It makes me smile every time I hear another business announce it will be opening downtown. I'm smiling a lot these days.

Don't get me wrong, it's good when any part of the city gets a new business or a business expansion. But I believe the heart of any great city is usually in its downtown, and downtown Fort Smith's pulse seems to be getting stronger and stronger.

Could it be we're on the verge of an honest to goodness downtown revival? A return to the days when downtown in general and Garrison Avenue in particular was THE place to work, live, be?

Yeah, yeah as one long-time downtown merchant recently observed. There's been talk of a downtown renaissance for ages – but he'll believe it when he sees it.

And you can't blame him or some of the business owners who have anchored commerce on Garrison Avenue for years for being just a teensy bit skeptical at times. They know what it takes in time, money and effort to stay in business downtown, or anywhere else for that matter. Like small businesses all over America, in order to survive they have had to learn to cope with everything from fires and tornadoes, plunging stock markets and the effects of the savage terrorist attack launched against this country a year ago this month.

We're here, we've been here, they could say. Where have you been?

But the savvy ones have an open mind and privately hope at least some of the new businesses will make it. After all, business creates business. And the more places there are downtown to eat, shop, live, stay overnight, do business, go to church, learn about history and enjoy live entertainment, the more locals and visitors will want to congregate there.

Some of us believe a downtown social and economic revival has already begun.

When we started Entertainment Fort Smith magazine two years ago, the new convention center, public library and four branch libraries weren't yet finished. There was no River Park, Pendergraft Park or Trolley Extension. Now we have all those attractions, plus several new ones in the planning stages – including an interactive transportation history center named in honor of for U.S. Rep. John Paul Hammerschmidt. New downtown apartments are being talked about, and plans are in the works for a new softball complex on Clayton Expressway.

In the past few weeks, several restaurants have announced intentions to open or expand downtown. Late last month, a local entrepeneur bought the former Trade Winds motel at North 11th and B and made public his plans to remodel the motel into a 130-room franchise hotel. City tourism and convention recruiters immediately perked up at the prospects for more marketable downtown hotel rooms.

The overall number of hotel rooms a city has available is important to attracting visitors and conventions. But hotel rooms within walking distance of the city's conventer center are crucial, the recruiters say. Even with the planned new motel's 130 rooms and the Holiday Inn's existing 255, Fort Smith needs at least 150 more to be more attractive to potential, larger convention and event customers, our convention and visitors executive director, Claude Legris estimates.

Legris, a Fort Smith native who "came home" 18 months ago after running convention centers in Tulsa, Nashville and Philadelphia, is impressed with positive developments he has seen since then.

"You've got to take a step back and take a look at it to realize what all has been happening in the last 18 months," Legris said. "Most of what's been done so far has been done in the public sector. Now its time for the private sector to step up, and it seems that's beginning to happen."

In addition to everything going on downtown, Fort Smith now has a beautiful, new $20 million airport just about ready to open at South 74th Street and Phoenix. New hotels, restaurants and other businesses are springing up around the Phoenix corridor leading to the airport and more are sure to follow. This means our east side is growing and growth to the south towards Greenwood is thriving as well.

To see Fort Smith's vital signs all over makes me smile, too.

 

Linda Seubold, editor of Entertainment Fort Smith Magazine, can be reached at lindaseubold@efortsmith.com. Read her archived columns and articles online.

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