In February, Patti Wilkerson told WSET that she had watched three downtown shops close over the past year from her post at Frederic's Flowers. When storefronts sit empty, she said, foot traffic slows. In the same report, Eden Chaffin at Bridge Street Cafe said the cafe lost regulars when the bank closed, and lost more as other businesses shut down.
Three months later, the Town of Bedford released a number that seems to contradict them. Downtown recorded more than 5.4 million visits between April 2024 and April 2026.
Both accounts hold up. The 2026 public record on downtown Bedford shows the town treating its storefront problem as a question of buildings and owners rather than a shortage of people. Two very different plans for those empty windows have also landed on ideas that echo one historic building, and that building is already open on the corner of Main and Bridge.
Five Million Visits and an Opportunity Gap
The visit figure comes from the presentation for the Town's Downtown Inventory and Real Estate Redevelopment Strategy. The town runs that effort with Place + Main Advisors, a Michigan-based downtown consulting firm, along with Virginia Main Street and regional and state partners. The same presentation identified what the town called "significant retail and restaurant opportunity gaps" in the Bedford market. It found strong demand for more dining, shopping and specialty retail downtown.
Set that next to Wilkerson's three closures and you get the actual puzzle. Plenty of people pass through, there is spending the market isn't capturing, and the storefronts still go dark. Joe Borgstrom, a principal with Place + Main Advisors, described what the numbers can and can't show. "We've done a retail market analysis. We know from a numbers perspective what works, but we can't get down to that granular level, and we don't know what locals think," he told WDBJ.
Filling that gap in local knowledge became the work of 2026.
Seven Months on Main Street, in Order
The year moved from complaint to inventory to competing visions.
- February 19. WSET reports the concerns from Frederic's Flowers and Bridge Street Cafe. Town public information officer Woody Watts says council is moving toward a public hearing on vacant properties, and that one idea under discussion is a list of available downtown buildings. No hearing date had been set.
- Late May. The Downtown Bedford Community Walking Visioning Tour takes residents, business owners and property owners block by block through downtown. Attendees stick notes on buildings saying what they'd like to see inside.
- Same week. The town says it has identified five to six properties where owners are willing to participate.
- June 3. A WSET follow-up on Main Street vacancies has Watts pointing out several empty storefronts the town sees as openings for entrepreneurs.
- September 17–18. Community members meet to discuss a separate proposal from the Rev. Phillip Parker to rebuild part of downtown around Bedford's World War II history. WSET reported it on September 18.
The town's process and Parker's proposal grew up separately. Their wish lists overlap almost entirely.
The Sticky Notes and the Soda Fountain
The May walk produced a specific list. Borgstrom ran through some of the notes for WDBJ. "Several bookshops up here, kitchen supplies, ice cream parlor, soda shop." Looking at one of the larger spaces, a resident suggested a coffee-and-play concept like one in Forest, "where the kids can play, and parents can get coffee." The town's own summary adds bakeries, outdoor outfitters, restaurants, family activity spaces and boutique retail. Watts told WSET that restaurants drew the most suggestions.
Four months later, Parker's proposal ran down a list in the same spirit, filtered through the 1940s: a patriotic-themed bakery, a 1940s-style soda shop, a recreated Western Union telegraph office and a restored old duckpins bowling alley. He models the idea on places such as Colonial Williamsburg and Leavenworth, Washington.
"Bedford was a bustling commercial focus for the whole country. That's not going to come back. That's gone. You have to have another reason, and this is one possibility that should be seriously considered."
Rev. Phillip Parker, speaking to WSET
Downtown Bedford once had both a soda fountain and a telegraph office under one roof. Green's Drugstore was built in 1886 on the northeast corner of East Main and North Bridge Streets. According to the Bedford Boys Tribute Center's history page, it ran a soda fountain known for its strawberry ice cream float, and the young men of town worked and spent their time there. In July 1944, Western Union operator Elizabeth Teass took the casualty telegrams for the Bedford Boys in a small telegraph office inside the store. The Tribute Center gives the date as July 17. A Clio historical entry gives July 16 and says the original teletype machine is on display.
That corner is not one of the vacancies. The Bedford Boys Tribute Center now occupies the old drugstore at 108 North Bridge Street. Founders Ken and Linda Parker opened it in 2019, and WDBJ reported that it expanded in January 2025. In June 2026 the center marked its seventh anniversary and was promoting a new virtual-reality film. The bowling alley in Parker's list is harder to place. A 2012 WSET report described a former bowling alley above an old bookstore on South Bridge Street. That report didn't call it a duckpin alley, and none of the sources confirm whether it is the one Parker means.
So the most specific ideas in both 2026 visions have a historic precedent on a corner that has been occupied for seven years. The open question is the vacant buildings around it.
The Short List of Participating Properties
Filling a storefront takes a building owner willing to lease or sell. The May walk came with a count of the properties where that was already true. The town identified five to six properties where owners are willing to participate. Mary Zirkle, the town's Director of Planning and Community Development, told WDBJ the town wants "to be here for everyone, but we also especially want to be here for those who want to do something with their buildings now."
The consultant's stated goal is about staying power more than a quick fill. "What we want to have is successful businesses that are in them because they become long-term tenants," Borgstrom told WSET. "At the end of the day, we want small business owners to make money, we want the property owners to make money and we want the community to be able to make money." Recommendations presented at the walk included proactive retail recruitment, more downtown housing, better building maintenance standards, and stronger marketing for downtown businesses and properties.
Parker's version depends on even more people. Town Council member Stacey Hailey supported revitalizing downtown but told WSET that community members, business owners and county government all need to be involved. "You take any of that out of the equation, it won't work, because everybody has to be on the same page between all the stages," she said. Parker is forming a committee to write a comprehensive plan to bring to town leaders.
Still Unconfirmed in the 2026 Coverage
This year's local reporting leaves several things open.
- New tenants. None of the 2026 local coverage names a new downtown business moving into one of the vacant storefronts.
- The buyers. The June reporting says downtown storefronts were being purchased but doesn't name the buildings or the buyers.
- The next step. After the walk, the town said it would compile the feedback to shape next steps. The local reports from May through September don't describe a final Place + Main report or an implementation timeline.
- The public hearing. The February report said the hearing on vacant properties had no set date.
The town tracks its progress on its Downtown Action Strategy page. The next concrete marker for downtown will be the first of those five or six participating properties reopening with a named tenant behind the glass.
If you own a building on Main or Bridge Street, or you're weighing what one of these storefronts could become, Rucker Wynne follows downtown Bedford's revitalization closely and can walk through what a historic commercial property is worth in today's market. Schedule a Consultation.
