Growing Hoosier cities show benefits of culture, dining

Slightly smaller, Muncie has a downtown strip of bars and eateries. There was a recent ground-breaking ceremony for a new six-story, 150-room Courtyard by Marriott hotel and a city parking garage.

Think of a spot to go in Anderson for the evening and you may be stuck after mentioning a show at Anderson's Mainstage Theatre or a symphony concert at the Paramount Theatre.

Night-time dining includes two Mexican restaurants and a McDonald's. Or you can pick up a book or DVD at the library and maybe work out at the YMCA.

Granted, Dickmann Park was the site of a well-attended midday brew fest in June and, for Halloween, families lined up for nearly three blocks one evening for a police-sponsored Trunk or Treat.

Despite the lack of consistent nightlife, it didn't take much to convince Gary and Beth Yeary to move The Cabbage Rose Eatery & Gift Shop from a cozy teahouse setting in Pendleton to downtown Anderson in 2012.

Operating out of a downtown storefront became easier than maintaining the grounds of a house in Pendleton, Gary Yeary said.

"We always liked the downtown feel instead of the strip mall type of thing. We like downtown, so we thought it would be cool to do it," he said.

His only concern, he said, was the availability of parking along Meridian Street.

But coming from another successful location, Cabbage Rose brought an established clientele. Yeary said new restaurateurs should work on establishing a clientele base before expanding operations.

Also, the Yearys live within 10 minutes of the eatery. Cabbage Rose, 1013 Meridian St., is open weekdays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Only three downtown Anderson restaurants are open in the evenings. There is no consistent activity or event to bring customers downtown each evening.

The 85-year-old historic Paramount Theater, which is currently without a director, hasn't hosted a large-drawing performer from outside of Madison County in some time. That type of performance is often left to the recently renovated stage at the interstate-accessible Hoosier Park Racing & Casino, which has brought in such acts as Boz Scaggs, the Temptations and Cheap Trick.

The popular community theater, Anderson's Mainstage Theater, has called downtown home for 33 years. The theater moved from its pole barn-like location near East 10th Street and Rangeline Road to 124 W. Ninth Street in part to extend its season beyond summer months.

"The board thought maybe it would attract more people into the city and downtown especially," said Bill Malone, who is president of the board of directors. "That's been a strong feeling with most of the board members since moving downtown."

Though it has limited parking, the theater is adding a new sound system and will next seek better lighting, he said. When the troupe wants to present a dinner theater, it has been using The Edge, he said. But there are no talks about moving the theater.

Malone said, "We love it downtown. We can't imagine being any place else."

Hoosier communities are studying ways to lure consumers back to their downtown areas.

This year, the village of Zionsville, northwest of Indianapolis, paid a consultant to study its downtown area.

Village merchants there currently produce an estimated $21.9 million in annual sales, or about 9 percent of Zionsville’s total spending power, according to the analysis from consultant Business Districts Inc. The suggested goal was 13 percent.

To reach that goal, it was recommended that Zionsville encourage new eating and drinking establishments since it has a fair share of antiques, art and jewelry shops.

The same was true in an informal study conducted this year by Young Leaders of Northeast Indiana, based in Fort Wayne. The group asked more than 270 people what they would like to see downtown.

Restaurants and entertainment topped the wish list. Of note, 74 percent of the respondents under the age of 20 wanted those two amenities. The numbers grew to 91 percent for those 20 to 30 years of age, and to 100 percent for those over 30. Further down the list, in order, were tourist attractions, retail, a public market, residential housing, light industry and professional offices.

Michael Burayidi, chairman of Ball State University's Department of Urban Planning and Professor of Urban Planning, points to Lafayette as a success story.

For years, its downtown was a pass-through for visitors headed to Purdue University. Now, it’s been 20 years since an Amtrak train traveled through downtown, thanks to a major effort to relocate the tracks, which had been seen as a hindrance to driving and walking downtown. Among other projects, an apartment complex was razed in 2009 to make way for single-family homes and a rental community, while rehabbing eight foreclosed homes and rebuilding six others.

"The downtown needs to have a mix of uses, so restaurants are what brings people downtown. But they don’t just come to eat, They take in art that might be displayed downtown," he said. "Providing a mix brings and encourages people to live downtown. ... It's not just restaurants. You have to encourage people to remain downtown and rent.

"You should have cultural amenities, courthouses, libraries, museums. Then people come for the museum, go out and shop. It helps keep a downtown healthy and lively," Burayidi said.

And some Hoosier cities have found they need to be creative.

In Evansville, the Chamber of Commerce of Southwest Indiana recently concluded an economic development contest intended to bring a new restaurant to the downtown.

The Evansville Main Course Restaurant Challenge allowed contestants to pitch a restaurant concept for a prize valued up to $280,197. In essence, the winner got space on Main Street — a site formerly used by the Barack Obama campaign in 2007.

Among the 14 proposed concepts were a 24-hour diner, a chili parlor, a burger bar and a "speakeasy."

The idea developed when two Evansville business leaders were eating out of town and thought it would be nice to have another restaurant downtown. The local chamber has also been pushing for more retail shops and restaurants to locate on street-level floors of office buildings.

"For that ground floor, there needs to be restaurants, coffeehouses, bars. Retail is a tricky beast, and we are pursuing some retail tenants but that has been a much harder nut to crack," said Joshua Armstrong, director of the Downtown Alliance.

In downtown Evansville, 98.9 percent of the apartments are rented, and all condo units, which number about 300, are tenant- or owner-occupied.

Besides filling an empty storefront, the contest yielded other results, Armstrong said.

'We may get two restaurants out of it. It has also given us a pool of interested parties to go to for other opportunities when something else comes up," Armstrong said.

The winner was a "Mex-aribbean" concept.