Heather Condra is Greenfield Main Street’s new executive director.
GREENFIELD — Greenfield Main Street’s new executive director, Heather Condra, knows a thing or two about the importance of supporting small businesses along Main Street.
Her father has run an automotive maintenance shop at the corner of Main and Pratt streets in downtown Greenfield for over 20 years.
On Jan. 2, Condra took over as director of the nonprofit tasked with supporting and promoting those businesses that call downtown Greenfield home.
A certified dental assistant, Condra had worked the past 13 years as a dental assistant and office coordinator at Post Road Family Dentistry on the east side of Indianapolis.
She and her husband, Jimmie, were considering a permanent move to Tennessee last year when she came across the job opportunity with Greenfield Main Street.
The couple eventually decided against the move, and Condra soon found herself with a new career in the nonprofit sector.
Condra graduated from Greenfield-Central High School in 1995 and has lived here all her life.
“Needless to say, my roots run deep,” she said, in a message shared through Greenfield Main Street’s newsletter last week.
“Greenfield is such a wonderful city and still has so much growth ahead of us. I look forward to working with Greenfield Main Street to help our current local merchants succeed, as well as foster a downtown where new businesses want to start their journey,” she shared.
Condra’s hiring is welcome news for Greenfield Main Street’s board of directors, who were without an executive director for several months as they sought new leadership.
“Heather was a perfect fit for (Main Street) because of her dedication to and history with the Greenfield community, (and) her passion to make Greenfield an even better place to live, work and play,” said board president Jenn Wells.
“My vision for Heather is to take our completed strategic plan and put it to work. (Main Street’s) mission is leading the movement to foster a strong and vibrant downtown. We need an executive director to believe and live that mission,” said Wells.
She said it’s now up to Condra to build relationships with merchants and nonprofits in the city of Greenfield to work toward making the downtown commercial district the best it can be. “I have no doubt she will do an amazing job,” she said.
Condra said she loves her new job, and most enjoys the chance to get out and engage with the community, fostering relationships with downtown merchants.
She’s also enjoying the chance to connect and collaborate with other local nonprofits and city and county services.
“I’ve been pleasantly surprised at the relationships within the City of Greenfield …t he way we work with tourism, the way we work with the parks department. Those are all things that go on beyond the scenes that I don’t think people realize,” she said. “You’ve got all of these organizations working to make not just downtown but the city as a whole a great community, and a great place for families to be and visit and get out and do fun things.”
Condra said she’s looking forward to reviving Greenfield Main Street’s presence in the community, with hopes of creating some new programming with the possibility of bringing back some past events.
“I loved the Boos and Brews event, so that’s one thing I want to bring back to Main Street,” she said.
“We’re trying to plan a murder mystery dinner in collaboration with Carnegie’s, and we’re also working with tourism and the parks department to grow the city’s Christmas tree lighting after the parade, to grow the experience to a bigger event. We’re working with vendors so that there’s more to offer when the tree lighting is over, and are looking to add more things throughout the holidays in general,” Condra said.
Greenfield Main Street’s Ho Ho Holiday breakfast, the Boho Artisan market and the Downtown Dollars program have been successful at the holidays and would likely continue, she said.
While she’s been working in the dental field prior to coming to Main Street, Condra said she’s gotten plenty of experience planning and organizing events through her volunteer work with the local chapter of Kappa Kappa Kappa, an international philanthropic sorority.
Being part of the organization for the past seven years, she’s been able to build a support system and a network of contacts who she says can help put Main Street’s strategic plan into action.
She looks forward to helping local businesses generate more foot traffic downtown by helping them promote in-house sales and special events, in addition to bringing merchants together for city-wide events like Shop Small Saturday.
As a teenager growing up in Greenfield in the late 80s to mid-90s, Condra said there wasn’t a lot to bring young people downtown, yet she’s been encouraged to see how much the downtown commercial district has grown over the past decade.
“Now we have Lincoln Square, The Depot, Carnegie’s, Tour of Italy, Sugar Rush, Wooden Bear … we have so many great things downtown,” she said.
“Obviously, in the winter months there’s not a whole lot going on event-wise, but in the spring, summer and fall there’s always something going on for every age range in downtown Greenfield,” she said.
Wells said the Main Street board’s goal is to enhance the historic downtown by promoting business development, beautification and art resources, by supporting and promoting existing business and by serving as a liaison with the City of Greenfield for downtown initiatives.
“With our new strategic plan and executive director, I have a very good feeling about 2024,” she said.
Condra had her first official board meeting this week. She encourages the public to follow Greenfield Main Street on Facebook and sign up for the newsletter at GreenfieldMainStreet.org for the latest updates.
