Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Wednesday afternoon saw members of the Georgia Department of Community Affairs given a tour of downtown Bainbridge. The officials were specifically from the DCA’s Office of Downtown Development, with the tour a necessary part of the city’s Main Street program.

Amanda Glover, Executive Director of the Bainbridge Downtown Development Authority, explained the reason for the visit. “Our Main Street program is designated a Georgia Exceptional Main Street program, and every three years you have to go through a re-designation process,” she explained. According to Glover, it’s been roughly ten years or more since Bainbridge received their designation. For this re-designation tour, the officials were shown some of the more recent developments downtown, being taken through the Alderman building, the Willis Park Hotel, the future shops at Calhoun Street, as well as the new Lofts at Chason Park, and Chason Park itself.

Glover estimated it may be a week before the city hears the results of the re-designation. She said the group was impressed with the developments.

Jessica Worthington, Director of the Office of Downtown Development, spoke with the Post-Searchlight after the tour, calling the city’s development over the years “incredible to have witnessed”. “Bainbridge continues to rise to the top,” she said.

“Downtown is a small industry within itself,” Glover said. “When you pull all the numbers together, the number of employees down here, that equals up to an industry.” She added, “We just want people to continue to support the mom-and-pops, and do what they can to shop local.”