Downtown Ferndale welcomes new biz, national award

Downtown Ferndale is running out of room for all of the feathers it's collecting in its cap. The inner-ring suburb is welcoming a number of new small businesses to its city center and has just scored a national award for its vibrant downtown.

Ferndale received the 2010 Great American Main Street Award from the National Trust for Historic Preservation, one of five cities from across the U.S. It's the first member of the Main Street Oakland County group to win the award and the first in the state since Bay City took it home in 1999.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation, which oversees the national Main Street program, praised the Ferndale Downtown Development Authority for its "stellar" record of reinvestment and new employment. Commercial vacancies have dropped from 30 percent to six percent over the past decade as the city has spurred the redevelopment of even the toughest blights into shining examples of what is possible in the suburb.

Downtown Ferndale has also seen a number of new independent, small establishments pop up to lower the vacancy rate, with a dozen more thus far this year. That's not unusual for a city known for its small, meaning 500 employees or less, businesses.

Source: Oakland County
Writer: Jon Zemke

Downtown Ferndale welcomes new biz, national award

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