Main Street Pontiac is a non-profit organization recognized as a 501(c)(3) and charged with managing the City’s Main Street program in downtown Pontiac and implementing the Main Street Four-Point Approach (Design, Organization, Promotion, and Economic Vitality), in partnership with the City of Pontiac and Main Street Oakland County, as well as downtown businesses, property owners, Pontiac residents and volunteers, and other community partners. The Main Street Approach provides a framework for action and collaboration.
Pontiac’s Main Street program began through the efforts of Pontiac’s Downtown Development Authority (DDA) and has been recognized as a Select Level community through Main Street Oakland County since 2002. In 2011, Pontiac’s Main Street program transitioned to be managed by the Pontiac Downtown Business Association (PDBA).
In 2017, PDBA initiated the creation of Main Street Pontiac as its own, separate non-profit entity with the goal of becoming a 501(c)(3) organization. In early summer of 2018, Main Street Pontiac was recognized as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization having tax-exempt status by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
Main Street Pontiac is a volunteer-led non-profit organization that is fostering a vibrant, safe, and inclusive historic downtown for current and future generations. We will engage and collaborate with our community partners to promote a positive image, support economic development, create an inviting atmosphere, and preserve the historic character of downtown Pontiac through the use of the proven strategies of the National Main Street Program.
The vision for downtown Pontiac is to cultivate an inclusive, flourishing district that is based upon the strategies of technology, entrepreneurship, makers, arts, and culture. Together, we strive to build a bold, sustainable, and prosperous Pontiac core that will serve as a model for the next 21st century city center.
Main Street Pontiac is one of the many Main Street programs part of Main Street Oakland County and Main Street America.
Main Street America has been helping revitalize older and historic commercial districts for more than 35 years. Today it is a network of more than 1,600 neighborhoods and communities, rural and urban, who share both a commitment to place and to building stronger communities through preservation-based economic development. Main Street America is a program of the nonprofit National Main Street Center, a subsidiary of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
Main Street Oakland County (MSOC) is the nation’s first and only county-wide Main Street Program. MSOC provides a unique economic development program for downtowns, with a historic preservation philosophy and an emphasis on “sense of place.” MSOC’s mission is to maximize the economic potential and to preserve the heritage and sense of place of Oakland County’s historic downtowns and commercial districts by encouraging and facilitating the use of the Main Street Four-Point Approach®, which emphasizes comprehensive economic development within the context of historic preservation.
National Award-Winning Main Street Programs
Each year, the National Main Street Center (Main Street America) recognizes exceptional communities whose successes serve as a model for comprehensive, preservation-based commercial district revitalization with the Great American Main Street Award (GAMSA). These award-winning communities demonstrate exemplary achievement in the process of strengthening their downtowns and commercial districts based on criteria established by Main Street America.
Below are videos from the communities of Covington, Kentucky and New Orleans, Louisiana, both of which were selected as recipients of the Great American Main Street Awards. These videos show just how effective Main Street’s approach can be in revitalizing a downtown community while preserving its own unique personality.
Our partners are the reason why we’re able to affect the change and impact in downtown Pontiac.
