May 4—SOMERSET, Pa. — When the head of Pennsylvania’s Department of Community and Economic Development sipped on a Great Day Juice Co. smoothie Friday, he wasn’t just getting a taste of Uptown Somerset.

DCED Secretary Rick Siger’s visit to close out Small Business Week was also a chance to highlight the neighborhood’s recent progress — and the ways in which DCED could soon offer more help.

“Small businesses are the backbone of Pennsylvania’s economy. These are the people building our communities,” Siger said, adding that it’s crucial that Pennsylvania acts as a partner to invest in main streets across the state.

Siger joined borough and county leaders, members of community development group Somerset Inc., and other Uptown Somerset partners on a tour of the business district.

He spoke outside Cascio’s Fruit Market, a neighborhood mainstay at 106 years old, and visited new additions, including Great Day Juice Co. and Byers Botanicals, to see how collaborative public and private investments have brought new life to buildings, revamped facades and eliminated next-door blight.

Somerset Inc. Director Regina Coughenour said the investment-driven Neighborhood Partnership Program has helped 17 businesses open, carved out walkable trails and renovated 23 facades.

A block or so away, she said, the Next Step Center is renovating another site into 16 updated apartments meant to serve people in transition who would otherwise be homeless.

It also enabled Uptown advocates to acquire and demolish a blighted West Main Street property and replace it with the open-air SoCo Farmers’ Market.

And this summer, a partnership with Cascio’s Fruit Market will allow the Summer Lunch Program to dish out 15,000 meals to needy youths.

“That is the impact of Main Street investment,” Coughenour said.

State Sen. Pat Stefano, R-Fayette, said that’s part of the power of downtown investment — especially when it comes to small businesses.

Community-minded business leaders don’t just look out for one another. They also invest in one another, he said, added that a dollar spent at a local business ends up being spent three more times in that community, on average.

“It’s so important we take care of each other,” said Stefano, whose family ran a small printing company for decades in their Fayette County hometown, “because we build on each other’s strengths.”

Statewide DCED initiatives such as the Keystone Communities Program and regional Small Business Development Centers are already providing outside investment and resources to help business owners succeed, Siger said.

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Through a fresh approach on programs that have already shown success, the state can help local advocates build greater success, he said.

Siger said Gov. Josh Shapiro’s proposed budget would continue those initiatives, while also adding a $25 million Main Street Matters program that he said will provide added flexibility for communities to prioritize programs they see as transformative.

That would quadruple the competitive funding dollars available for projects such as housing, a downtown-changing “anchor building,” or restoring blocks of facades along main streets, he said.

Main Street Matters funds could also support downtown housing, Siger said.

“Our goal is to create synergy,” he said.

“The importance of the investments through this economic development initiative are essential to the growth of downtowns and increasing small business opportunities to keep our community viable,” Somerset Borough Council President Pam Ream said.

“Downtowns with thriving small businesses are at the heart of a small community and those who live in our small towns,” she said.

Siger’s tour, which also included a stop at Jar: The Zero Waste Store, marked the completion of a weeklong trip that included stops in Bethlehem and Hazleton, among others.

His Somerset stop was also an unlikely reunion at Cascio’s.

Siger’s parents operated a wholesale produce business in the Pittsburgh area for decades that forged a long relationship with Cascio’s as an early customer. He and Cascio’s owner Jodi Brougher swapped stories about the connection Friday.

“I called my dad … and of course,” Siger said with a laugh, “they’ve known them my entire life.”