We are pleased to recognize the Pumpkin Beer Fest, Blue Dust Gastro Pub and ZeroFossil for their festive, exciting new event! The event held last fall was inspired by the Community Life workshop provided through Homestead's participation in the Allegheny Together program. There were over 700 people in attendance...an incredible turnout for a first time event! In order to support and promote Homestead's local businesses, the event offered food that was sold by local establishments: Tin Front Cafe, Smoke BBQ Taqueria, Home Cooking by Donna and by church groups including Second Baptist Church of Homestead and The Community of the Crucified One.

All of the vendors were exceptionally pleased by the event and turnout, and sold out of everything prepared. The Blue Dust Gastro Pub, located at 601 Amity Street, http://www.bluedustpgh.com, went to the trouble and expense of acquiring an off-premises special event extension of their liquor license to enable outdoor beer sales.

Community volunteers provided set-up, clean-up, security, a large tent, and entertainment with 3 local bands performing. The power for the stage and lighting was provided with solar cells and juice boxes, donated and exhibited by ZeroFossil located on 8th Avenue, http://www.zerofossil.com, which required no electrical connection to the power grid.

In addition, a special thank you goes out to Steel Valley Printers, Inc. for promotion of the event. Lloyd Cunningham, owner of Steel Valley Printers, Inc. is also a member of the Homestead Borough Council and Chairman of the Planning Commission. We thank Lloyd not only for his assistance with this event but also for his commitment to Homestead.

All in all the event was a success being both profitable for all the vendors and helping to increase community awareness. Homestead extends congratulations to all those involved in making this a fantastic community event!

We can help you promote YOUR downtown property. Vacant and/or available buildings and storefronts in
your downtown are promoted through Town Center Associates' DowntownProperties.net website, the
only of its kind in our region.

The DowntownProperties.net program is intended to encourage potential business owners to consider YOUR downtown when looking for a location for their business. If you have a property available for sale or lease, you can help promote it for FREE through this program. If you have a business you'd like to ask to consider locating in your downtown, you can email property listings to them directly from the site. Interested business owners can sign up to receive a notification any time a property becomes available in your downtown.  

These great tools are available to help you promote your downtown property through DowntownProperties.net:

• FREE color poster to draw attention to your available property
• FREE listing on DowntownProperties.net with a photograph
• Email Notification, making it easy for you to forward your property listing to anyone interested
• Business District Demographics
• Property Mapping
• Links to town resources and town photos

Your municipality has an online toolkit at www.alleghenytogether.com full of resources to assist in your business district's initiatives. One resource that could be particularly useful in understanding your community market is the online and printable Demographic Reports. You can check out your own town's reports by selecting your town's homepage and then selecting "Demographic Report" on the left side menu. You'll find critical marketing and demographic information, such as the population within a five, ten and fifteen minute drive time radius, income and age statistics and much more.

Another tool in the online toolkit allows you to sort your downtown properties in the "Properties & Photos" database by various categories such as "Property Owner," "Property Address," "Tax Parcel," and "Occupant."

Check out your Downtown Database at www.alleghenytogether.com for these and other great tools for information about your downtown business district.

Great businesses capture foot traffic, maintain their building's historical integrity, and are intensely focused on customer service. PHLF is offering technical assistance to business owners to help them make their businesses the best they can be.

We'll match you up with an interior designer, who can help you draw in more foot traffic through an eye-catching window display, improve the interior layout of your space, and offer suggestions for new paint colors or window treatments. This is a great opportunity for your business to get recommendations from a design professional, free of charge.

Have you wanted to improve the look of your building, but not sure where to start? We can discuss improvements with you that will make your business stand out (in a good way!) and generate more foot traffic.  We can work with any budget, big or small, to make a positive visual impact.

To set up an appointment, please contact David Farkas at 412-471-5808. We look forward to hearing from you.