Positively Park Rapids

The City of Park Rapids began construction on Park Rapidsʼ Main Street this summer to replace crumbling infrastructure with new. The work will continue on side streets in the downtown business district in the spring of 2011. In addition to replacing infrastructure, the downtown revitalization project will produce a more visually attractive, pedestrian friendly streetscape while keeping the center street parking that is part of our communityʼs cultural heritage and has become a Minnesota landmark.

Knowing construction would pose a major disruption, we invited people from neighboring communities, which have completed similar projects to tell us what they learned. Based on their experiences, a Park Rapids Downtown Marketing and Promotions Committee has worked since September 2009 developing a plan: 1) to create a positive economic response from residents and visitors for our downtown and community as a whole, 2) create jobs, 3) increase retail and tourism activity, 4) attract new businesses and 5) improve the quality of life we enjoy as well as our quality of place.

In addition to the collective hundreds of hours Marketing and Promotions Committee volunteers have invested in developing the plan, other community volunteers have stepped up to help in implementing projects identified as priorities. The goal of our two-year marketing plan is to raise $65,000. Members of the Park Rapids Downtown Business Association have committed nearly $34,000 toward marketing efforts and other community partners have donated approximately $25,000. Additional donations will help us reach our goal. The Positively Park Rapids Fund was created at the Northwest Minnesota Foundation to insure good stewardship of grants and other financial support we receive.