LOCAL BUSINESSES
The city of San Marcos is grateful for its longstanding businesses and has found a way to give them support and recognition. The Legacy Program honors iconic businesses that have been serving the community for at least 20 years, including Wonder World Cave and Adventure Park, Royal Cleaners, The Taproom, Rogelio's and Smoothie Warriors.
Christian Smith, San Marcos economic and business development manager, said that in addition to being in operation for at least 20 years, the businesses must meet other criteria.
“For example, they would have needed to maybe either have been owned and operated by successive generations of the same family or maybe if … their property is designated as a local landmark; things like that would make them eligible,” Smith said. “Upon either them applying or other businesses or citizens nominating them for the program, they would be titled as a legacy busi- ness.”
In addition to bragging rights, the city is offering additional perks for legacy businesses.
“They’re given a business toolkit that has some pre-developed social media messaging to help highlight their legacy status,” Smith said, adding that there will also be a story map with all of the legacy businesses and more information about them. “We connect them with our historic preservation team who can help them navigate the process … [to] receive a Texas treasures award for being a historic landmark or an iconic legacy business.”
Smith said the city wants to make sure that it’s highlighting San Marcos’ local and authentic culture in addition to supporting small businesses.
“This program is one piece of a suite of services that we’re trying to offer our small business community,” Smith said. “We’re making efforts to hire additional Business Retention and Expansion staff on our team to help be a supportive point of contact for businesses, whether they’re navigating processes with the city or maybe need some business support or some technical assistance.”
The city is also utilizing other ways to assist small businesses such as the stabilization fund grants that were awarded through the American Rescue Plan.
“We gave out about $196,000 of direct monetary assistance to over 50 businesses here in San Marcos,” Smith said. “This is just an extra add on in addition to the services that we’re trying to provide our small business community.”
Learn more about the legacy program at this link sanmarcostx.gov/4209/ Legacy-Business-Program.
