Downtown Owensboro has become a showplace that draws visitors from other cities who want to see how they could accomplish the same thing.
Now, some local leaders are thinking about ways to expand the downtown master plan to the rest of the city.
In 2008, Scott Polikov, president of Gateway Planning Group Inc. of Fort Worth, Texas, and a team came to Owensboro to create a comprehensive downtown master plan and feasibility study for downtown retail, entertainment and residential development.
A little more than a decade later, downtown has seen more than $300 million worth of redevelopment, which includes an internationally recognized Smothers Park, two and soon three downtown hotels, two major office buildings, condos, restaurants, a convention center, a parking garage and the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame & Museum.
Behind the scenes, community leaders are now working to expand that success citywide.
Candance Castlen Brake, president of the Greater Owensboro Chamber of Commerce, said Polikov and members of his team “met with the chamber board, local developers and key stakeholders over the past two days.”
She said, “The next step in our process will be for Gateway to send us a written report with a summary of their visit. We expect to have that in 30 days.”
Polikov told the Chamber’s Rooster Booster Breakfast on Thursday that the downtown master plan “has really transformed” the community.
Now, there is a push to transform more than just downtown.
City Commissioner Larry Conder, a candidate for mayor, said the community needs to have another “We The People” meeting to get ideas on what people want to see.
In 2007 and 2010, the Public Life Foundation of Owensboro sponsored town hall meetings at the Executive Inn Rivermont, the Sportscenter and Owensboro Community & Technical College that drew more than 1,000 people from all ages and income levels.
“In 2020, we work in a thriving economy that provides vibrant jobs, living wages and quality of life” was the optimistic work vision statement of the group in 2010.
Ideas included a vibrant downtown “built on varied cultural interests and the river”; a “significant population of young ‘creative class’ adults;” small businesses supported with tax incentives, incubators and investment capital; a state-of-the-art heart and cancer center; better jobs; improved schools and affordable pre-school for all.
Citywide master plan
Conder said the master plan needs to be “stretched out” from downtown and not “leap frog” over certain neighborhoods.
City Commissioner Pam Smith-Wright, who is also running for mayor, said, “I think downtown is taking care of itself with private investment after we contributed the seed money.”
She said, “I’d like to see it spread over the entire city, especially the West End.”
The Carter Road and West Parrish Avenue shopping areas need attention, Smith-Wright said.
Brittaney Johnson, president of the Greater Owensboro Economic Development Corp., said there is talk behind the scenes about the possibility of creating a second phase of the downtown master plan.
That’s still in the exploration stages, she said.
“Owensboro has an opportunity to set the next mark,” Polikov said. “If you ever stop planning, you’re in trouble.”
An important part of community development, he said, is “helping the folks who don’t have the capacity to help themselves.”
Polikov said cities across the country are looking at Owensboro and what it accomplished, beginning in the depths of the Great Recession.
He said when he first visited Owensboro he thought there was no way a city of 50,000 could afford his fee.
“We literally passed the hat for our fee,” he said.
In 2008, local officials said they raised $150,000 in one day to go toward the cost of the project, which was estimated at between $300,000 and $500,000.
That took a lot of local leadership, Polikov said.
By Keith Lawrence, Messenger Inquirer