About

Who We Are

The Puyallup Main Street Association is a 501 (c) 3 charitable nonprofit organization focused on business and community development and historic preservation. We are part of a national movement formed to improve the quality of life in small town America and to invigorate the economic health of the Historic Main Street central business districts. Developed and administered by the nonprofit National Main Street Center of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Main Street Program has utilized a public-private partnership of private investment, local government support, and local non-profit assistance to revitalize historic commercial districts.

Since 1989, the Puyallup Main Street Association has had a positive effect on the revitalization of Puyallup’s businesses and the town as a whole. This locally-driven, hands-on, grass roots, self-help approach has met much success with its focus on four main points: Organization, Economic Vitality, Promotions and Design.

Mission Statement:
Our Mission is to represent and support a vital downtown by promoting economic growth..

Vision Statement:
The Puyallup Main Street Association envisions a downtown business district that is alive, inviting, healthy and thriving while retaining its hometown, friendly charm. Our downtown is a family-oriented place in which business owners and shoppers, or clients know one another on a first-name basis.

We want a downtown that everyone can feel proud of and enthusiastically show off to visitors. We believe a successful downtown business district should be the kind of place, where people can have fun, feel safe, earn a living, and make memories that last a lifetime. Downtown Puyallup has a rich history and a bright future. It is a unique city to which people will feel welcomed by those of us who call it home, and to which visitors will want to return time and again.

The Main Street Approach

Every community and commercial district is different, with its own distinctive assets and sense of place. The Main Street Approach™ offers community-based revitalization initiatives with a practical, adaptable framework for downtown transformation that is easily tailored to local conditions. The Main Street Approach helps communities get started with revitalization and grows with them over time.

Main Street Fundamentals

The Main Street Approach is centered around Transformation Strategies. A Transformation Strategy articulates a focused, deliberate path to revitalizing or strengthening a downtown or commercial district’s economy.

A program’s work on Transformation Strategies should be organized around the Four Points: Economic Vitality, Design, Promotion, and Organization.

A revitalization program’s work – and its Transformation Strategies – need to be informed by a solid understanding of local and regional market data and sustained and inclusive community engagement.

four-points-defined

The Four Points:

  • Organization
  • Promotions
  • Design
  • Economic Vitality
LEARN MORE

Our Certification

Since 1984, the Washington State Main Street Program has been helping communities revitalize the economy, appearance, and image of their downtown commercial districts using the successful Main Street 4-Point Approach®. Main Street is a comprehensive, incremental approach to revitalization built around a community’s unique heritage and attributes. Using local resources and initiative, the state program helps communities develop their own strategies to stimulate long term economic growth and pride in the heart of the community- downtown.

In 2010 the Main Street Program was moved from the Department of Commerce to the Department of Archaeology & Historic Preservation. The program is managed (under contract) by the Washington Trust for Historic Preservation.