Rapid City: Will Downtown ever go Uptown?

Monday, 01 February 2010 20:05

Written by John Tsitrian

John Tsitrian

There is neither a shortage of vision nor visionaries in Rapid City when it comes to staking out a future for the city's downtown.

For a while there it looked like things might coalesce under the leadership of John Brewer through the Destination Rapid City organization that he was able to kick start a few years ago, but it looks like the centerpiece for downtown development, the Main Street Square (MSS) plaza and skating rink proposed for the corner of 6th and Main Streets, is meeting some stiff resistance from any number of downtown businesses that are balking over the fact that they will be asked to fund it through a self-imposed Business Improvement District (BID) tax even as they see no real benefit to their businesses from such a concentration of money and infrastructure.

There are just too many blocks between MSS and many of the downtown businesses in the BID, making the project a very tough sale at this stage. That's too bad, because I love what I've seen of the Square's plans. The same is true for many of those who object to it. Clearly it would be a wonderful asset to downtown and the city in general, but it is effectively a black hole when it comes to the money that is likely to be raised by the BID, sucking up so much of the financial energy that all but the few businesses within a short walk of the plaza are not likely to reap much in the way of direct or indirect benefits.

Though it is probably too early to declare any proposal dead, MSS seems to be gasping for air at this point, especially so since my good friend John Brewer abruptly resigned as head of Destination Rapid City a couple of weeks ago. I was sorry to see Brewer step down, as I've found him to be committed, bright and eloquent--and absolutely convinced that Rapid City can fulfill its national, even world-class, potential as a destination for tourists. But try as he might, Brewer couldn't pull together a strong consensus of support for Main Street Square, so a few other downtown businesspeople have stepped up and tried to fill a leadership vacuum that has emerged. Among them is another very good friend of mine, Dennis Halterman, who owns The Factory Salon on St. Joseph Street, close to the Alex Johnson Hotel. Among others, including piano store-entrepeneur Dan Senftner and consultant Don Frankenfeld, Halterman has created a group of downtown businesspeople who are exploring alternative pathways to downtown development--all premised on the proposed BID gaining approval from the City of Rapid City, of course. A petition for the creation of the BID that was recently placed before the Rapid City Council seems to have enough signatures to validate it for consideration, but there are some complaints about the timing and wording of the petition itself that may yet have to be resolved either legislatively or legally, so even the BID is far from a done deal at this point. Nevertheless, the fact that the petition has gained a substantial number of signatures among those who would be affected indicates that there is enough support for the concept for planners to begin moving forward with some tangible ideas.

My take on it is that the ideas should precede the formation of the BID so that those who would be paying for downtown redevelopment could have a concrete view of just what it is they will be taxing themselves to accomplish. One downtown businessman I talked to compared it to going into a supermarket. Being expected to come up with your money at the front door and then being told to shop around, hoping you'll find something you like, is no way to expect customers to come in. Entering the store, finding what you like, then paying for it is the same principle that should be applied to the BID-origination process. If I were a downtown business owner, I would want a pretty clear idea of what I was buying into before committing myself to paying up, so those who want to superimpose a vision of the future on downtown should expect some hard and tough analysis of their plans before expecting their neighboring entrepreneurs to start writing checks.

As of now, the only concrete proposal, Main Street Square, seems to have limited appeal. Any competing or alternative proposals haven't been developed beyond the somewhat nebulous concepts of "connectivity" and "maximizing existing assets." Who wouldn't be for that? Turning concepts into practical realities is the challenge at this point. Can it be done? Sure. The community of Clinton, Connecticut, is an excellent example. You can get a detailed look by going to http://www.nhregister.com/articles/2009/12/26/news/shoreline/b1-clrevitalize.txt. The gist of it is that planners spent four years coming up with a detailed revitalization proposal before even presenting the city with a request for funding. They note that the return on investment in these projects is huge, expecting to get $26 back for every dollar spent. Projects in the area that have already been underway have returned much more than that. If Rapid City's return is even a fraction of that, the deal will still be a good one--and really, I don't think many people in the downtown area doubt that a bit. If there is reluctance, it probably has more to do with structure, not concept, although there will no doubt be some intransigent holdouts regardless of what the group consensus turns out to be. Still, even some of those may be likely to see a future where their properties have significant increases in value because a revitalized downtown will change the best and highest use of their holdings into something they could never before have imagined--say, a hard goods store becoming a retail mini-mall with loft apartments upstairs. That significant numbers of visitors already come to Rapid City on their way to Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse Mountain, and other Black Hills attractions has always been the foundation for dreamers and potential planners to find ways of getting those people to spend more of their time and money in the city. Given that we have some willing heavy-lifters who are ready to put a detailed proposal into place, I think we all can agree that the legendary confluence of an idea and its time has arrived. Some call it destiny. Throughout the process that's likely to have as many bumps as smooth spots, planners might do well to think about another confluence: "destiny" and "destination" have the same root.