Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
City ponders downtown association
FAYETTEVILLE — A nonprofit downtown association could help manage the cultural arts corridor and take on other duties related to the betterment of the entertainment district.
Forming such an organization will take a few years, city officials say.
Construction on the civic gathering space at West Avenue and Dickson Street is tentatively scheduled to begin in 2022. First, the city has to build a parking deck to replace spaces lost across the street from the Walton Arts Center. City officials haven’t determined a location for the deck, but construction is set to start in 2021.
The Fay Jones Woods west of the Public Library also will need someone to manage it. Plans are to turn the 7 acres into a nature attraction. Construction of that portion of the corridor should finish by 2021.
Money for construction is coming from a $31.7 million bond issue voters approved in April to build the cultural arts corridor downtown. Money for maintenance and programming will have to come from somewhere else, said Peter Nierengarten, the city’s sustainability director.
“We don’t have an actual decided-upon plan on how it’s all going to go,” he said. “But we are actively working on the design of that plan.”
Experience Fayetteville, the city’s tourism bureau, is helping establish that framework. In June, the City Council hired the bureau to recommend programming, marketing, operations and maintenance so designs meet the needs in the corridor.
Molly Rawn, executive director of Experience Fayetteville, said she likely will give her recommendations to the council early next year. Some type of a downtown association could create a source of money for maintenance and activities at the corridor, rather than the city trying to pay for all of it, she said.
It would be possible for various sources, including the city, tourism bureau or philanthropic organizations, to chip in to get a downtown association going, Rawn said. From there, the association could seek grant money and contributions, she said.
“The focus of our conversation is about the arts corridor,” Rawn said. “We have only just begun to identify the other functions of a downtown association. I look forward to having more meetings about that.”
The Downtown Springdale Alliance, for instance, is a nonprofit group contracted through the city that pursues grants and hosts events such as the annual street dinner, Ozarktober and Christmas on the Creek. The alliance helps realize the vision of the city’s downtown plan adopted in 2015, and administers the $642,638 grant the city received from the Walton Family Foundation to redesign Luther George Park, said Jill Dabbs, alliance executive director.
A previous downtown association, Fayetteville Downtown Partners, folded in 2009, citing a lack of staff and a recessionary economy. The group relied on donations to put on events, such as the Fayetteville Arts Festival. Not enough downtown property owners supported forming an improvement district and the organization couldn’t sustain itself.
Fayetteville Downtown Partners was formed in 2004. Before then, it was known as the Downtown Dickson Enhancement Project, which raised money and contributed to a number of streetscape improvements in the entertainment district.
Additionally, City Council member Sarah Marsh wants to create an arts and culture coordinator position on city staff. The person would work in tandem with a downtown association, but exclusively serve the interests of taxpayers and fulfilling the city’s missions, she said.
Like the downtown association, the arts and culture coordinator’s duties could be broad. However, a main focus to start off would be the arts corridor, Marsh said. It’s similar to how the city has contracts with the Chamber of Commerce and Startup Junkie for economic development, but also has staff members specializing in the field, she said.
“Art is political,” Marsh said. “Decisions have to be made about what type of art we have, and who it represents, and where it’s coming from. And those decisions need to be made in a really deliberate way by people with expertise in the field, who understand how to translate creativity into economy.”
Nierengarten said there may be a need for a city arts liaison position in the future. However, administrators need to be sure of a money source and a structure to support the position first, he said.