Downtown Texarkana's Main Street will be on full display Saturday, with a tour designed to introduce interested parties to the available properties in the historic part of the city.
"The purpose is to fill vacant or underutilized buildings in our downtown Main Street district," said Ina McDowell, Main Street Texarkana executive director.
"We call it 'Imagine the Possibilities.' See the building. Imagine yourself being there, living there, working there, running a business there-the possibilities of owning your own building," she said.
Main Street Texarkana advocates and promotes downtown development and stands by with a variety of assistance programs to help out those who want to set up shop there.
"We have various incentives in grants and loans to help out." she said. "We can provide design assistance. We can help out with interior and exterior design schemes."
On the tour day, plants and balloons will mark the different sites on the tour, which visitors can walk at their own pace.
"We have people at each location to answer questions and point out interesting features," McDowell said.
"With Railfest, Trade Days, the open museums and the downtown local restaurants, as well as many other activities going on downtown, as well as pleasant weather predicted, Saturday is a great day time to come down and 'Imagine the Possibilities' on your Main Street."
The tour will be from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., starting at the Museum of Regional History, 219 N. State Line Ave. Properties featured on the Texas side include:
- the former Texarkana Gazette building, 315 Pine St.;
- 409 Texas Blvd., formerly the Railroad Hotel;
- 221 Texas Blvd.;
- The Omega, 216 Olive St.;
- 1894 City Market (Ritchie Grocery) at Front and Olive streets;
- 108 W. Broad St.; and
- 114, 119 and 210 E. Broad.