How Bellefonte created ‘the downtown for everybody else’, and what’s next
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Business Matters: Downtowns in transition
Across Centre County, downtown areas are in a period of transition. From State College growing up with high-rises to Philipsburg tackling blight, the Centre Daily Times’ annual Business Matters section examines the changes and the way those changes affect our communities.
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When Gina Thompson moved to Bellefonte, she said the general perception was that the borough was “dying.” But 15 years later, she says that attitude has changed — adding that the town is more than Chinese food and pizza and antique shops.
“Yes, there are those, but there are also other things,” she said.
Thompson — borough councilwoman and the new Main Street manager for Downtown Bellefonte Incorporated — said the borough has seen a surge in young professionals, new businesses and a community surrounding itself around collaboration and coworking. Through partnerships with volunteers, DBI, the borough and area businesses, Thompson said the community is determined to “not let the borough become a town that people forget about.”
As DBI worked to rebrand itself three years ago, Thompson and Ellen Matis, owner of Studio 1795 and Hello Social, said more and more volunteers and organizations jumped on board to help revitalize the downtown area — starting with the waterfront renovation project.
“Over the past 10-ish years, the borough has really committed itself to downtown Bellefonte,” Thompson said. “When the borough redid Talleyrand Park and knew that they wanted to have a developer do something with that land, I kind of watched that happen. When I would go on walks with my husband, we would see that progress over the years, and I think that really made people start to pay attention to Bellefonte.”
As the developers of the boutique hotel gear up to begin work in the spring and with the anticipated fall opening of the Gamble Mill, Thompson and Matis said they think business owners and entrepreneurs will be attracted to the Bellefonte area — “furthering the progress that’s already been made.”
“When I think about it and when I talk about it, I get excited,” Thompson said. “It is genuinely super exciting to think about. It’s been a long time coming, I know that the (borough) has been working on that specific project for a decade.”
For Matis, the hotel project will come with an opportunity for more retail space and provide the infrastructure for Bellefonte to host bigger events like conferences, weddings and meetings.
“People that I thought were going to be business vendors for my agency are some of my greatest friends, and every single business owner knows each other and knows you when you walk in the door. It’s that small town charm, but it has the amenities for a community. I very rarely have to leave.”
Although Thompson said there is room for more diversity, she said Bellefonte’s “unique” business community sets the borough apart from the rest of Centre County.
“Bellefonte’s growing, and it has a really young professional growth that’s going on,” Thompson said. “This is no slight toward State College, but I think it just offers something for people that just don’t necessarily want to be immersed in that very intense college culture.”
Inspired by a board member, DBI has adopted the mentality that “Bellefonte is the downtown for everybody else,” Matis said. This mantra is reflected in local businesses, volunteers and community support for DBI events like Bellefonte Under the Lights and the Winter Market.
“There’s always just really unique things that are happening,” Matis said. “It’s not just your average place that’s opening on the corner. It’s a really unique shop that offers something very district to our community.”
When DBI first announced the inaugural Bellefonte Under the Lights, Matis said the organization was met with skepticism at first, but the community dinner has sold out every year since.
The most visible change, Matis said, happened when DBI posted a Facebook survey last month that asked residents what types of businesses they want to see open in the borough. The results and participation would have been drastically different three years ago, she said.
“We would have gotten a lot of backlash for it ... people would have said, ‘Well, businesses aren’t coming to Bellefonte, so why bother asking?’,” she said. “That is very much the attitude that this community had when I first moved here ... for us to not get a single negative comment, I think was a huge win for this town because people are really starting to think out of the box about what they would like to see here.”
This story was originally published February 9, 2020 at 6:00 AM.
