UNC-TV Features Statesville’s Downtown Revival

"Downtown Statesville is really a hidden gem, and people are starting to discover -- and, really, a lot of our citizens are starting to rediscover it."

STATESVILLE, NC – March 2018

Statesville earned focus recently on the UNC-TV program “North Carolina Weekend” for the Iredell County town’s efforts to revitalize its downtown and celebrate a new heyday.

“Downtown Statesville is really a hidden gem, and people are starting to discover — and, really, a lot of our citizens are starting to rediscover it,” Marin Tomlin, executive director of Downtown Statesville, says in the video segment.

Its narrator notes a 2007 conversation in the community of roughly 27,000 residents that led to an updated vision plan that restored life to downtown.

“I think we’ve realized that investment has to start in the heart of your community, and that you’ve got to focus your efforts there first in order to grow the rest of your community,” Tomlin says.

Business owners report that foot traffic in the downtown district has picked up tremendously, and that out-of-towners remark on Statesville’s big-city feel for being a relatively small town.

The four-and-a-half-minute video segment connects viewers with many of those business owners and community stakeholders, including Mayor Costi Kutteh, with attention as well on the town’s history, festivals (including the hot-air balloon fest) and environment.