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Each year, the Partnership tackles strategic initiatives to bring more residents and employees to Downtown Frederick, offers an exciting season of events and works closely with downtown businesses and partners to continue to strengthen and improve Downtown Frederick.
Why We LOVE Downtown Frederick!
With our one-of-a-kind specialty shops, restaurants and people, Downtown Frederick stands out. We have a personality all our own…friendly, vibrant, eclectic and thriving.
Downtown business owners are passionate about what they do. They spend time in their shops and restaurants to make sure you are well cared for.
Downtown residents make this community home. A neighbor’s friendly face, an afternoon happy hour with friends, an evening stroll with the family — THERE’S ONLY ONE DOWNTOWN FREDERICK.
The Latest News in Downtown Frederick
Don’t skip a beat. Read the latest about how we LIVE, WORK, STAY, PLAY & CONNECT in Downtown Frederick.
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Frederick’s Main Street Program Awards $40,000 to Downtown Businesses
Downtown Frederick Partnership is thrilled to announce the awardees for the fifth Mission: Interior matching grant program – Artisinal Hair, Cucina Massi, Frederick Coffee Company & Café, Hometown Harvest Kitchen, Idiom Brewing Company, North Market Pop Shop, Pretzel & Pizza Creations, Smoketown Creekside and The Tasting Room. Mission: Interior’s purpose is to assist in making critical interior capital repairs that will make the downtown retail business community more successful overall. The program offers up to $5,000 in matching grant funds for interior improvements to eligible retail businesses. In response to COVID-19, the Partnership increased the Mission: Interior program’s funding from $20,000 to $40,000 and removed the match requirement in order to assist more businesses during this difficult time. By removing the match requirement, business owners could apply for up to 100% of the cost of their improvement project, up to $5,000. These changes are in place for the 2020 grant cycle only. For the Spring 2020 grant round, a total of 20 businesses applied, requesting more than $85,000 in grant funds — a $50,000 increase in funding requests over 2019. In response to the highly competitive applications received this year, the Partnership has awarded a total of $40,000 in grant […]
Living in Downtown Frederick
The friendly faces, lively spaces and sense of community in Downtown Frederick make it much more than a destination – it’s our home. We’re fortunate to live in a community full of great people, focused on making each day better than the last. Downtown Frederick Partnership is focused on improving quality of life downtown. Each year, the Partnership tackles strategic initiatives to make living downtown easier and better. By choosing to live here, our residents are a key part of keeping our city’s historic buildings great. Whether you’re a home owner, renter, business owner or simply someone who loves Downtown Frederick, you understand that this city’s wealth of historic buildings is what sets our community apart. To help answer some of the most common questions about making building changes in the historic district, the City of Frederick Historic Preservation staff planners and Downtown Frederick Partnership created a series of general guides for residents, merchants and contractors who live and work here to help guide these groups through the process of improving our historic buildings. The Partnership is committed to reimagining and advancing our community to welcome more residents to our downtown. Over the course of the last 30 years, the […]
Cultivating Community in Downtown Frederick
The Partnership cultivates community – through events, experiences, and the work we do each day, to bring an opportunity for all to connect, engage, make memories and celebrate what makes us each unique. Community engagement and the momentum generated by placemaking is essential in generating longer-term positive economic outcomes and the Partnership is committed to making Downtown Frederick a continually successful place. Downtown Frederick Partnership’s Alive @ Five event is not only our organization’s largest fundraising event, it also provides an opportunity for our business and resident communities to intermingle, while listening to bands they may have never heard before. Music brings the community together and, with 21 events each year, the Partnership is able to offer a variety of bands from different genres and backgrounds. Bands are selected by an Alive @ Five selection committee, representing a wide variety of backgrounds and people who all love music. Continuing to activate the creek, Movie Night on Carroll Creek is a free, family-friendly event the Partnership launched in 2014. Keeping this event free and open to the public was a priority of the organization, and each year the event has been supported by great community partners who believe in offering programming […]
Destination Downtown
Have you heard of the term “third place?” For most, a third place is the place between home (first) and work (second). In his influential book The Great Good Place, Ray Oldenburg argues that third places are important for civil society, democracy, civic engagement and establishing feelings of a sense of place. According to Project for Public Spaces, there will never be a time when the work of establishing a third place is done. “Real-world communities are incredibly dynamic, ever-changing things. A public space cannot be finished any more than the city in which it resides can be. At their best, public spaces are the most tangible reflections of cities and neighborhoods and the people who make them special. They are stages for public life, and should reflect the people who live, work, and play nearby.” The Partnership recognizes that Downtown Frederick is a third place for many. For some, it’s our first, second and third places and we strive each day to make Downtown Frederick a destination and home for all in our community. Over the last 30 years, the Partnership has been continually striving to make Downtown Frederick not only a third place but your favorite third place. […]
Building for Resilience
