The Cabot is a regional arts destination that is an anchor in the Beverly Arts District which is centered on Cabot Street in the Main Streets district.
Cabot Street has a more traditional small main streets character with smaller scale buildings and traffic that is slightly slower than Rantoul Street in the district.
CivicMoxie created walking loops and suggested public art locations and exercise distance markers to help encourage pedestrians to explore the large Main Street district and enhance visibility for businesses at the edges of the area.
The Cabot is a regional arts destination that is an anchor in the Beverly Arts District which is centered on Cabot Street in the Main Streets district.
RAPID RECOVERY PROGRAM: BEVERLY, MA
Enhancing connectivity, arts, and business support to benefit businesses and support transit-oriented development in the district
The Beverly Main Streets district wrestles with a number of issues, including the sheer size of the downtown, making it unlikely that visitors would walk throughout the whole district or even from Rantoul Street to Cabot Street without strong incentives. While Beverly Main Streets has been hosting annual events and, with the City of Beverly, launched the Beverly Arts District in 2014, additional marketing efforts and provision of programs and services for businesses in the downtown would require more capacity. CivicMoxie was contracted through the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development’s MA Downtown Initiative Program to work with the City of Beverly and the Beverly Main Streets district to create recommendations to address these issues.
CivicMoxie’s area of focus included both Cabot and Rantoul Streets, running approximately 2.1 miles from where Cabot and Rantoul Streets meet on the southern end of downtown to Elliott on the north to form a large oval-shaped district. The study area is a donut, which focuses on the two main streets of the downtown (the interior of the BMS district is mostly residential). Rantoul and Cabot Streets have very different characteristics with Cabot Street being a more traditional New England main street with an abundance of pedestrian-scale features and historic buildings, while Rantoul Street is wider with newer mixed-use development and existing light industrial buildings near the Beverly Depot commuter rail station. Both streets have fewer businesses on the southern end of the district, where businesses are more auto-oriented and where residential uses have a greater presence.
Recommendations in this RRP include using public art to signify the gateway entrances to the district, coordinating public events and activities to draw visitors to walk and explore other parts of the district, and forming a Business Improvement District (BID) to support marketing, programming, and other technical assistance and physical improvement initiatives. Employing strategies to expand activities throughout the district to elevate and support businesses beyond the central parts of downtown will provide local events for residents and visitors to enjoy. Beverly has many strong components for a robust commercial district, and this Plan identifies areas of continued coordination and collaboration between Beverly Main Streets, businesses, and the City that will be needed to execute cohesive strategies to support goals.
Project type:
Arts and culture, community revitalization, corridor / main streets, downtown / district plan, placemaking, urban design
