Meet Washington’s main street manager, downtown Shana Brown
“Downtown Shana Brown” fills the historic George Washington Hotel lobby with a sweet tune after lunch on a recent weekday. Brown, main street manager of the Washington Business District, and her team have a wonderful working relationship with the hotel and other local businesses.
This August marks two years since Shana Brown, pictured here in the historic George Washington Hotel, took the reigns as main street manager for the Washington Business District Authority. Brown, a champion of community, is most proud of pairing local businesses with the perfect brick and mortar along Washington’s Main Street and its tributaries.
For Shana Brown, main street manager for the Washington Business District Authority, family comes first, and always will. Brown, who enjoys traveling, reading and still plays piano, often arrives to events and interviews with her husband Ben and their three kids.
Shana Brown is finishing a meeting with George Washington Hotel general manager Robert Plutto when I arrive at Kouzina, the hotel’s Greek bistro, for our interview, so I grab a seat and wait less than a minute for the Washington Business District Authority’s main street manager to join me.
Brown is wearing a striking pink jacket over a black dress and a bold necklace, has already lunched and is finishing an iced coffee when she greets me with a hug and a warm smile. She tells me cheerfully her kids will join us shortly; they’re helping decorate for an upcoming gala before Brown heads to an event where she’s guest bartending that evening.
Shana Brown makes being busy look easy.
“One person can’t do anything on their own,” said Brown, known for her inexhaustible energy and enthusiasm for downtown revitalization. “I have the best board in the world. We have amazing people doing amazing things. The fortunate thing for me is that we have all of these wonderful partnerships and all of these wonderful businesses and organizations throughout the downtown. They’ve just been incredibly gracious and just totally accepted me from the beginning. All of us are kind of just finally pulling in the right direction. Everybody’s going the same place, and it’s starting to show, so we’re really excited about that.”
Five years ago, you might see courthouse employees walking to or from their cars if you stopped downtown on a weekday afternoon. When I meet Brown at Kouzina, the place is filled, largely in part because of her role as main street manager.
Brown didn’t set out to be the catalyst for change in downtown Washington and never asked for the title “Downtown Shana Brown.” The Chartiers-Houston graduate and East Washington resident fell happily into the position.
“I graduated high school and went to the University (of Maryland) for undergrad. I never thought I was coming back – you know, the stereotypical 18-year-old taking on the world,” Brown laughed, adding she met her husband while studying law in Atlanta. “We had our own real estate firm, and then we had our first daughter. We made it about six months before I was like, I need to go home. I want my mom. You want your kids to be raised, at least I did, similarly to how you were raised. There’s really no place like home, and Western Pennsylvania is such an amazing place.”
Shana and her husband Ben settled in East Washington and welcomed two more children into the world. With every kid, Brown, who taught law classes locally, offered fewer and fewer courses, she said, shifting her focus to full-time motherhood and volunteer work.
“Fast forward: my youngest was four-and-a-half, he was getting ready to start kindergarten. I’m looking down the scope of OK, I’m going to have my days free again,” Brown said. “This position just happened to become available. At that point, I was at Chicco (Baccello) three times a week, Emerald Valley was here, and I was going there and The Table and President’s Pub. I was very much in love with our entire downtown already. I had formed some of those relationships before even starting this position. It was just a natural segue.”
When Brown, who said she’s fortunate to be in the position, took the reigns as main street manager, it was August and plans for Small Business Saturday (celebrated nationally the Saturday after Thanksgiving) were in full swing. Christmas wasn’t far behind.
With a little help from her friends, her board, local business owners and community partners, Small Business Saturday was a success and Christmas, magic.
“You learn each year. You definitely learn as you go. You learn from your mistakes, you learn from what worked, what didn’t work, but it’s only because of those community partnerships and everybody holding each other up that it’s able to thrive and grow,” she said.
Thriving and growing, that’s downtown Washington today, two years after Brown and her unbridled enthusiasm, passion and can-do attitude joined the WBDA. Since that first Small Business Saturday, Brown and her team have worked with the community to host additional successes, like the first-ever Local Love Cocoa Tour in February and third-annual Washington Goes Irish event in March, which all promote the area businesses and eateries
Brown is looking forward to adding more events to the Washington calendar, starting with the Running of the Wools this May.
