Uptown Marion director departs for Main Street Iowa statewide role, after 7 years

MARION — In 2019, Uptown Marion district Director Brooke Prouty got a lot of flak for saying the city was in its “awkward teenage years.”

Before the city’s journey to the main street it has today, it wasn’t pedestrian friendly or conducive to the outdoor festivities that bring it to life today. There weren’t many businesses anchoring the district, and the historic buildings that brought some charm came with another set of challenges.

But through it all, the district’s sole employee collaborated with the Marion Chamber of Commerce, city officials and a wide swath of stakeholders to watch a new vision unfold for the city’s main drag of shops, boutiques, restaurants and galleries. Through multiple construction seasons, her coordination helped the area not only survive the streetscape project that opened in 2022, but thrive through it.

“We’ve come such a long way,” Prouty said. “We’re in a whole new phase — it’s beautiful. A lot of people are starting to see the investment.”

For seven years, Prouty’s job has been to make Uptown Marion “the place to be.” After overseeing the district through some of its most formative years, she has accepted a new role with the Iowa Economic Development Authority’s Main Street Iowa program to help other towns and cities across Iowa reach their fullest potential, too.

“It’s all going up from here,” she said. “We’re continuing to reach higher and do bigger and better things.”

What she did

  Buy Photo

During her time in Marion, Prouty earned a reputation for her role in the uptown district’s transformation.

The streetscape project was about more than cosmetics — it was about setting up the city’s infrastructure for modern needs and future success. While balancing historic preservation with modernization, incentive programs saw a high utilization rate to upgrade water lines for future upper story housing, make entrances handicap accessible, and install outlets, water, and utilities to make public events a success around the new, curbless streets.

Part of Prouty’s role was to help businesses through dreaded construction periods. Through both the pandemic and the subsequent derecho that damaged nearly every building, she maintained buy-in from business and building owners — all confident they could come out better together.

As the city’s business liaison, she highlighted a key statistic at the streetscape opening: most cities lose about 30 percent of businesses during a major street project. Uptown Marion did not lose any, while simultaneously luring businesses from other areas like downtown Cedar Rapids.

“That’s a big feather in my cap,” she said in reflection.

She helped create or grow popular public events in the growing district while doing grant writing, trash consolidation and business support behind the scenes. She remains proud of a program that allows community members to honor veterans through the sponsorship of streetlight banners displayed from Memorial Day to Veterans Day every year — an idea that has been copied in communities all over.

  Buy Photo

“It’s really great to see all those lining the streets,” she said. “We get calls all the time from people wanting to start a program like that.”

Getting to the point Uptown Marion is at now can take decades for many communities, but Prouty has been privy to most of it over seven years. She credits extensive input and studies sought over the last 20 years in building a foundation for such rapid progress.

“It’s pretty rare that all community leaders are on the same page and pulling in the same direction,” said Prouty, 32. “In the mean time, it was about building up that vision and getting others to see that uptown Marion was a great investment.”

With “a whole ‘nother round of awesomeness” to come with changes to the plaza, reconstruction and planned business openings, she’s confident Marion will continue to grow and evolve after her July 19 departure.

Where she’s going

As a business specialist for the Iowa Economic Development Authority’s Main Street Iowa program, Prouty’s new job will look a lot like her last one on a larger scale. There, she will specialize in economic vitality support for Main Street Iowa districts across the state by looking at what mix of businesses are needed, reviewing market studies and providing business support for the backbone of any main street.

The Main Street Iowa district, administered by the Marion Chamber of Commerce, came to Marion just 10 years ago and has hit outsized accomplishments in a decade. Prouty plans to use seven of those 10 years as a testament to what cities can do in a short time.

As towns across Iowa struggle to maintain vibrancy amid rural depopulation, she said the key to a vibrant downtown or main street is local ownership and experiential interactions.

“They know their community, they know their customers and care a lot about their community,” Prouty said. “There’s also a big change in how people shop and what they shop for. (They) don’t just want to buy a product, (they) want to have an experience, make a day out of it.”

The Cedar Rapids native will continue to live in the City of Five Seasons with her new job. She starts on July 22.

Comments: Features reporter Elijah Decious can be reached at (319) 398-8340 or elijah.decious@thegazette.com.