Downtown Ormond Beach has been transformed in the last 30 years. Aging, historic buildings have been restored to their unique grandeur — housing locally-owned restaurants, boutiques and shops, art galleries, museums, businesses and offices.

Landscaped medians and crosswalks have been added to Granada Boulevard, the main corridor through the heart of town, helping to slow traffic and accommodate pedestrians.

Throughout the year, thousands of visitors are drawn downtown for special events, as well as a weekly farmers market.

Add public art and other beautifications and downtown has become a desirable and walkable place to go.

Creation of a MainStreet

It wasn’t always this way. Longtime downtown business owner Bill Partington remembers when Granada Boulevard was a wide thoroughfare, typically used by motorists to travel from one side of the city to the other. It was mostly old commercial buildings with empty storefronts and little community activity.

Partington was one of the founding members of the non-profit, volunteer-based Ormond MainStreet (OMS) organization, primary driver of the continuing energy that has brought downtown from then to now. 

Created in 1995, OMS was spearheaded by a group of resident and business volunteers who recognized the need to revitalize their historic downtown.         

Since its inception, OMS has grown to more than 200 member businesses, partnering with city government in the beautification, marketing and redevelopment of downtown — as well as four scenic riverfront parks at the base of the bridge over the Halifax River, with extensive fishing piers, gardens and walkways.  

A leader in the effort has been local businessman and developer Bill Jones. He has renovated numerous historic buildings along Granada that now are the heartbeat of downtown Ormond: restaurants like the Victorian Rose Villa and Ormond Garage; Mediterranean Buschman Building; and the Art Deco 31 Supper Club.

Assisting Business and Redevelopment

Partington refers to OMS as three legs of a stool — combining business, government and community. “And it’s worked quite well,” said the second-generation owner of AHC Safe & Lock.

Ormond MainStreet is an accredited program of the Florida and National America Main Street programs (mainstreet.org). They include about 1,200 similar organizations across the country that are geared to assist communities in revitalizing historic downtowns through preservation-based economic development.

OMS’s success was recognized by the Florida Department of State last August, as the Florida Main Street Program of the Month. The state agency noted that the OMS district has received nearly $108 million in public and private investments during the past 30 years, seen 173 new businesses open and created nearly 1,700 new jobs.

“MainStreet is important to our community because it gives us the opportunity to sit down and chat with other business owners,” said Thays França, artist and co-owner of the downtown Art Spotlight Gallery. “And this leads to collaboration, helping the downtown to thrive as a group.”

França stressed the value that OMS special events have for merchants.

“These are the biggest days in business for us by far,” she says, estimating that customer traffic at the gallery during special events like the annual Granada Grand Festival of the Arts is about four times higher than during the regular monthly First Saturday Art Walks. 

Last August, the City Commission honored França as “Business Owner of the Year” for her “passionate and vibrant community support.” And more recently, França was honored as the Artist of Distinction at the recent inaugural VoCo (Volusia County) Season of the Arts Awards Gala. França and Gallery Co-Owner Teri Althouse’s most recent contribution to Granada’s transformation is a large floral mural they created along the side of their Spotlight building.

Renovation of the Spotlight building also is one of Jones’ creations. “Bill has a vision and a passion, and he also has the means,” França said. “He works with us business owners so we can all work for the betterment of the community.”

Ormond MainStreet Activities

The OMS district extends along Granada Boulevard from Atlantic Avenue on the beachside across the Halifax River Bridge through mainland downtown to Orchard Street — the same boundaries as the city’s designated Community Redevelopment Area (CRA).

The city provides funding to OMS to assist in the design of building and redevelopment and beautification projects within the CRA. The group markets and promotes the downtown, provides merchant support (including assistance with grants), a weekly farmer’s market and special events to increase foot traffic into the downtown. Special events include Taste of Ormond and Riverfest Seafood Festivals; Granada Grand Festival of the Arts; Celtic Festival; Christmas in July and Small Business Saturday.

“MainStreet brings the community together,” said Althouse. “We want people to see that we have everything here.”