On Wednesday, May 1 through Friday, May 3, Todd Barman, sponsored by Virginia Main Street will visit Staunton to tour the Downtown Service District and host a variety of meetings with the SDDA stakeholders, Economic Development Committee, Board, and economic development partners to evaluate the District and do some strategic planning and education about succession planning for business owners and trainers.
Downtown businesses and property owners are invited to attend a breakfast session “6 Key Practices: Secrets to Greater Business Profitability & Future Salability” at Cranberry’s Grocery and Eatery, 7 South New Street, at 8:00 a.m. The one-hour session will educate business owners about planning for the future of their business, by measuring its value.
On Thursday afternoon, members of the SDDA Board and Economic Development Committee will meet with local partners to strategize succession planning for the District.
Todd Barman is a Senior Program Officer with more than 20 years of experience in the development field and 16 years firsthand Main Street experience. With a background in landscape design and urban planning, Mr. Barman is a leader at the Center in the areas of design and economic restructuring. He is known throughout the United States and into Canada for his work in downtown development planning and refining Main Street’s asset-based economic development strategies.
His primary duties include the development, coordination and delivery of technical services and training to assist with downtown and neighborhood commercial district revitalization. His areas of expertise include capacity building and evaluation of local Main Street programs and statewide/regional Main Street coordinating programs, organizational and community planning, entrepreneurship, targeted market research, and commercial district market position.
Mr. Barman served as the Assistant State Coordinator for the Wisconsin Main Street Program from 1999 until 2006 where he led efforts to develop the nationally recognized Downtown and Business District Market Analysis Toolbox. Prior to that, he spent three years as the Manager for the Darlington (Wisconsin) Main Street Program. Before finding Main Street, Mr. Barman was with 20/20 Foresight where he developed creative solutions to environmental problems by discovering underlying interests and visualizing alternatives. He holds a Masters and Bachelors degree in Landscape Architecture from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
As a Virginia Main Street community, the Staunton Downtown Development Association has access to many services from the Department of Housing and Community Development, Richmond.
The National Trust Main Street Center provides staff that visit communities throughout the country for a variety of projects, strategic planning and evaluation with an emphasis on the Main Street 4-Points: Organization, Design, Promotions and Economic Restructuring.
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