In the thirty years since the Partnership’s founding, Downtown Frederick has weathered many storms. The Partnership has always been a place where the community can turn in these times of crisis and these past few months have been no different. Since March, the Partnership has been working diligently to respond to the most difficult challenge downtown has faced since the devastating flood of 1976. Even prior to the Governor’s state of emergency declaration, Partnership staff were providing daily support, communication and guidance to our downtown businesses community. We shifted events such as First Saturday and Alive @ Five online temporarily and encouraged the greater community to continue their vital support for downtown by promoting carry out and curbside pickup for our restaurants and retail establishments. As the impact continued, we’ve continued to launch and support our business community, which has included: Communicating with the downtown business community each day since mid-March on new programs and webinars, updates to regulations and other resources to help the businesses survive the impacts of the pandemicLaunching the Small Business Resiliency Series in response to the COVID-19 pandemicCreating a Lending Library with items like cameras, hand tools, business books, audio equipment and more, for our […]
Building Business
Downtown Frederick boasts a walkable retail area filled with more than 200 independently owned shops, many housed in historic buildings. You’ll find just what you want—home furnishings, fashion, outdoor gear, toys and antiques, unique dining spaces, comfort food and cutting edge cuisine, arts and entertainment venues and so much more. Supporting these businesses is of utmost importance to our organization and the Partnership has been building this community for 30 years. The Partnership provides support to existing businesses that have been here for many years and to those businesses looking to call Downtown Frederick home. Our staff communicates daily with our businesses, answering questions about programs, providing technical assistance, adding jobs listings to our website, dropping off important literature to provide to visitors, celebrating grand openings and anniversaries and so much more. Thirteen years ago, the Partnership launched Competitive Edge, a series of workshops focused on topics of interest to our entrepreneurs and their staff. This series provides valuable sessions to our entrepreneurs and their staff, to maintain and maximize their operations. The Partnership knows that small businesses do not have easy access to training to continually sharpen their competitive edge and this series helps to fill that gap. As […]
30 Years in Downtown Frederick
Founded in 1990 as a 501(c) 3 nonprofit organization, Downtown Frederick Partnership is celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2020, and what better way to celebrate than to look back on the history of Downtown Frederick Partnership and how it all began… 1970s Downtown Frederick is in a significantly deteriorated state – impacted by significant flooding, the loss of major retailers to the first mall in Frederick and the development of interstates that connect residents with DC/Baltimore. Committed citizens begin work to create a more viable Downtown Frederick. Citizen groups achieve several successes. These efforts built the foundation for future organizations. 1989 Fueled by citizens’ initial efforts, Ken Rice, representing the Frederick County Chamber of Commerce, recommends a new economic development group to focus on the downtown business district to stimulate economic climate.Mayor Paul Gordon supports new organization – Greater Frederick Development Corporation (GDFC) a non-profit organization with a 25-person board of directors: Robert E. Gearinger Joseph D. Baker Steven Chafitz Donald C. Linton Bette Shafer W. Bert Anderson Richard R. Burgee Nancy G. Floria Scott Grove Marilyn Harrington Connie Martin Richard Kessler Peter H. Plamondon Norman Quist Ken Rice Colleen M. Remsberg Daryl Routzahn Michael Smariga Paul P. Gordon Sue […]
Main Street in Downtown Frederick
Downtown Frederick Partnership is Frederick’s Main Street program. Main Street designation is awarded by Main Street Maryland (State of Maryland) and is recognized by The City of Frederick and Main Street America; each of which assess the Partnership’s work every year. The Partnership has successfully been re-designated each year since the initial designation in 2001. The impact of implementing the Main Street Program in Downtown Frederick is significant. Since Frederick’s 2001 designation, the work of the local Main Street program resulted in: 967 private investment projects ($83 million in investment)208 public improvement projects ($40 million in investment)389 new businesses1,567 jobs created63,221 volunteer hours valued at $1.6 million Together with the City of Frederick, the Partnership has been awarded more than $3.1 million in funding from the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development. Each grant dollar received has been invested in Downtown Frederick businesses, public amenities and streetscape improvements. What is Main Street? The Main Street Program is a comprehensive, incremental, community driven approach to historic preservation based economic development. More than 1,600 small towns, mid-sized communities and urban commercial districts implement the Main Street Program to make positive change in downtowns across the nation. The goal of implementing a […]
Business Diversity in Downtown Frederick
For more than 30 years, Downtown Frederick Partnership has worked to make our community a better place. This city is our home, its residents are our neighbors and we recognize how fortunate we are to live and work here — a place that’s filled with energy, excitement, passion and drive, a place where no two people are exactly alike but we’re all dedicated to building a better tomorrow. Much of our work revolves around Downtown Frederick’s small business community — the people and places that create the vibrant spirit that attracts so many of us to Frederick. When you shop or dine downtown, it’s so much more than a simple transaction. You’re a neighbor supporting a neighbor, a stranger turned friend, a favorite regular or a welcomed first-time visitor. Getting to know a business is pretty easy, just walk in the door and say hello. We wanted to expand that conversation and give our business owners a chance to introduce themselves by self-identifying in a new way on our website. Using our new Business Diversity page, you now can search for businesses that are woman-owned, owned by a person of color, veteran-owned, LGBTQ+-owned, have an ASL-fluent staff member, and many […]
Shop Independent this Independence Day
First Saturday has always been a celebration of the unique shops, restaurants and small businesses that are the heartbeat of Downtown Frederick — but this July, the Partnership is taking First Saturday to a place it’s never been before…