main Street grant funding must be completed by December 2025.
The program, which began as a pilot in 2021, is a joint effort among OCRA, Indiana Humanities and Indiana Landmarks.
“The PreservINg Main Street program will enhance New Castle’s commitment to its historic downtown,” Indiana Landmarks President Marsh Davis said in a news release. “This will demonstrate that historic preservation functions a powerful tool for community revitalization.”
The first two communities to receive the designation through the pilot, Brookville in Franklin County and Kendallville in Noble County, have made strides since receiving the initial grant funding, including creating historic preservation commissions to guide their downtown efforts.
“In Kendallville, since 2022, seven new businesses have opened up in the downtown because they see the investment that’s coming on,” said Spinner. “Brookville has had five new businesses open up; there’s been over $220,000 raised in Brookfield to support the projects that are going on in private dollars. In Kendallville, that’s $445,000.”
Looking long-term, Barrett said the capacity and sustainability piece of the designation gives her hope that, like Brookville and Kendallville, the city can keep the downtown momentum going for years to come.
You can learn more about the PreservINg Main Street program by clicking here.