From Vacant to Vibrant, a Downtown Vicksburg Tour of Possibilities

On Monday, April 15, the Vicksburg Main Street Program hosted Joe Borgstrom, an accomplished professional in the fields of Downtown Redevelopment, Community and Economic Development, Main Street, and Placemaking, on a tour of downtown Vicksburg.

Community members, city officials, business owners, and potential investors all gathered at the Watermark where guests were encouraged to sign in. After a short welcoming by Joe Borgstrom (Place+Main), Kim Hopkins (Executive Director, Vicksburg Main Street), and City of Vicksburg Mayor, George Flaggs, the group proceeded to its first vacant building listed on the tour, The Valley.

Joe discussed the specs and history of the building and then prompted those on the tour to write down what they envisioned should fill the empty retail space. Participants went to quickly jot down on Post It's their ideas of what they would like to see come to downtown Vicksburg.

Once finished, the post-it notes were placed on a door/window of the building and the tour proceeded to its next destination

After the hour-long tour concluded, Joe then went to work on a Retail Market Analysis for downtown Vicksburg, which he showcased during a small possibilities presentation on Tuesday morning using a data-driven approach.

The presentation included current and projected market data that includes demographic trends, retail leakage, potential business, demographic trends, and opportunities for downtown.

"Over the last year, you guys have had over 2 million visitors in the downtown Vicksburg Main Street District." This data included visitor data, broken down into weekly visit trends, and visits by time of day, along with visitor age, income, race, and education.

The gallery below showcases the entire Retail Market Analysis provided to the Vicksburg Main Street Program by Place+Main.