NASH STREET LOFTS PROJECT IN HISTORIC DOWNTOWN WILSON WINS PRESTIGIOUS MAIN STREET AWARD

For Immediate Release: April 17, 2015

Community Smith Contact
Holton Wilkerson
holton@communitysmith.com

RALEIGH – A cooperative venture between CommunitySmith, Rehab Development, Inc., Wilson Downtown Properties, and the City of Wilson that launched in 2013 and was fully leased by 2014 is winning statewide recognition.

The former Western Auto building at 215 Nash Street E, won notice as Best Upper Floor Redevelopment” during the North Carolina Main Street Awards, presented in late March by the NC Department of Commerce. The converted historic building is now Nash Street Lofts, downtown Wilson’s first commercial and residential mixed-use rehabilitation project. The venture has brought new life into a structure that had remained vacant for decades and has had a major, positive impact on the economy of Historic Downtown Wilson.

“CommunitySmith and our partners, Rehab Development, are proud to accept the Main Street Award for our Nash Street Lofts project. The award reaffirms what the 100 percent occupancy at the property already told us,” said CommunitySmith Managing Partner Holton Wilkerson. “The overwhelming, positive response to Nash Street Lofts is a long-term win for the local economy, for the property’s investors and for the state of North Carolina.”

The partnership, composed solely of principals of CommunitySmith and Rehab Development, purchased the 131-year old, three-story building in the heart of Historic Downtown Wilson in 2013. Today the circa 1884 brick building at 215 East Nash Street features 13 units ranging from around 500 to 1,000 square feet. The building is fully-leased.

According to the announcement from the NC Department of Commerce, the North Carolina Main Street program helps small towns preserve their historic fabric. Local resources help participants build on their community’s unique characteristics to create vibrant central business districts. This year’s award winners were chosen by a panel of independent judges from dozens of applications submitted by Main Street participants throughout the state.

About Community Smith

CommunitySmith is a private development organization that specializes in identifying commercial properties in the region that are good candidates for redevelopment. CommunitySmith works cooperatively with public officials, private participants, city staff and community members to identify projects and create partnerships to reimagine and revitalize properties. The organization’s partners have expertise in adaptive reuse and redevelopment, community revitalization, historic preservation, urban infill, economic development, municipal relations, public-private partnerships and building/enabling community equity. For more information see communitysmith.com

About Rehab Development

Rehab Development, Inc. is a design-build development company highly skilled and experienced in the disciplines of downtown Main Street revitalization, historic preservation and successful public/private partnership formation. For more information see www.rehab-development.com