More for Main Street -- We Already Have a Plan!

While we wait to hear back from the Lake Area Improvement Corporation on when the Main Street and More committee will have its first meeting (and who will be the point person for the project, if Tammy Jo Zingmark has indeed moved on to another job), a reader reminds me that my wife and I have already laid out a pretty good roadmap for where the Main Street committee should start. To review:

1. Renovate the Masonic Temple: This grand building deserves some upgrade and use befitting its place at the very literal heart of our community. Some Forward Madison money could go a long way toward patching up the brick work, firming up the foundation, and bringing a great business or two into the building. Imagine a movie theater, lecture hall, reception hall and meeting center, art gallery, maybe even a little coffee shop, right there at the head of Main Street, alive and vibrant, beckoning people to explore all of downtown. And even if worst comes to worst and the building can't be saved, the site is still perfect for a welcome park at the head of Main Street, just the kind of green space Tammy Jo said we need. (Remember, downtown development isn't just more buildings; any plan has to include public open space where civic events and discourse can take place.)
   
2. Resurrect the Lake Park Hotel: Instead of shunting guests out to the fringes of the city (hotels on the east and west edge, meetings at the playhouse on the north edge), why not bring our visitors right to downtown? With Rosebud Manufacturing now moved out to the industrial park, we have a great swath of buildings that could be turned into a spectacular hotel and convention center. Imagine business visitors and tourists being able to find lodging within walking distance of our downtown restaurants and shopping, city and county offices, meetings at the Chamber, even the library and the grocery store. Put the hotel and meeting space on the Center Street block right across from City Hall. Bulldoze the buildings on the south block for parking.
3. Renovate the existing downtown buildings: We have some gorgeous old brick buildings downtown. We also have some atrocious façades, god-awful plastic, metal, and plywood smacked onto that good brick. Divvy up the Forward Madison money, peel off the junk, restore the proud stone work.
   
4. If the $2.3 million sitting in the Forward Madison kitty isn't enough to cover our downtown dreams (or if the LAIC doesn't want to spend it all in one place), we lure developers with a downtown tax increment finance district. We could declare a lot of the buildings blighted: Mason's, Rosebud, the old Wenk's building along the railroad tracks... just drive down the back alleys and make your own list. Create a pay-as-you-go TIF, like they do up in Brookings: downtown businesspeople and developers invest in renovations and new businesses, and if they succeed in raising the value of their downtown property, the increased tax dollars reimburse them for their investment.

There's your Main Street redevelopment plan right there. You can find more review materials here. Let's form that committee and get to work!