Love Downtown Awards celebrates area businesses

Downtown has a special character and rich history. City staff know that and value the businesses that contribute to the area’s charm. The city of San Marcos hosted the Love Downtown Awards ceremony and banquet on Feb. 29 to pay homage to the businesses and people that make it special.

Downtown Coordinator Josie Falletta said the Love Downtown Awards has officially been going on for a decade.

“It’s an opportunity to celebrate and recognize downtown businesses,” Falletta said. “There are several awards that are granted. There are three awards that are nominated by the public and selected by a judging panel, and there are several other awards that are selected by the Main Street team. That includes [city] staff and the Main Street Advisory Board.”

The three awards nominated by the public are Outstanding New Business, Downtown Legend and Business of the Year. Outstanding New Business is for businesses that have been in operation for less than two years, and the winner was Zablosky Film. Downtown Legend is for businesses that have been in operation for over ten years, and the winner was Root Cellar Cafe. Business of the Year is open to anyone, and the winner was Douglas Smith Soap Company. Falletta said this is the second year in a row and the second time ever that a new business has won Business of the Year.

“These new businesses are coming in so strong that they make an immediate impact on the downtown community, and people fall in love with them,” Falletta said. “I think that’s really special.”

Falletta said it was important to the city that these categories not be a popularity contest, so they used public nominations as only part of the overall score and considered other factors as well. The other scoring criteria are entrepreneurial spirit, community involvement, level of customer service and innovation.

“We had a record breaking amount of public nominations this year,” Falletta said. “We had over 200 people, members of the public, come in and nominate businesses because they were really excited and they care about downtown businesses.”

Public nominations are open six weeks before the ceremony.

“Then we leave those nominations open for three weeks, and we promote it a lot. So we can get as much input from our community [as possible]. Then we compile everything. We meet with our judging panel and announce the awards at the end of Feb., which we call Love Downtown Month,” Falletta said. “Then we host a celebration banquet. It’s our opportunity to celebrate and recognize the businesses. It’s our chance to treat them. We usually have dinner that’s supplied from new businesses and restaurants that opened over the last year or two. We really try to make it where we’re exposing the new businesses and getting them a little bit of recognition from other business owners.”

Falletta said there are four other awards that were presented that were decided by Main Street, which includes staff and the Main Street Advisory Board. Partner of the Year is given to an organization that has been a great partner to the Main Street Program that year, and was given to Hays County this year.

“They have been an incredible partner in working on the courthouse lawn last year,” Falletta said. “The courthouse lawn got a little bit of a shush last year with new landscaping, and it’s been a lot more accessible and visible to people. And they worked really closely with us on being able to host more events.”

The Volunteer of the Year Award, which has been renamed the Kelly Franks Volunteer of the Year Award. Falletta said Franks was the Main Street manager for 25 years and “made downtown what it is today.” The winner of that award was Josh Del Bosque. Falletta said he volunteers at every event, and the downtown team really “appreciates him.” The Innovation Award was presented to the First Tuesday Film Series, which is a new film series that occurs on the first Tuesday of each month at the Price Center.

“We haven’t had a monthly film series like that before,” Falletta said. “It’s something that was new and innovative, and they’ve been selling out at almost every event they’ve been hosting.”

The final award, the Revitalization Award, is given to an individual or a property that has really made an impact on an underutilized building or area downtown. The winner was the Ford Jackson Building, which is on Hutchinson Street next to the Showdown.

“That building was formerly vacant for about ten years,” Falletta said. “The new owners purchased it a few years ago, and they’ve been working on renovations. They are in the final stages of finding leases with tenants, and when that type of thing happens in a historic, long-term vacant building it has a huge impact on whatever area of downtown that it’s in.”