What happened in the town of Chesterfield is a great example of a rural downtown revitalization effort. Chesterfield is the smallest county seat in the state with a population of just under 1400, and the downtown business district had long been abandoned by two department stores. The courthouse and bank building were empty.
Chesterfield Mayor John Douglas says that a community group calling itself “Team Chesterfield” acquired vacant downtown buildings, then bought the bank building and transformed it into a new town hall. The former courthouse is being renovated as a visitors’ center and now retail spaces are 90 percent full.
Douglas says now their main problem is finding enough parking. He says unlike many communities, the town did not have a revitalization grant to work with, and team members developed plans themselves.
AUDIO: Mayor Douglas says a shortage of parking is not a completely bad thing(:40)
Douglas says Team Chesterfield bought empty retail spaces and marketed them to the right businesses. Now, the courthouse is being renovated into a visitors’ center.
That will soon have an art gallery, chamber of commerce office, gift and genealogical research center. We also moved town hall. It was on a side street. We relocated it into the heart of the business district in a building that was formerly a bank.
Douglas says the revitalization team members found creative solutions. In one transaction, they traded a section of timber that the city owned for a former department store building. Now that building houses a furniture store.