“My first chairman, Jack Galack, is one of the most gracious and supportive people. He was exactly what I needed when I first started. He was in my corner the entire way. There’s not many people that whenever I go and say hey, we have an agricultural history; we’re going to run sheep down the road, there’s not many people who would jump on board, but my board did. I have to give them all credit because, like Scott Putnam, the mayor, he was 100% behind it,” Brown said.
While drawing crowds to downtown Washington for events is exceptionally fun, it isn’t what Brown is most proud of. Her work includes administrative tasks, like running social media, applying for grant funding and assisting new businesses in securing leases. That work often extends late into the night, long after Brown has put her children to sleep.
It’s work that often comes to fruition without much fanfare Brown counts among her most significant accomplishments.
“I’ll tell you a success story that I’ve had that I’m super proud of as a result of the community relationships that we have,” Brown said, recounting how she befriended Lauren LaGreca, former manager of the Ignite business incubator and how that business friendship opened the doors for a burgeoning business to root itself in a chic spot along Main Street.
“We had somebody – Jess Gardo, the Cheerful Balloon – go through Ignite. She had the back part of Ignite and was just kind of outgrowing it. Lauren’s like, we’ll talk to Shana, see what’s even available, see if we can make it work. Because of that community relationship I had with Ignite and with Lauren … we were able to find (Jess) a brick-and-mortar downtown. That’s what I consider the success,” Brown said. “Or when new businesses call, and they’re like, we’re looking for a spot, we heard Washington is coming around. That’s what drives me.”
When she isn’t breathing life into downtown Washington, a feat that often involves Brown’s husband Ben and their three children, who join us at the end of our interview to help their mom decorate for a gala the following day, Downtown Shana Brown enjoys non-work family time, reading (she loves nonfiction) and traveling.
“They’re usually tagging along, which is another great part of this position because, at the end of the day, my family is my top priority, and they’re everything. To have a position where I’m able to bring the kids and involve them – you know, I’m promoting community. What better way to promote the community than to practice what you preach and bring your family?” she said, adding her kids think she’s famous when she appears in print, on television or her voice travels over the airwaves.
Of course, she isn’t always working; Brown does have fun stepping away from her position to spend quality time with her family, and traveling is one of her favorite family activities. But she really does love her job.
“I love to travel. I love being with the family and traveling with the family,” she said. “We’re all over the place. A lot of my inspiration for, my vision of, downtown comes from places that I’ve been. Fortunately or unfortunately, I don’t know,” she laughed, “even when we go on vacation, it’s constantly on. Like, hey, this would be a great idea. Let’s take a picture, take it back and propose this. But travel is a huge part of what decompresses me, and that’s a huge hobby and passion of mine.”
Brown is carrying her passion through the end of her second year as main street manager and beyond. She’s looking forward to continued growth downtown, excited to finish projects in the works and bring to life dreams.
In partnership with Washington and Jefferson College, a President’s Pathway, which connects the campus to the business district, is taking shape; the Main Street Farmers Market is blossoming; and funding promises to keep the area’s history alive.
“In January this year, I said, this will be the year for downtown. We have so many things coming to fruition and into the works. The LSA committee just awarded us a $700,000 grant for downtown improvements,” Brown said. “I would love to … make it so that we do not have vacancies or at least a very small number of vacancies. Be able to find funding for potential and prospective businesses so that when they come in here, they’re able to keep the aesthetic. I would love to have funding for interior renovations.”
Brown, who loves history and loves Washington, said she wants downtown Washington to be a destination.
“The tip of the iceberg is where we’re at right now,” she said. “Washington, it’s so unique, and it’s so beautiful. These buildings are just gorgeous and historical, and we want to keep that. That’s our niche. We have two gorgeous historical landmarks within our business district: the Lemoyne House, they’re expanding, and also the Bradford House, they’re doing amazing. I can’t even think of any place else that has that. We have the most beautiful courthouse in Pennsylvania. Our assets are historical buildings. I love our local history. Working with Clay (Kilgore, historical museum director/curator), it’s kind of opened my eyes up to just how special this region is and all the weird, quirky things that nobody else has. But dear goodness, Washington, Pa., has it. It’s really amazing.”
Amazing, too, thanks to Brown’s vision and the assistance of enthusiastic local business owners and the community at large, is Washington, Pa.’s future.
For more on the Washington Business District Authority, follow on Instagram or Facebook at “downtownwashingtonpa.”