- February 25, 2025
An Annual Celebration was held by the Ormond Beach MainStreet Oct. 20.
It’s been quite the year for Ormond Beach MainStreet.
In addition to improving the city’s downtown district, the organization has hosted numerous events and brought back to life some truly missed festivals. MainStreet went over some of its biggest highlights at its Annual Celebration Oct. 20 at the Ormond Memorial Art Museum.
“Getting the median project completed downtown, that was a big one,” Board President Rich Cooper said. “We also had some great events this year. We brought back Taste of Ormond which we haven’t had in several years. It was a big success.”
Cooper named the Celtic Festival, the Riverfest and the first Granada Grand Arts Festival as some of the organizations most successful events. MainStreet also used some of its grant projects to update the downtown area. And there’s more of that to come in the future.
“The city approved in their budget to do some engineering and feasibility studies for lighting up the Granada Bridge,” Cooper said. “Some indirect lighting that would light up the bridge in different colors. We’d like to be the first in the area to really do that.”
During the celebration, the organization presented some of its successes from the past year:
— 40,000 people attended the group’s events
— 5 Building Improvement Grants totaling more than $185,000 were adjudicating by MainStreet’s Design Committee
— 3 Marketing Grants were given to new businesses
— More than $40,000 spent to market the downtown area
— Over 8,000 volunteer hours were logged by MainStreet’s board members and event volunteers.
— 2,500 subscribers received a monthly calendar of downtown events
The organization also revealed it’s new logo and website that features an interactive downtown map for shopping and dining, and an interactive real estate map showing available downtown properties.
As Cooper enters his second year as president of the organization, he knows what to expect and wants to be able to do a lot of good for the town.
“There’s a lot of moving parts to Ormond MainStreet,” Cooper chuckled. “I’ve learned all the different aspects of what we do. We bring a downtown to Ormond which is something we lack in this area. We want a real downtown.”
