Downtown redux

Rana Klein answered my online question about readers' wish lists for downtown Amarillo in two words: A river.

Believe it or not, a river -- or waterfront of some sort -- made it into a draft of a 1991 Strategic Action Plan for Downtown Amarillo.

I dusted off the copy I had from covering that revitalization effort (kindly referred to around here as decades of "instutional memory") and realized the ideas that a consultant and residents here came up with back then aren't too far from what wound up in the 2008 Downtown Strategic Action Plan being pursued now.

A different consultant with a different resident committee also sees the need to connect our downtown entertainment corridor, Polk Street, with Amarillo City Hall and the Amarillo Civic Center complex.

Both plans proposed to do that with greenspace and sidewalks that will attract pedestrians.
There's no river in the 2008 plan, but there's the idea that the connector should be inviting.

So, before I give you a recap of the wish list developed in our Facebook discussion two weeks ago, I'll ask you to answer this:

Do you work downtown? Do you walk between appointments and to lunch? What would it take to turn you into a more willing pedestrian?

Here's the wish list -- add to it if you want.

• Outdoor tejano music festival
• A baseball stadium/NOT a baseball stadium (comments mixed for and against)
• Better shopping area
• Jack in the Box, Five Guys Burgers & Fries, Dave & Buster's
• Night life
• More sidewalk cafes, coffee houses, bakeries
• A river
• More entertainment options "especially for the older crowd who has outgrown the 'club scene'"
• Drive-up coffee shop
• Regular movie theaters, dinner movie theaters, live dinner theater
• Comedy clubs
• A water fountain/feature where kids can play
• Jazz or piano bars
• A place to buy fuel
• A convenience store
• More neon

Salad days

It's silly. I wrote that headline without even knowing the origin of the phrase.

But when I looked it up, I found it fits our Amarillo downtown redevelopment efforts thus far.

The meaning: days of youth and inexperience. Translated: We're new at this revitalization game.

But Santa Fe, N.M., isn't. And we could learn a lot by looking to the West.

I viewed the New Mexico's City Different through different eyes on a recent trip. And then I wondered: What downtown changes might make Amarillo, if not a City Different, at least a city with a vibrant enough core to draw visitors, whether from neighborhoods across town or across the region?

Several downtown revitalization groups are trying to figure that out, too. Might it be the aquatic center that's been a topic of possibility?

What features would persuade you to stay downtown rather than fleeing at the end of a business day? What would make you load up the kids and drive in on a weekend?

I snapped this shot at the Santa Fe Farmer's Market, which now draws thousands to the newly redeveloped Railyard District several times a week. Local produce farmers. Flower growers. Raisers of grass-fed beef and organic chickens. Fresh eggs, creamy goat cheese, homespun yarn. Guitarists, cellists and other musicians.

The entire indoor and outdoor marketplace bustles, a showcase for producers and artisans. Chefs in white jackets select vegetables alongside families with kids in strollers and tourists with cameras.

Could this happen in our downtown?

Join in the conversation. Post ideas, and let's talk.

Building a skyscraper

Though Newcrest Hotels Ltd., an Irving developer, will turn the historic Fisk Building in downtown Amarillo into a high-rise Courtyard by Marriott, the feat isn't what a Newcrest representative referred to when he spoke of building a skyscraper in an interview Thursday.

Newcrest Real Estate Director Robert DeShay used the analogy of skyscraper building to talk about the work done before Newcrest arrived to the downtown revitlization scene in Amarillo: the formation of the Center City Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone, the support from taxing entities involved in the TIRZ, and the support of businesses and individuals who contribute through Downtown Amarillo Inc. and Center City of Amarillo.

That preliminary work is vital, but it isn't as visible and thus can encourage skeptics, DeShay said.

Here's his comment:

"When you're building a skyscraper, the first thing you have to do is go down deep and make sure the foundations are solid. But no one sees anything except a fence (around the property). And this work might go on for months, months, months. And then all of a sudden, a structure begins to rise. And the higher the structure, the more solid the foundation has to be."

Newcrest found the prep work "very impressive," DeShay said. "We said to ourselves, 'You know what? These people are going to make something happen in this downtown.'"

Newcrest's role now is to complete a $12.7 million renovation of the Fisk, on Polk Street at Southwest Eighth Avenue, in about a year's time. Upon completion, the developer will be eligible to begin receiving about $1.6 million in property tax rebates from the TIRZ over a 20-year period.

A barbecue and jazz event today at the Fisk's parking garage celebrated the kickoff of demolition and construction of the Courtyard by Marriott.

Downtown group appears ready to hire

Downtown Amarillo Inc. could soon hire a full-time chief executive officer.

Board officials for the nonprofit organization created to push downtown revitalization said three finalists have been interviewed and a hire could soon be announced.

“We’re not going to have to wait much longer,” board member Gary Pitner said.

Jorgenson Consulting helped DAI identify 120 to 130 candidates to court, and about 30 submitted applications as a result, Pitner said.

"We have had some excellent prospects," board member Bill Gilliland said.

All three are from Texas, with at least one being from Amarillo, he said.

The Amarillo City Commission created DAI in July so that the organization could continue the work of a city-appointed committee that guided development of a strategic action plan for reviving downtown.

The commission budgeted $230,500 for the group in the 2008-2009 fiscal year and gave it several goals. Those benchmarks included establishing the organization as a nonprofit, hiring a full-time CEO to market downtown to potential project developers, and making several presentations about what tools the city and the Center City Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone have available as incentives for downtown development.