The holidays are upon us and that means another year is drawing to a close. In many ways, it exceeded expectations. Last year at this time I was excited to see CMSC had grown to a staff of four. I knew 2013 would bring a lot of challenges and opportunities to us, especially as we were gearing up to really get in to the heart of our Come Home to Downtown program. Now I'm happy to report that not only did we successfully complete the first year of our Come Home to Downtown program, we're getting ready to choose two new communities and building owners to work with as we begin Year 2, having renewed our contract with CHFA. We also completed our final report and were able to share the lessons we learned at the SNEAPA Conference in October and we'll continue spreading the word when we present the program at the APA National Conference in Atlanta next spring. As you know, we were also recently awarded the 2013 Award for Education and Outreach from CCAPA for this program. But the best part is knowing we're truly helping these property owners navigate the complex yet critical world of mixed-use development. As we move forward, continuing to assist towns and municipalities while striving to develop new financing sources, the lessons we learn will be able to help many more of Connecticut's communities to bring additional housing and commercial ventures downtown, restoring vitality to our social centers. To all the people who helped us launch this program, our consultants - Bill Crosskey and Dave Sousa; my staff - Susan Westa, Christine Schilke and Kimberley Parsons-Whitaker; our colleagues at CHFA, namely Diane Smith and Jon Cabral, along with all the property owners, local officials and downtown organizations in our pilot communities, I say thanks for making this a great program.

We also added several new members to our network this year. With our additional staff we were able to resume networking events, hosting a luncheon at Café Colt and an excellent panel discussion and walking tour of Storrs Center. Thank you especially to CEDAS and the Mansfield Downtown Partnership for making these great events.

My Board and co-workers at CMSC also helped make this a great year, full of activity and forward progress. Not only did CMSC's Board fully support our work, both financially and organizationally, they also advocated on our behalf, helping us raise funds and championing our work among the media, peers, the public and more. My staff did a great job keeping up with the demands caused (happily) by our rapid growth, somehow managing to do more work and meet more goals than perhaps any of us thought was realistically possible.

These are just a few of the many accomplishments we achieved in 2013 by working together. Seeing all that we've done I'm excited to enter 2014 with a renewed sense of purpose, eager to continue our good work helping Connecticut create great downtowns and Main Streets. I hope all of you have a joyous holiday season and a Happy New Year. We'll see you here, back at work, in our next edition of Downtown Update.