The City of Orlando approved a series of amendments to its agreements with the Orlando Main Street Districts last week that would allow more funding for the organizations with a lot fewer strings attached.

Since the launch of the program, each of the Main Street Districts, which operate as independent organizations, has received funding from the City of Orlando that they were required to match via independent fundraising like collecting membership dues from participating businesses and by hosting special events. The Main Streets and their corresponding boards were tasked with raising roughly $50,000 a year to qualify for matching funds from the Mayor’s office.

But, according to local Main Street directors, those fundraising streams have been severely hindered by the pandemic and they have convinced the City to tweak its original agreements and abandon the matching requirement for each district.

Main Street directors will still be required to submit quarterly performance reports but they will no longer be required to meet financial benchmarks set by the City.

Main Street Districts located outside of the Downtown CRA and the SODO Neighborhood Improvement District have also been given an additional $10,000 to be used for beautification initiatives or assistance for businesses that were negatively affected by the pandemic. Some of the districts, like Audubon Park and The Milk District, have used those funds to launch gift certificate programs like the Milk Money we told you about previously.

The Districts each have their own independent agreement with the City of Orlando and different amounts of funding.

  • Audubon Park Garden District – $60,000
  • Church Street District – $100,000
  • Curry Ford West – $55,000
  • Downtown South – $50,000
  • Gateway Orlando – $60,000
  • Ivanhoe Village – $60,000
  • The Milk District – $60,000
  • Mills 50 – $60,000

Agreements for College Park Main Street and Thornton Park were not available at the time of this post.

Brendan O'Connor

Editor in Chief of Bungalower.com

Leave a comment

Have something to say? Type it below. Holding back can give you pimples.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.