New Bern has as soon as once more earned the Foremost Avenue America Accreditation for 2026, making it the forty sixth consecutive 12 months receiving the designation.
The accreditation is the best tier of recognition for native business district revitalization applications with measurable downtown enchancment efforts, ample group occasions and financial progress and preservation.
New Bern is certainly one of 49 communities in North Carolina that obtained the Foremost Avenue America Accreditation standing for 2026, in line with the N.C. Division of Commerce.
Swiss Bear, a Foremost Avenue nonprofit group, has led New Bern’s progress efforts since 1979, establishing New Bern as one of many authentic founding North Carolina Foremost Avenue communities in 1980.
Swiss Bear continues to handle the annual MumFest, New Bern’s three-day downtown pageant, as a supply of operational funding and recurrently recruits group volunteers.
The revitalization of downtown New Bern since Hurricane Florence hit in September 2018, inflicting roughly $100 million in residential and business property injury all through the town, was a protracted uphill battle, in line with the New Bern Resiliency and Hazard Mitigation Plan of 2022.
Swiss Bear helped help downtown restoration with applications, together with its Property Enhancement Grant, an identical grant that gives funding for facade enhancements, signage and landscaping.
Additionally, in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Swiss Bear managed a small enterprise mortgage program with the New Bern Space Chamber of Commerce and native automotive dealerships. This system established an emergency mortgage fund for unbiased companies throughout the New Bern metropolis limits to assist companies stand up to pandemic-related restrictions.
Newer efforts embrace downtown facade beautification, structural enhancements to historic roads and buildings, ongoing collaboration with private and non-private companions, in addition to facilitating the implementation of recent companies by its Property Enhancement Grant.
Karen Sullivan, Swiss Bear government director, mentioned the efforts immediately contributed to securing the Foremost Avenue America accreditation once more.
“Via a strategic steadiness of financial growth, historic preservation, enterprise help and community-focused programming, Swiss Bear has strengthened downtown New Bern’s place for many years as each a vacation spot and an financial engine for the area,” Sullivan mentioned.
This 12 months, Swiss Bear plans to prioritize development of the Downtown/5 Factors Grasp Plan course of, which helps housing redevelopment efforts, in addition to helping with transformational initiatives, increasing enterprise engagement initiatives and delivering high-quality occasions that proceed to strengthen New Bern’s identification and tradition.
“Swiss Bear stays centered on guaranteeing that downtown New Bern continues to thrive as a vibrant, welcoming and economically resilient place for generations to return,” Sullivan mentioned.
To be able to obtain accreditation, Swiss Bear needed to reveal a confirmed monitor report of success throughout six efficiency areas that embrace broad-based group dedication to revitalization, inclusive management and organizational capability, diversified funding and sustainable program operations, strategy-driven programming, preservation-based financial growth and demonstrated affect and outcomes.
“Communities throughout our state proceed to attain excellence in financial growth as they reveal what’s potential when folks come along with imaginative and prescient and function,” mentioned N.C. Commerce Secretary Lee Lilley. “Their dedication is a reminder that sturdy downtowns gasoline prosperity and are constructed by ardour, perseverance, and partnership.”
In 2025, North Carolina Foremost Avenue and Small City Foremost Avenue downtown districts leveraged $518.7 million in private and non-private funding and netted 288 new companies and 1,925 new jobs, in line with the N.C. Division of Commerce.
“Our Foremost Avenue Accredited communities have demonstrated substantial achievement, pushed by a transparent imaginative and prescient for resilient downtowns,” mentioned Liz Parham, director of the N.C. Foremost Avenue and Rural Planning Heart.
“Their work displays a deep dedication to excellence and a perception in what their communities can accomplish by collaboration, willpower, and ahead‑trying management.”
