Orange Mayor Reg Kidd cut the ribbon alongside councillors and business owners to celebrate the project on Friday afternoon.

Only the final stages of the project are still to be completed.

The McNamara Street development is the first part of a $15 million CBD-wide upgrade to reflect a modern, vibrant and progressive regional city.

The CBD upgrade is to change the way the Orange community and visitors use the centre of the city.

Cr Kidd said he was delighted with the way the precinct looks and thanked businesses for their patience while the street was reinvented.

"When we started the CBD upgrade there was talk of the potential for this work being so much more than a few new planter boxes. Now that the work is done, the community can see how this is going to transform the street as a place for the community to gather, and for local businesses to trade," he said.

The work included water and stormwater upgrades, underground cabling for lighting, kerbs and footpath rebuilds, road and car park resurfacing.

"Then we remade the feel of the street with new trees, new lighting, public art and two pop-up shops. This will encourage people to step off Summer Street and explore a part of the CBD they mightn't have been before," Cr Kidd said.

The council's Employment and Economic Development Committee chairman Tony Mileto said the work has the potential to boost the overall CBD and establish a new niche neighbourhood.

"The FutureCity upgrade is all about making the CBD a place we can all be proud of, an attractive place where we want to come to and stay for longer," Cr Tony Mileto said.

He said something as simple as the new festoon lights suspended over the car park in McNamara Street are going to make it a brilliant venue for a night market, or a music concert or an outdoor movie screening.

"The new public art that's already in place is fantastic and there's more to come when the mural is painted onto the roadway and some surprise images start appearing on local walls next week. Art should be surprising and it's going to make a big contribution to making this street stand out," Cr Mileto said.

"An important development will happen when the first two local businesses open up in the two new pop-up store containers.

"There are a string of businesses already in McNamara Street and I can only expect the passing trade from pedestrians is going to increase as more shoppers take the time to step off the main street and discover this niche precinct."

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