The Aurora Downtown Project is a volunteer-powered Missouri Main Street organization — and we’re proud of what this community has done. Here’s the short version of what we’ve done.
2025 in numbers
Our 2025 Annual Report captured a year of real progress — more businesses, more volunteers, and a downtown that’s clearly on the move:
- 7 net new businesses opened in the downtown district.
- 1,235 volunteer hours (580 at events, 291 from the board, 364 from committees) — a volunteer-powered operation.
- 774 parking spaces counted and mapped so we can make downtown easier to visit.
- 2 building owners connected with architect services to restore their facades to historic condition.
We put downtown back on the calendar
- Farmers Market Fridays — a summer market series on 1st & 3rd Fridays with around 20 vendors, live music, and downtown stores staying open late. In 2025 the market launched and grew into a real weekly draw.
- Community Christmas — our signature holiday event: vendors up and down downtown, an ice rink, Gingerbread Lane, Santa, and the City tree lighting — backed by more than $11,000 in community sponsorships in 2025. Even a last-minute weather move to the Armoury didn’t stop it.
- Drives For Downtown golf tournament — an annual three-person scramble at Honey Creek Golf Club raising money for revitalization — including seed money for Madison Square Park.
- Storefront Stories & the Chocolate Stroll — free walking events that get neighbors inside downtown businesses.
- Vintage Market on Madison — new for 2026: a one-day outdoor vintage and antiques market alongside the Oak Park car show.
- Christmas on Display — a storefront decorating competition, won in 2025 by new business Front Porch Mercantile.
- Veterans Ceremony — a downtown tribute honoring our veterans.
We brought in outside investment
- USDA grant services — selected through our partnership with Missouri Main Street Connection, bringing professional planning and vision work to downtown Aurora.
- A professional downtown brand — the Historic Aurora / ADP brand identity, developed with national Main Street consultants, now used across signage, events, and marketing.
- A Highway 60 billboard — catching passing traffic and pointing it downtown, funded by our sponsors’ support.
- Catalyst Aurora — a community development event with Missouri Extension, Innovate SOMO, and the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
- An MSU planning study — we hosted the MSU Planning & Zoning class, which produced a feasibility study for downtown.
- A grant writer — hired to review and strengthen our grant applications.
We made downtown more inviting
- Downtown Cleanup Day — a community-led effort in the streets and alleys.
- Blooms for Downtown — flowers planted across existing downtown planters, plus new planters purchased, set, and planted on Madison Street with help from a CFO grant.
- Veteran’s Banners — honoring hometown heroes on downtown light poles.
- Madison Square Park — a popup pocket park led by the Design Committee, funded in part by the Aurora Area Community Foundation and Drives for Downtown.
We back downtown businesses
- A free interactive map & directory of 75+ local businesses on this website, plus step-by-step guides for starting a business and investing downtown.
- Marketing seminars — free training for local business owners on getting their message out.
- Available-property listings — connecting building owners with entrepreneurs who want in.
- A highway billboard — pointing out-of-town traffic from the highway to our downtown.
- Downtown Bingo — a fun way to shop small for Small Business Saturday.
We show up
- Volunteer crews — spring cleanups, banner hangs, event setup and teardown — more than a thousand hours every year.
- Quarterly newsletters and annual reviews — reporting our progress to the community, in public, every year.
Want to be part of the next item on this list? Get involved — volunteer, donate, or become an annual sponsor.