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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 13, 1985)
Bryan from page* 5 such a program and at what level. The result: would then be provided to the city of Bryan for the city to design a pro gram that would be appropri ate for and used by the down- towners. Coker would like to see the money used to support new businesses coming into the downtown area. “I would not like to see the money be used to redo fa cades, because I don’t think facades have a damn thing to do with people coming to downtown Bryan,” he says. He believes the money should be used to get more businesses going downtown; once those businesses get off the ground they can reno vate their facades using their own money Gail Macmillan, Commu- nit\ Development coordina- tor for the city of Bryan, says Once a bank building. The Studio (left) was restored b\ a group of artists ded icated to establishing an art community in the Bry an/College Station area (see related story, page 9). Maxi's (top photo) exists the money can be used in two ways. The first would be as an economic development loan program that would be tar geted at creating new jobs or helping business devel opment. The second way would be a rehabilitation loan program that would include facade im provements. The money was set aside for the downtown area by the city in October, Macmillan says, and the city hasn’t made a decision about what will be done with the grant. “New businesses may have a more long-term effect for the whole city,” she says. “Then again, a facade im provement program could be very good for acting as a cat alyst for getting othef things going down there, because as long as you have buildings that may not be attractive, other businesses are probably not going to want to come in. “It’s a real tough decision, one the city is aware that there are mixed opinions about,” she adds. “We have to realize that with $151,000 we can’t solve all of the problems, but we hope that it will serve as a beginning tor people to suirt tbinkiii^; about wbat they downtown area, the “absentee owners,” as Donna Wall calls them. Wall would like to see these owners sell their buildings to new businesses or at least clean them up, but so far, little is being done. “People come down and say there’s so much down here that’s vacant,” she says. “It’s not because we want it that way. If the landowner doesn’t want to do anything to sell or rent, there’s nothing we can do at this point.” Maxi’s owner Coker says the owners may have over-an ticipated the growth of down town Bryan. "Everyone’s trying to shark now, that’s the problem,” he says. “They’re trying to com pete with the College Station market and it’s just not here yet.” Coker agrees with Wall on the futility of trying to apply pressure on downtown land- owners. “You can't pressure an 80- year-old woman who was born and raised in Bryan and is wealthy,” he says. Steve Turnipseed of the Texas A&M architecture de partment says that something might be able to be done up nbrth, but in Texas, it's clif- can come in and take advan tage of what some other peo ple have really worked hard to do.” Downtowners Association coordinator Marshall says the association is trying to work with downtown landowners and to encourage them to take action that will help the downtown area. She is also working with the city to try and exert pressure so that the landowners will do something instead of sitting on their properties while waiting for the downtown area to grow and prosper. Unfortunately for the downtown revitalization ef fort, the property owners have the right to ask for what they want as far as rent goes. But even with the rising rents, businesses are still opening their doors down town. According to Down towners Association records, 12 new businesses have opened in down town Bryan in 1985. Whether the revival contin ues will depend on several factors, including the effec tiveness of the Bryan Down towners Association, the uniqueness of the stores opening in downtown Hryan and the willingness of down town landowners to help with n Oy <1. ;, n it, f;