NEWS

Boost sought to revive downtown momentum

Chris Balusik
Chillicothe Gazette

CHILLICOTHE — East Second Street is increasingly shaping up to be the epicenter of the next stage of downtown revitalization and the greatest near-term hope for reviving momentum that started with the reopening of the Carlisle Building last fall.

A revitalization effort is underway for East Second Street after momentum started with the Carlisle Building.

Seen by many as the future home of a Chillicothe downtown entertainment district, East Second Street is being targeted as the focus of a potential consultant's review to explore the possibilities. During a meeting of the Downtown Development Commission this week, interest was expressed in getting a proposal from MKSK out of Columbus to see what it would cost to put together a plan for both East Second Street and the corner of South Paint and East Fourth Street, where the new children's museum will be located.

DDC member and Chillicothe-Ross Chamber of Commerce President Randy Davies said he's had an initial meeting with the planning, urban design and landscape architects to feel out the possibility.

"(It was) just to kind of give us a rough idea of what it would cost to develop a plan for a redesigned streetscape in that area, what it could look like with the historic structures that we have, just everything," Davies said. "It is kind of the way things are working is that's really the next street, the next area that's being developed and has the highest potential of traffic in getting things done now with things that are happening with the Majestic (Theatre), things that are happening with the building on the corner (of Paint and Second)."

Majestic officials, with the help of a deadline extension granted by the state, have completed and submitted an application for state capital improvement funds to help with renovation plans on the historic venue. They hope that they will receive news sometime over the summer of an award up to $1 million for the project.

The building at the corner of North Paint and East Second Street, better known as the Nipgen Corner, has seen an exterior facelift that has freshened up the storefront for what the group of local investors that make up Nipgen Corner LLC hope will eventually become a downtown corner market. While hopes originally were that a tenant to operate such a market could have been found last fall, one of the hurdles threatening to slow momentum downtown has become an issue regarding completing desired work to the building's interior.

The Carlisle project benefited heavily from several public incentives to complement the private investment, including state and federal grants and tax credits. Such incentives are not as readily available for projects like the Nipgen Corner building or other restoration efforts that may come along downtown, potentially limiting the scope of what can be done.

"We need to incentivize the investor, the developer, and we have to err on that side because we're struggling with getting investors to come to this downtown," said DDC President Tom White, who along with fellow DDC member Ed Kunzelman is among those involved with the Nipgen Corner work. "We're experiencing this right now (with that project). We can't afford to go any further on anything because there's no return on investment within sight. Other investors, more savvy investors, see that, and they don't see where this could go and where it is going to go hopefully."

Kunzelman added that once a proper space is created, the ability to then attract tenants becomes even better than he originally thought.

Finding ways to create those incentives to drive downtown investment, whether by creating a Tax Increment Financing (TIF) district or through better utilizing a Community Reinvestment Area (CRA) program already in place, becomes essential to plans for downtown, White said. A TIF takes the additional tax dollars raised through improvements made to a property and diverts them into a fund dedicated to maintaining the infrastructure of the TIF district. A CRA redirects taxes back to the developer to create an incentive for further development.

County Commissioner Steve Neal pointed out that as discussion continues over whether a TIF should be created for downtown, it has to be done with the understanding that there's only one pot of tax money to pull from and that a TIF may end up hurting a CRA as a benefit. Mayor Luke Feeney said that a TIF should probably have been built into the original streetscape plan of the mid-1980s. Had that been the case, some of the maintenance issues downtown would have had a dedicated source of funds to pull from.

While the TIF discussions continue, the idea of having MKSK — a firm very familiar with the city from past projects — taking a closer look at East Second Street is appealing to DDC members. The plan that would be sought they stressed would have to be something that could be accomplished within city resources and not something grounded more in a dream than reality. Kunzelman, who said it's time for the city to move away from the older streetscape plan, believes the firm can deliver what is sought.

"It's the right trail to go down, and they're probably the right people to do it," he said.