It has been a long time since there has been this much business activity in downtown Texarkana.
Some of it is already happening or has happened. Some of it is projected.
If most of it comes to fruition, it could positively change the prospects of the city's center.
Possibly the most important of these is the selling of the Regions Bank building to a group of local investors. It is a sturdy building with good bones. Earlier known as State First National Bank, it was a center of commerce downtown for many decades. But as downtown started drying up, so did tenants in the building. In the end, there was hardly anyone left in the office space. Even the bank was a lessee.
But investors don't buy property-even at a bargain-unless they have a plan for it. Tearing it down would not create the necessary return. Can you imagine five stories of business activity just a block off the two main downtown arteries, North State Line Avenue and Broad Street? Would that help jump-start a revival?
The latest news about the Hotel Grim is just as encouraging. Its new owners and the city think they have financing lined up, and a complete overhaul may begin with six months or so. Apartments on the top floors. Retail development on the ground floor. A whole new interior and purpose.
This is about as close as we've seen to tangible progress after years of watching the 90-year-old building deteriorate before our eyes. Once a grand hotel by most measures, few had any hope it could be restored-at least as a practical matter. But maybe this time, maybe this time.
If Regions is revived and the Grim revamped, that puts two of downtown's most formidable properties back in play. The Regions building would spur daytime traffic, and the Grim all-the-time traffic, since people would be living there.
The more people living downtown, the greater the chance for more retail development. People who need to run out and get things often like to do it closer to home. Another opportunity.
South of Region's backside, the Omega Building is another charmer given new life not too long ago. Formerly First Federal and BancorpSouth at various times, it now features office space around an interior court and has moved effectively into the 21st century.
Even the corner of State Line and Broad Street is bustling more than usual nowadays. The Landmark Building's five floors are pretty much full now that the Texarkana Gazette offices are occupying the bottom two floors. Until the coming of Interstate 30 and the gradual decline of downtown, this may have been the most important intersection in all of Texarkana. By all accounts, bustle and Broad Street were synonymous.
That is obviously less true today by degree, but parking is again at a premium in and around that intersection.
If Regions, Landmark and the Grim can fill up and stay filled up, it would suggest big buildings are making a comeback.
Even the once-proud, now-collapsing Kress Building, as maligned as it is by detractors and beloved by its backers, has a plan in place. The city has put aside money to either tear it down or start building it back up. Either one would be an improvement. It's the status quo that must go.
Restaurants and entertainment venues are starting to find homes downtown. People have shown a willingness to come downtown for good food, good music, good theater. Johnny B's opened up recently in a building near Old Saint Michael Hospital that was once Glass Pharmacy. There have been other recent culinary success stories.
And last week, we learned that Texarkana was one of two cities to receive funding for a new Facade Improvement Program funded by the 1772 Foundation. Businesses set for upgrades include two downtown museums, a bike shop, the library's book resale shop, a restaurant/microbrewery and a piano shop-all places that have invested or worked toward preserving downtown. Work is expected to be underway by the end of the year.
Does all this mean things are starting to turn downtown?
It's too early to say.
But the more activity that can be cultivated in a finite space, the more synergy gets created, and the greater the chance these changes will beget a sum that is greater than all the individual parts.