Vincennes City Council looks to long-term development of downtown

From better incentives for investors to the development of an Arts and Entertainment District and even turning the Gimbel Corner into a sprawling urban park, the plan, done by Bloomington's Strategic Development Group, outlines dozens of changes that can be made to rejuvenate Main Street.

And while it won't be done overnight, city council members agreed it was a direction in which they wanted to go.

“Would it be great to do all this right now?” asked councilman Tim Salters, eluding to the plan's enormity. “Sure, that would be fantastic.

“But that's also not the point,” he said holding the document in the air. “The point is to throw out ideas so that we can improve, make Main Street what it once was.”

The plan essentially looked at Main Street from First to 11th streets as well as a block north and south. It looked at the downtown economy, its inventory of buildings and programming — or perhaps lack thereof.

Vincennes, officials with SDG said, has a lot going for it. There aren't a lot of vacant lots downtown with a good inventory of available buildings all flanked by “historical, natural and cultural amenities.”

And while areas of Main Street might seem, to some, desolate, SDG said they also offer opportunity for growth and change.

Pat Jacobs, an Indianapolis architect who has been busy examining the city's downtown buildings, said Main Street boats a “plethora of design” and architectural elements. She also called downtown a “beautiful pallet” from which to develop.

“If someone is walking downtown, there are shops continuously along the way,” she said, adding that the Wabash River on one end and the New Moon Theater, currently being marked as a potential restaurant or microbrewery, are “anchors that draw people from one end to another.”

But, she added, downtown has its liabilities as well.

She said there is a general lack of understanding of what historic preservation entails and that there are few incentives for owners who want to fix up their historic properties. Funding mechanisms like the city's Urban Enterprise Association and the Revolving Loan Fund aren't being “maximized.”

And with so many second floors boarded up, she said, there is an “illusion of the lack of safety.”

Other drawbacks, officials with CDG said, were a lack of entertainment and recreational opportunities, a significantly underutilized riverfront, no biking or walking trails to speak of and a lack of “community gateways” or clear, visible indicators to motorists that they have entered Indiana's oldest city.

Jacobs, too, displayed side-by-side photos of a thriving, well-lit downtown area next to Vincennes' Main Street after dark.

“You can see how barren, how foreboding it looks,” she said of Vincennes' after-dark photograph. “There is a real lack of lights, no real draw. So you need to begin to educate and encourage business owners to look at their signs, illuminate their signs, all while being sympathetic to the historic structures.”

Other proposed improvements include the revitalization of downtown's two historic theaters, something INVin, a local not-for-profit, is trying to do. And the plan agreed with INVin's vision of turning the Pantheon Theatre into a shared work space.

Such a project, the plan says, would bring the kinds of young, entrepreneurial minds that would help to implement desired change.

The plan also suggests the establishment of an eight-block Arts and Entertainment District, the guidelines for which are outlined by state statue. There are eight such districts in Indiana right now, including ones in Carmel, Bloomington and Nashville.

Arts and Entertainment Districts are clearly outlined and often have gates at either end that allow for safe, walkable spaces for festivals and outdoor events.

Along the same lines, the plan also suggests keeping Main Street's two lanes of traffic and parallel parking but getting rid of the curbs, allowing for a more “cohesive space” that could be more greatly utilized during public events.

The plan also recommends further developing First Street, the city's closest to the riverbank, with more residential spaces, a hotel and, perhaps, even a conference center down the line.

Getting people to live and stay downtown, CDG said, is key to implementing the entire plan.

“You have a university, a regional hospital and an energy company that just located here,” said Brian O'Neill, a senior associate with SDG. “You also have 100,000 tourists that come into your town every year. You have consumers that are coming into your town but they're not coming into the downtown. You have people who live here now that would rather be living in the downtown.

“So what we want to do is make it an attractive place to life, convince retailers and people engaged in entrepreneurship to come downtown,” he said. “It needs to turn around and, frankly, we think that it can. These are achievable goals and objectives that could help you do that.”

The plan also includes plans to make the Gimbel Corner an urban park, complete with an amphitheater, lots of covered seating, restrooms and even the possibility of a removable ice skating rink for the winter months.

And the city parking lot on Vigo Street, CDG said, could at some point be turned into a parking garage, one shrouded by retail space, should the need arise.

Salters said the plan, paid for with a state grant, was the most detailed plan he'd ever seen, one that offered “good bits and pieces” from which the city can build.

“This offers a clear vision,” he said. “This is a cohesive plan, a blueprint you could say, that could lead us forward.”

Veteran council member Duane Chattin said he remembered growing up downtown when his father, a local doctor, owned a mixed-use space at Eighth and Main streets.

“My bedroom was right above the waiting room,” Chattin said fondly. “So having grown up on Main Street, I'm excited about this plan. Back then, Main Street was the place to go. My parents would take us downtown on Friday, Saturday nights. It was the place to be in the community.

“We've got good things now, but it could be better. This plan would be the road map, the building blocks to get us back there.”

Chattin also hinted at some parts of the plan he might “quibble” with, but he pointed out that the council wasn't pinning itself down by approving it. The plan, he said, “is adaptable,” one that could be embarked upon “as opportunities present themselves.”

“There is nothing here that would lock us in stone,” he said.

And Mayor Joe Yochum, too, said it would be good to have every entity — from city officials to the Redevelopment Commission and the UEA — chart the same development course.

“It would be good to have everybody on the same path,” he said. “If everybody works together, has a clear vision, things could be a lot better.”

The plan was also the first step toward applying for another, larger grant, $500,000 to help as many as a dozen downtown property owners fix up their building facades.

The participating property owners — the identities of which haven't been revealed — would be responsible for paying the city's 20-percent match.

The council is expected to hold a public hearing — and hear more about that grant application — when it next meets at 6 p.m. on July 25.