by Bradley Parsons
Staff Writer
The committee charged with reviewing where the City spends its downtown incentives debated Wednesday two sharply different approaches to economic development.
On one side of the argument sits Mike Harrell. The CB Richard Ellis vice president and Downtown Vision, Inc. chair, said the City should focus its support on the north and south banks and in downtown’s central business district.
“I think we should focus on our core business district,” said Harrell. “We should zero in on where we’re going to get the biggest return on our investment.”
In trying to develop all of downtown at once, the City was stretching itself too thin, Harrell said. “To suggest we can do all things hurts all projects,” he said.
Representing the flip side of the development coin were lawyer Denise Watson and J.R. Evans and Associates president Randy Evans. They said Harrell’s approach was too focused on areas that have already been primed for growth and would leave behind areas that are most in need of revitalization.
“I’d like to see us not so much concerned with the riverfront venues but interior locations that need help to get going,” she said. “The riverfront locations are going to take care of themselves.”
Both approaches found supporters, and detractors, on the nine–person committee. Some members advocated both of them. The Downtown District Committee is one of four created by JEDC chair Ceree Harden to review the commission and recommend changes. Mayor John Peyton gave the committees an Aug. 1 deadline.
Since the City developed its Downtown Master Plan [five years ago], its planners have sought to develop all of downtown’s neighborhoods said Al Battle, the managing director of the Downtown Development Authority. Housing on the river and in the central core would be supported by a transportation hub in LaVilla and by bars and restaurants near the sports complex.
Harrell said he was recently told by a consultant “at the forefront of urban design,” that the City’s plan was too broad.
“He told me, ‘Your downtown’s too big. Your river’s too big,’” he said.
Harrell said the City should “take a step back” from developing areas like LaVilla and Brooklyn, and focus its resources at downtown’s geographical center.
A continued emphasis on downtown’s core would act as a catalyst for the surrounding neighborhoods, said Harrell.
“Neighborhoods like Brooklyn, you need to create a core and let the market grow back to it,” he said. “We had a big opportunity in LaVilla and we missed it. Let it cool off for a while and let the market come back to it.”
Evans agreed that a tighter focus was necessary. However, he said part of that focus should fall on downtown’s west end. The “timing is right” to spark a turnaround in historically depressed areas like Brooklyn and LaVilla, he said. With its attention turned to the center, the City would miss an opportunity to spread some of downtown’s prosperity to areas that need it the most.
“We’ve been hearing about Brooklyn forever,” he said. “You have people that have lived for a long time in a neighborhood that isn’t that attractive and isn’t that safe. The timing is right to do some good things in that area.”
Battle said the policy that emerges from the committee would call for the City to concentrate its downtown focus. The committee has the next month and a half to decide where that focus will fall.