Small scale manufacturers in Marshalltown will get a chance to advance their business and relocate into a downtown space thanks to an initiative the Chamber of Commerce applied for and was accepted into.

Last month, Marshalltown was one of four Midwest towns accepted into the 10-month Recast Leaders initiative, a program run by Recast City in Maryland. The short-term goal is to fill vacant storefronts. The long-term goal is to build a host of businesses offering unique products downtown that help drive regional destination shopping, tourism value and overall vibrancy to downtown Marshalltown.

“I’m excited to have this opportunity to collaborate with these four communities,” said Recast City CEO Ilana Preuss. “I’m especially intrigued by the fact that they are all located in the Midwest this year, and they all include leaders from one of three entities — main street organizations, chambers of commerce and city economic development offices. . . . This work is even more urgent today in the face of tight fiscal budgets. The need to grow local tax revenues through local investments is at the heart of this work.”

Chamber President and CEO John Hall said Preuss was in town for the annual banquet last June, and they really liked the message she shared about downtown success built around businesses offering unique products which are more than resale, but built on creativity.

“That’s how Marshalltown was originally built,” he said. “If you look at some of our long-term legacy companies, most all of them started in downtown and often started by doing a bunch of different things before really finding a niche and building an entire company and industry around it.”

During her visit, Preuss saw the downtown street construction project and said that is one of the reasons Marshalltown was selected.

“Downtown is a significantly important piece, and Marshalltown’s leadership recognizes [the importance] of creating a unique place for the community and the people who want to stay, grow their business and expand downtown,” she said.

Besides the Chamber, other organizations involved are the Marshalltown Central Business District (MCBD), the Arts + Culture Alliance (ACA) and the City of Marshalltown.

While downtown is the focus, Hall said the discovery work the team does should provide opportunities to businesses throughout the city, because the initiative focuses on prioritizing an overlooked economic asset – small scale manufacturers, which are key to downtown revitalization and economic resilience.

MCBD Executive Director Danielle Lekin said the program will help identify untapped markets, as there are many creative residents making products to sell.

“Maybe they’re thinking of it as a hobby, something they can do out of their house, and so it will help us identify those people and look at it from an economic perspective, help bring business diversity downtown and create jobs,” she said.

Lekin said it will help fill the 28 downtown vacancies, but added some of those spaces are not ready for tenants yet. Fortunately, she has a list of people who are looking for spaces.

Businesses that could benefit from participating are ones people tend to see at the Cartwright Farmers Markets, people making and selling their own products. One example she provided was a resident in her neighborhood who sells homemade dog treats out of their home.

Hall gave an example of an established Marshalltown manufacturer — Lillie Mae Chocolates.

“It’s those sorts of businesses that are what we are targeting,” he said. “We are hopeful that this process helps us discover the exact number of businesses operating like this in town. Ilana describes in detail in her book on how every community has these entrepreneurs, and her program is designed to help us find them and navigate the challenges that are prohibiting them from taking the next steps with their business.”

Chamber Workforce Development Director Kate Bowermaster said the initial next steps of Recast are to have bi-weekly meetings with cohorts — all four towns included in the program — and smaller communities. The first cohort meeting was held Feb. 18, she added.

“This first phase is all about Recast training and some homework, answering questions about our community,” she said. “Future phases will involve finding and meeting with small scale manufacturers and business owners and eventually creating an action plan to implement.”

Bowermaster added that outreach to businesses should begin this summer. According to Hall, they need to continue the discovery process and gain a deeper understanding of barriers businesses are facing before outreach can begin.

“We hope to reduce barriers to expansion into store fronts and ultimately help entrepreneurs see pathways to long-term, sustainable businesses that can grow, scale and provide for a high quality of life for them,” he said.

For now, the team is looking forward to working with Recast City and the other towns to address the issues.

“Our community group — Amber Danielson, John Hall, (Assistant City Housing and Community Development Director) Clayton Ender, Danielle Lekin and (Iowa Economic Development Authority Downtown Development Specialist) Carol Lilly — is excited to dive into work that will support entrepreneurs, fill vacant downtown properties, build cross-sector collaboration and increase pride in our community,” Bowermaster said.

Hall said they are always looking for new tools or resources that can aid in endeavors and often that relies on leaning on expertise from outside the community.

“This is a great opportunity for us to leverage this collective knowledge and with the incredible local team we have built we hope that we can start to see some of this progress take place later this year,” he said.

Contact Lana Bradstream at 641-753-6611 ext. 210 or lbradstream@timesrepublican.com.