Vacant Storefront Tour
Why a Vacant Storefront Tour?
A vacant storefronts tour invites the community to reimagine what downtown Athol could be. This can be accomplished by drawing from “storytellers”–members of the community who remember the downtown’s past–as inspiration for a more vibrant future. While revitalization does not happen overnight, meaningful change begins with collective visions and conversations between the right people at the right time. By drawing attention to the downtown’s potential, the tour can help catalyze long-term economic development and downtown revitalization.
Why Revitalize Downtown?
Revitalizing downtown Athol supports its function as the historic, cultural, and economic center of the community. Encouraging new businesses in vacant storefronts can spark meaningful change by creating new jobs, building a locally owned “circular” economy, and fostering community pride or a “sense of place”. By focusing growth within the downtown core rather than new greenfield development on forests or farmland, downtown revitalization focuses on what we already have: protecting open space, reducing infrastructure costs, and locating essential services closer together.
Economic Bottom-Line
Encouraging Local Development: Focusing development in downtown Athol supports local small and medium-sized business owners and developers, keeps money circulating within the community, and strengthens the tax base that funds municipal services.
Reducing Public Costs: Concentrating growth in the existing downtown limits the need for new infrastructure and lowers the long-term maintenance costs for municipal departments. The relatively higher assessed value per acre of downtown properties generates higher tax revenue compared to–and often subsidizes the costs of–suburban properties and commercial “strip” development.
