Rotary Club gets update on downtown projects

The Lebanon Rotary Club received an update on downtown revitalization efforts at its noon luncheon Thursday.
Sarah Angst, executive director of Downtown Lebanon spoke about the organizations’s achievements.
She said the Downtown Business District partners with Lebanon Missouri Main Street Inc,, which was founded in 2019. Downtown Business District borders were established in 1977. She said Lebanon’s downtown had $10 million in taxable sales in 2023, up from $5 million in 2019. This doubled tax receipts to the city from $150,000 to $300,000.
"We are expecting at the end of 2025 to see perhaps $15 million based on a lot of the new businesses we have now,” she said of the taxable sales.
Visits to Downtown Lebanon were up from 595,000 in 2020 to 665,500 in 2024.
Angst said downtown’s biggest draws include opening day of trout season, the Cackle Hatchery Festival, Trick-or-Treat on Commercial and Christmas on Commercial.

Angst said Downtown has awarded $187,666 to improve building facades with 37 projects approved. This has resulted in more than $600,000 in private investments.
She said a downtown pocket park is now under construction. A new art committee has been launched for murals and public art downtown.
In 2019, Lebanon Mo. Main Street was founded. She said this is a nonprofit organization that raised money to do extra things downtown.
”We partner with the City of Lebanon for a lot of things," she said.
She said the most obvious change visible downtown in recent years is facade improvement on many buildings.
She said they are now seeing owners making improvements on their own with assistance.
Currently, a major project is Cafe Jude’s is seeing major change with stucco coming off and the bricks underneath being revealed. "It was covered up in the early 1900s. It's been over a hundred years since anyone has laid eyes on these bricks, so it's really amazing," she said.