Downtown Mainstreet Inc. is shutting down. The private nonprofit's board of directors voted on Wednesday to dissolve the organization, with an official dissolution date of Dec. 31, and said significant financial challenges drove the decision in a press release issued that day.
Local businesses and financial institutions incorporated the group in 1977, at a time when downtown La Crosse faced high vacancy rates and a serious need for investment. Its aim was to help restore the central business district as the commercial and cultural center of the Coulee Region.
Over the decades the organization worked alongside property and business owners, public entities and other local stakeholders on downtown revitalization. Its funding came mainly from private membership dues, along with annual contributions from the City of La Crosse and La Crosse County, and its planning work included the City Vision 2000 Downtown Master Plan, completed in 1992, which helped guide later public and private investment downtown.
Board President Sam Bachmeier said the board concluded over the last few years that the organization's traditional model is no longer workable. He said the dissolution gives the next generation of leaders and stakeholders a blank canvas to build a new model to support the historic downtown for the next 40-plus years, and noted that local organizations and stakeholders have already begun coordinating on what comes next.
The board pointed downtown businesses and stakeholders to several organizations they can connect with going forward, including the La Crosse Area Chamber of Commerce, Explore La Crosse, the La Crosse Area Development Corporation, the La Crosse City Vision Foundation and the 7 Rivers Alliance.
