Main St. East/North Clinton Avenue Retail District

Location

Boundaries

132-226 East Main Street and 1-17 North Clinton Avenue

Neighborhood Association

The Main St. East/North Clinton Avenue Retail District is, as at present time (November 2015) one of downtown's ugliest, most blighted areas. Ironically, it is surrounded by some of dowtown's biggest development projects, including the Sibley Building, The Metropolitan, the Windstream building, the new Democrat and Chronicle headquarters, and Tower280 at Midtown, whose residential rents will range from $2,000 to a whopping $4,000.

According to the Landmark Society, however:

Located in the heart of the city’s historic shopping district, this block-long collection of retail buildings features important examples of commercial architecture constructed between the 1860s and 1940s. After the great Sibley fire of 1904, new retail buildings were constructed here to accommodate larger stores. By the 1970s, however, a number of these retail operations had closed and new uses were proposed for these buildings, including “The Mill” shopping mall and “Renaissance Square,” which featured a major performing arts center. Today, renewed interest in these underutilized buildings and the ongoing rehabilitation of many adjacent properties, signals an opportunity to rehabilitate one of the city’s most distinctive commercial blocks.

Well now.

The block was named one of the Landmark Society's 2015 Five to Revive. According to local developer Patrick Dutton on an episode of Evan Dawson's Connections, there are currently talks about rehabbing the buildings into mixed-use development. Couldn't happen soon enough.

186, 190-194 East Main Street are planned to combine two buildings into a mixed-use development with 32 lofts and retail.

200 East Main Street has been converted to an office building.