How the other guy gets it done downtown

Be jealous of El Dorado, Ark. Be very, very jealous.

The mid-size Arkansas town 90 miles east of here is getting an infusion of money and a downtown facelift that is not only impressive but almost overwhelming in scope.

Situated in plentiful piney woods and farmlands—which does not even have an interstate highway connecting it to the rest of the world—if it weren’t for oil, gas and bromine deposits underfoot, this town of 20,000 might be utterly lost. Three U.S. highways and a big heart just doesn’t get it done these days. But El Dorado does.

And it is booming, just like it did when oil was discovered there almost 100 years ago.

This is not because new opportunities have manifested themselves in expected or unexpected ways, but that those who have mined the existing opportunities have been generous with their fortune. Again.

Three months from now, El Dorado will unveil the first phase of a new arts district that, when complete, will represent a $100 million investment. The price of Phase 1 alone is $54 million.

(If someone with deep pockets would throw $100 million at downtown Texarkana, do you think it would make a difference?)

The Murphy Arts District (call it MAD) is named after Murphy USA, Murphy Oil Corp., and Deltic Timber Corp., all headquartered in El Dorado. The goal is to improve the quality of life for residents there.

By the price tag alone there is no doubt this is a sophisticated undertaking, both uncommon and magnanimous.

And this is not the first time this wealth has been spread around. It is only the latest.

A few years ago, a $50 million gift resulted in a new high school there. Later, “El Dorado Promise” was announced, a program that essentially makes full college scholarships, four-year tuition and fees, available to El Dorado High School graduates. It can be redeemed anywhere, with only a few limitations.

This current endeavor is aimed at expanding arts and cultural resources, something you wouldn’t necessarily expect in an oil town. But for more than half its existence, an art community has thrived in El Dorado, including the state’s oldest symphony and South Arkansas Arts Center.

And while El Dorado had a tough go of it in the 1980s and ’90s, it has seen a resurgence in the early years of this century.

Even before this arts district was announced, the downtown had been thriving following a 2011 civic mobilization and now boasts more than 65 specialty shops, restaurants, inns, and a new conference facility and an upgraded slate of music festivals.

Yet Murphy Arts District will kick all this up about umpteen notches.

Phase 1 centers on the 1928 Griffin Auto Company Building, once an assembly point and showplace for Model T Fords. Other adjacent features: a farmto-table restaurant, cabaret lounge, 2,000-seat music hall, four-story stage house filled with an array of modern artists and audience amenities, a new 8,000-capacity amphitheater, two-acre children’s playscape and an open-air farmers’ market.

Phase 2, which officials estimate at $32 million and will open “shortly” after Phase 1 includes the renovation of the 1920s Rialto Theater, a new 10,000-square-foot art gallery and exhibition hall plus artist-quarters.

When finished (heck, when halfway finished) this enriching endeavor will empower arts, music and culture to drive economic redevelopment in El Dorado to a new level.

Wow. It kind of makes what’s happening in downtown Texarkana pale in comparison.

Texarkana has these grandiose conversations about what downtown should be, could be or isn’t. We debate the value of turning vacant hotels into lowend apartments, argue if that will deter the kind of development we are more inclined to wish for, or if we should hold out for a better offer.

We wonder how we can revitalize and reinvigorate downtown in the short term and if we can create enough synergy to reverse years of decline and neglect and establish some sustained positive traction.

We have pockets of hope and pockets of progress.

What we don’t have is a sugar daddy.