Published: July 12, 2008 04:20 pm      

The changing face of downtown

Businesses continue to come and go

In recent weeks, downtown Richmond gained one restaurant and lost two.

The Paddy Wagon Irish Pub has opened in a new building at the corner of Main Street and Madison Avenue more that a year after its previous Main Street location was destroyed in a fire.

On the down side, two other Main Street eateries, Woody’s in the Glyndon Hotel and The Bistro, went out of business.

Main Street also lost two retails shops this summer for non-business reasons, said Rita Smart, coordinator of the city’s Main Street Program.

“The Tassel and Toad closed because the owner’s husband was transferred,” she said. “The coin shop closed because the owner suffered a heart attack.”

There is some good news, however.

A dance studio has opened in the former location of Irene’s dress shop.

Smart also said the owner of downtown coffee shops in Danville, Nicholasville and Stanford has agreed to explore opening a coffee shop in Richmond.

Downtown had a coffee shop until Live Wire closed last year.

Late this month, Madison Bank plans to open a downtown branch in a restored historic building. In August, restoration of an adjacent historic building should be complete, providing two loft apartments and street-level retail space.

Design of the bank’s facade and interior was approved by the Kentucky Heritage Council as authentically reproducing the appearance of a small-town Kentucky bank in about 1890, said Bill Walters, president of the bank.

“Entering our downtown branch should be like stepping more than a century back in time,” he said.

On the bank’s First Street side, developers Ed Worley and Mike Eaves hope to have restoration of another historic three-story building completed in about a month.

“The building will have two loft apartments that look out at Main Street and the Courthouse Square,” Worley said. “We hope to have a retail business lease the street-level floor.”

Worley said he and Eaves want to replicate their successful renovation of another historic building in the 100 block of East Main. It has a Jimmy John’s sandwich shop in the ground floor with two apartments on the upper floors.

A mix of retail and residential space brings vitality to a downtown, he said.

“Renovating buildings that are more than a century old is a challenge,” Worley said. “Crumbling bricks and mortar have to be reinforced. Floor joists and roofs have to be replaced.”

The developers could be investing their money in Lexington, “where rents are at least 60 percent higher,” Worley said, “but Richmond is where we live. We want to see its downtown thrive and become a destination for people in the region.”

No matter how a city’s periphery is developed, the world’s opinion of a city is based on its downtown, he said.

Worley said he and Eaves are working on some even bigger plans for downtown, in the 100 block of North First Street.

“If everything comes together, we hope to have to announce a First Street development that could help transform downtown Richmond,” Worley said.

Before seeking site plan and design approvals from the city’s planning commission and architecture review board, “We will disclose our plans to the public through the news media,” he said.

While the developers are seeking to buy all property on the block except the Madison Family Court building, including T. Bombadil’s, they were not behind the move to rewrite the city’s nuisance ordinance to limit noise from outdoor entertainment venues, said Worley and Eaves.

“We’d like to buy that building, but we’re not trying to force T. Bombs out of business,” Worley said.

A colleague in Eaves’ law firm, David Bohannon, represented T. Bombs in opposition to revising the ordinance when the city commission heard its first reading July 8.

The proposal was tabled for further revision.

“We’re both against changing the ordinance,” Worley said. “I too may speak against it when it comes before the city commission again.”

Other changes

Three downtown intersections got a new look last week.

The city contracted with Architectural Paving Concepts of Henry County to create the appearance of brick crosswalks on the intersections of Main Street with Madison Avenue and First and Second streets.

The process cuts a brick-like grid into the asphalt using a steel template and a tamping machine.

After the asphalt is heated with an infrared gun, it is covered with brick-colored cementacious coating, said Bob Dyer, owner of the paving firm.

The $10,000 project was done to enhance safety as well as appearance, said City Manager David Evans.

“It makes the crosswalks more visible to both motorists and pedestrians,” he said. “The coating creates a gritty surface that makes pedestrians less likely to slip and fall when the pavement is wet.”

“We’ve had some pretty close calls at those intersections,” Evans added.

Evans contacted Dyer at the urging of Richmond residents who had seen is work in other towns, he said.

Dyers said he and coated crosswalks in Shelbyville and other Kentucky cities seeking to revitalize their downtowns.

Bill Robinson can be reached at brobinson@richmondregister.com or at 623-1669, Ext. 267.