Okeechobee Main Street, Inc. is a 501(C) 3 not for profit organization with roots dating back to 1980 when the National Trust for Historic Preservation formed the Main Street program.

The Main Street program is designed to improve all aspects of the downtown or central business district, producing both tangible and intangible benefits. Improving economic management, strengthening public participation, and making downtown a fun place to visit are as critical to Main Street's future as recruiting new businesses, rehabilitating buildings, and expanding parking. Building on downtown's inherent assets -- rich architecture, personal service, and traditional values and most of all, a sense of place -- the Main Street approach has rekindled entrepreneurship, downtown cooperation and civic concern. It has earned national recognition as a practical strategy appropriately scaled to a community's local resources and conditions. And because it is a locally driven program, all initiative stems from local issues and concerns.

Historic Okeechobee Main Street utilizes partnerships, local resources and initiative to support a comprehensive, incremental approach to revitalization built around Okeechobee's unique heritage and attributes to develop long term economic growth and pride in the traditional area of downtown Okeechobee.  Incorporating business and property stakeholder input, Okeechobee Main Street will develop projects that will improve all aspects of the downtown and north central business district around the Courthouse.

The Okeechobee Main Street approach rekindles entrepreneurship, downtown cooperation and civic concern.  Because it is a locally driven program, all initiatives stem from local issues and concerns. The Okeechobee Main Street program's success is based on a comprehensive strategy of work, tailored to local needs and opportunities, in four distinctive areas, often referred to as the Four Point Approach.  Each of the following approaches has a respective work plan associated with it.  By selecting the hyperlink for each approach, the work plan can be reviewed.

Design: Enhancing the physical appearance of the Okeechobee’s downtown district by rehabilitating historic buildings, encouraging supportive new construction, developing sensitive design management systems, and long-term planning. 

Organization: Building consensus and cooperation among the many groups and individuals who have a role in the revitalization process. 

Promotion: Marketing Okeechobee’s assets to customers, potential investors, new businesses, local citizens and visitors. 

Economic Restructuring: Strengthening the district's existing economic base while finding ways to expand it to meet new opportunities -- and challenges from outlying development. 

Some of the ways we will begin our approach to revitalization are:

Finding Our Way - This program is designed to develop and deploy signs to assist people in finding their way to various areas such as parking, shopping, eateries and historical buildings.

Facade Program - The development of this program assists the business and property owners within the business district to enhance the appearance of existing commercial areas.  Qualifying improvements may range from helping to fund major storefronts remodels to new paint jobs.

Beautification Program - Determine options and feasibility of landscaping as you enter the city as well as inside of the downtown area.  An example maybe the placement of a Welcome to Okeechobee brick sign as you enter the city from the east along with appropriate landscaping.

Mural Guidelines - This program provides the ability of Okeechobee Main Street to begin a re-vitalization of our heritage with the painting of murals . The guidelines provides information on how the program will be managed.