“We had too many spreadsheets with different data sets that were not always consistently updated,” says Hannah Davis, development manager for the City of Florence. “We needed one central place for all our information.”
In 2018, Davis learned about Maestro Community Manager at the National Main Street Conference in Kansas City. A self-described “data junkie,” Davis was impressed with the program’s capabilities. By the end of 2019, Davis assumed a new position that included responsibility for managing data. She immediately implemented Maestro.
—Hannah Davis, Development Manager, City of Florence
By early 2020, Florence Main Street was using Maestro as a training and onboarding tool to help a new employee learn about the district. “Maestro gave our new employee a great opportunity to be ‘on the road,’ building the contacts and property side of Maestro,” Davis says.
Then the pandemic shut down the world. But rather than hitting pause, Davis and her team took that time to capitalize on Maestro’s capabilities. “Our data set was so scattered so we took the opportunity in 2020 to use Maestro as a tool to get to know the district. Some board members and staff jumped in and populated Maestro with every stitch of data we had.”
As the Florence Main Street team dove in, they first focused on using Maestro primarily for reinvestment statistics. Maestro became the central source to save historical information about building improvements made over time, who owned the buildings, how they were used, and other property information. Eventually, the team began using Maestro to maintain lists of contacts and to keep track of public improvements.
Davis appreciates the properties section feature the most. “One of my roles as Main Street director is knowing what assets we have at any given moment. It’s invaluable to have a one-stop, comprehensive place to look up buildings and see all we need to know about the district. It allows us to have on-thefly conversations with developers about a building’s history, changes over time, and current usage. Having all this information in one place also saves time and gives us a more polished appearance that developers find attractive.”