A state-wide nonprofit that focuses on community and economic development is expanding its efforts to include a nationally recognized historic neighborhood in Albuquerque. Launched exactly four decades ago, the New Mexico MainStreet organization spurs building and business projects on an almost street level, obtaining funding and grants for construction and renovation projects. To date, the group has coordinated its efforts with 32 separate MainStreet Districts and another dozen defined Arts and Cultural Districts. Now the group has announced a new initiative that will take in the Historic Old Town Albuquerque neighborhood, a part of the city that dates to the 1700s and includes the more than 230-year-old San Felipe de Neri Church. In a statement, J.J. Mancini, president of the Historic Old Town Association, noting that Albuquerque itself is 318 years old, said the partnership with New Mexico MainStreet will give the neighborhood the tools to "build a culturally significant, historically preserved, and vibrant Old Town Albuquerque that New Mexico will be proud of for the next 318 years." Daniel Gutierrez, director of New Mexico MainStreet, said the statewide organization is "excited to work with the Historic Old Town Albuquerque on promotion, economic vitality, and preservation elements to enhance their community." The new partnership between New Mexico MainStreet and Historic Old Town Albuquerque will more specifically focus on use of NMMS's Urban Neighborhood Commercial Corridor Initiative which focuses on projects centered on job and business creation, as well as property investment. Among the many initiatives that the New Mexico MainStreet program has taken on through the decades, one of its most prominent has been securing funding for the upgrading and preservation of historic movie houses and theaters across the state. This year the group successfully obtained a $500,000 capital outlay award for work on the Lyceum Theater in Clovis, and another $400,000 for the Lea Theater in Lovington. By Garry Boulard
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