CITY OF SAN MARCOS
The city of San Marcos loves its downtown. With countless, vibrant local businesses set right in the heart of the city, it is no surprise why. Each year, the city’s Main Street program celebrates the businesses, partners and volunteers that make the area thrive at the Love Downtown Awards.
This year’s winners are: Business of the Year — The San Market, Out- standing New Business — Ollie’s Market, Downtown Legend — Corridor Title San Marcos, Downtown Champion — Downtown Association of San Marcos, Preservation Award — Council for the Indigenous & Tejano Community, Partner of the Year — Texas State University Honors College; and Kelly Franks Volunteer of the Year — Madi Roberts.
Josie Falletta, San Marcos Downtown Coordinator, said people often think of economic development as having to do with larger corporations, but the city is dedicated to supporting local businesses, which make up 95% of San Marcos’ downtown commerce.
Most of the awards are selected by the Main Street staff and Advisory Board, but Business of the Year, Outstanding New Business and Downtown Legend are selected by the public. Nominations require the public to write something positive about the business, and the judging panel will score the businesses based on that information, without knowing which business they are evaluating.
Ollie’s Market is a Bodega-style store that serves fresh sandwiches, locally grown fruits and vegetables, and locally sourced beef and eggs. Falletta said they also make their own cold brew, nut milk and yogurt.
“It’s kind of like a corner store where you can get a fresh sandwich, you can buy a couple of groceries, you can get a coffee or a matcha, something along those lines,” Falletta said.
Corridor Title has been open in San Marcos for 15 years.
“A lot of the nominations talked not only about the customer service of Corridor Title, but they also talked about how they give back to the community,” Falletta said. “Corridor hosts a golf tournament with CASA of Central Texas every year, and all of the proceeds benefit CASA. … They also do something called Corridor Cares where every year they work with nonprofits, and they donate $25,000 to a local nonprofit.”
Falletta said in less than two years, the San Market has already established itself as a destination business. They sell local and regional goods.
“I love this store,” Falletta said. “They actually won the Outstanding New Business last year, and this year, they won Business of the Year, which says a lot about how quickly they have integrated into our downtown business community.”
The Downtown Association of San Marcos is a nonprofit that Falletta said has “championed public safety in downtown” by facilitating regular meetings between the San Marcos Police Department and University Police Department.
“It has resulted in support from Texas State thinking of things like sharing resources, being on call, and supporting downtown police in the evenings,” Falletta said. “It has also resulted in a dedicated downtown patrol that is in downtown every Wednesday through Saturday night.”
The Council for the Indigenous and Tejano Communities established an exhibit inside of the Hays County Historic Courthouse called “The Past Within Us.”
“It’s all focused on the history and stories of our indigenous and Tejano community,” Falletta said. “We wanted to recognize them, because it’s important to tell all of our history, not just some of our history.”
Texas State Honors College was instrumental in the painted murals on San Antonio Street, which were a creation of local artist Michelle Wilson.
“The students helped brainstorm what we could do in that area. The faculty applied for a grant, and they won a $25,000 grant,” Falletta said. “They also came out and helped us physically paint the murals on the street.”
Madi Roberts is an Honors College student at Texas State.
“She has volunteered at every single event that we’ve hosted since I met her,” Falletta said. “She also volunteers her friends to come with her, so she always gets us other volunteers too.”
Falletta said the Main Street program is celebrating its 40th year as an accredited Main Street program.
“We’re four decades into doing this work of downtown revitalization,” she said.
