Regional alliance and Main Street highlight housing projects, downtown demand and business growth in Boone

At the meeting Brenda Dreyer of the AIMS Regional Alliance and Holly Stecker of Main Street presented quarterly updates showing active housing and downtown-commercial activity.

Dreyer highlighted recent openings and projects, naming the grand opening of Great Place, progress at Prairie Place and the Katy project, and steady leasing in market-rate and workforce housing developments. She noted childcare capacity pressures as new residents and companies arrive and previewed a regional housing summit to be hosted in Boone with roughly 100 attendees and regional housing awards.

"We're very thrilled to be hosting our regional housing summit here in Boone later this month," Dreyer said, and she urged council members to watch low-income housing tax credit opportunities that may support upcoming projects.

Holly Stecker provided a Main Street market snapshot for 2025 showing three net new jobs in the downtown district, over $89,000 in private investment within the district for the quarter and a $17,000,000 food-and-beverage "leakage" in a 10-mile radius around downtown Boone — a gap she said points to opportunity for recruiting full-service restaurants.

"So we've got a gap there," Stecker said of the downtown food-and-beverage demand-supply mismatch, and she encouraged leveraging the market data to guide business recruitment and event planning.

Both presenters emphasized coordination between economic development and Main Street and committed to distributing more detailed data to council and the public. The council thanked the presenters and moved on to the agenda.