Town Center Plan Background

Town Center makes up Grove City's core and today this area hosts an array of Community Events including Boo Off Broadway, Summer Sizzle, Holiday Lights Celebration, Arts In the Alley, and the Farmers Market. These events occur May through December attracting both residents and visitors. With tree lined streets, wide sidewalks and decorative gas street lamps the Town Center is an inviting destination for events and also for patrons on a daily basis. Whether people come to the Town Center for shopping, entertainment, or for a meal, cup of coffee or ice cream, the area remains vibrant from morning to evening.

The vibrant area that is now downtown Grove City has not always had this unique charm. Prior to 1987, downtown Grove City lacked character and sense of place.

Over the last twenty years, through careful planning and good public policy the City has been able to recapture the charm of this original German Farm Community. The improvements undertaken from 1987 through the early 1990s included the installation of brick inlaid intersections, gas street lamps, bollards and benches. The demolition of five properties between Grove City Road and Park Street on the west side of Broadway cleared the way for the construction of the new City Hall. And with the cooperation of business and property owners, structures along Broadway were revitalized as part of a Federal Community Development Block Grant. Structures originally built at the turn of the century received structural and cosmetic improvements including, façade and awning treatments, as well as fresh paint to restore their character. One of the single most important improvements to the streetscape was the removal of signs from the right-of-way. These improvements helped to transform a dilapidated downtown into a charismatic and vibrant Town Center. As a result of Grove City's revitalization efforts, the City was recognized by the Ohio Conference of Community Development and received the HUD Managers Award.

One of the implementation recommendations from the 1987 Town Center Plan stated that a non-profit sponsor be established to focus on the scope of the renovation work and assist the City in implementing a marketing program for the Town Center. Over the course of the years this evolved into the formation of the Town Center Merchants' Association.

Today the Merchants' Association continues to focus its attention on promoting and attracting people to the Town Center and works in cooperation with the Convention 

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