* * Blacksburg Partnership’s Diane Akers sees good things happening

The Blacksburg Partnership was created in 2003 to promote retail and commercial development and quality of life in the Town of Blacksburg. Its sole director since then is Diane Akers, a certified public accountant, turned assistant city manager, turned economic developer who loves the Blacksburg community.

“We are a non-profit, economic development organization,” she told me as we visited in a Blacksburg bakery, Our Daily Bread. “We are a public/private entity that came about as a result of the Town of Blacksburg developing a downtown master plan and an economic development strategy that recommended the creation of a non profit economic development organization to serve the town. Both reports recommended a group that could bring together the town, the business community, and Virginia Tech.

“We started with a formation group in the fall of 2002 and we talked about what the entity would look like. We developed a mission and a vision statement. We obtained non-profit status. We created a board of directors. We announced the formation in July 2003. I was once the only employee, until 2008, but now I am fortunate enough to have a staff of two, and we really make a great team.”

“Back in 2003, there were quite a few empty storefronts downtown. We talked about the need to create and maintain our place as a vibrant, university town. A lot of what we do focuses on quality of life. It’s what brings people to Blacksburg and makes them want to stay. In effect, quality of life is economic development. Our focus was on commercial and retail development, mainly retail, to fill in spaces.

“When the public sector and private sector can independently make progress, we encourage that. Our organization comes into play when a bridge is needed to bring these two groups together.”

They worked extensively on the interchange project at the area in the south part of town that was abandoned by VDOT when the new interchange was built to link to the bypass. They were able to secure the property as a gift from the state to the town, with the provision that it be used for public good. There were 34 acres of land given. It took ten years, but it was finally deeded to Blacksburg at favorable terms. They have developed one part of it, used by The Crossings. Most of the remaining property will be used for a new town park.

“We’ve also worked on assisting existing businesses and recruiting new businesses to the Town of Blacksburg. We focus our efforts primarily on initiatives along the commercial corridors: North Main, South Main, University City Boulevard, and Downtown. We’ve helped to launch merchants groups for the first three areas, and downtown has long had an established merchants group that serves as an example for the others in many ways. We want the merchants to get to know each other and work on common interests.

“We’ve built a quality of life website for Blacksburg that promotes living, working, and getting around. Stepintoblacksburg.org also features a community events calendar that allows the pubic to post upcoming events in Blacksburg and the surrounding area. We do a visitors guide and distribute 20,000 of them throughout the area and the state. We’re very arts focused. We worked with the Moss Arts Center when it was being developed to be a catalyst and a resource for Blacksburg being recognized as an arts community. We’re on the map in a way we weren’t 10 years ago. When you talk about economic drivers and quality of life, the arts fits right into that.

“We have a Blacksburg Partnership Collaborative for the Arts that serves as a resource for the arts community. A subcommittee of the Collaborative is working on a public art plan to guide our town’s vision for public art going forward. The Partnership is also the group who launched the Gobble de Art Hokie Bird statue project. It continues to be a highly visible public art project and a fund-raiser for the organization.

“We have a young professionals’ initiative. They plan events that are focused on social, community, and professional development.”

When I asked what had changed since she began, Akers said, “I think people are more collaborative now. We are working on projects together. We try to bring people together. One of our greatest regional collaborations right now is working on bringing passenger rail back to the area. Blacksburg will grow, but we need smart, well-planned growth. The town (council) is doing a great job with that. Blacksburg is a great town, cradled by a world class university, rich history, athletics, and the arts. What more could a community aspire to be? We’re very fortunate.”