Can downtown Logan turn the corner?
(The Herald Journal)
By Jay Patrick
Published: Sunday, January 10, 2010 2:35 AM CST
Logan’s downtown is doing pretty good, but it could be doing better, according to people concerned with its health.
Theaters, ample parking, high vehicle traffic, several popular restaurants, home of Cache County and Logan city governments — the city’s core has a lot going for it and is certainly in better shape than the downtowns of hundreds of American cities that first malls and then big-box stores all but made irrelevant.
Improving Logan’s center is by no means being approached as one of those monumental reclamation jobs, but the city has hired consultants to gather information and build a plan for making it better.
They were in town last week interviewing residents and business owners.
“It’s intended to lay out a plan of action that helps us to strengthen and maintain the viability of downtown,” said Logan Community Development Director Jay Nielson.
The project has been in the works for four years but is now really getting rolling with the arrival of the consultants.
According to the city request for proposal (RFP), the consultants are charged with analyzing downtown’s market position, the mix of businesses, options for preserving historic buildings, business retention and expansion, parking needs and the housing market. Community Development Block Grants, funds made available through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban
Development (HUD), are paying for the $140,000 study.
Nielson said Logan is lucky its downtown has fared well but that the city’s got to stay ahead, so things never do go bad, like they once did in Ogden.
“We cannot allow our downtown to deteriorate,” Nielson said.
“The aim is to make downtown the hip and fun place it should be,” said Joe Needham, a former Municipal
Councilman, a current leader of the Downtown Alliance and part of the family that’s run a jewelry store downtown for 114 years.
Needham sees many plusses for sure but notes retail activity is slumping a bit. The evidence: lots of ground-floor professional offices. Shops should be there instead, Needham said.
Fewer offices, increased foot traffic, a more active night life, improvement of aging facades and dilapidated buildings and more people living downtown — those are things Needham said needs to happen. Downtown should be a place to live, work and play, he argued. Right now there are about 150 apartments in the area.
Also, “we’d like to be the entertainment center,” Needham said; the old theaters are great, but a Cineplex would really juice things up. More restaurants would also be good, he said.
The coming of the Iron Gate Grill to Church Street is a big score, Needham said. The Iron Gate received redevelopment grant money from the city to help pay for the changes needed for Iron Gate to operate in an old building.
“We could be doing a lot better,” said Mark Fjeldsted, part of the family that owns the Sportsman, a clothing and equipment store in business since 1947. A few more business are needed, he said — one-of-kind stuff and stuff that gets people down there at night.
“Our goal is to be different and unique in every aspect,” Fjeldsted said, referring to big-box outlets. “You can’t compete with the big-boxes so why try? You have to go in the completely opposite direction,” he said.
Like others, Fjeldsted too said Logan’s downtown isn’t doing bad.
“I actually think we’re in pretty good shape compared to others,” despite having big Walmarts at either end of the city, he said.
Downtown Logan has historically rebounded well from economic downturns and from shifts in retail development, Needham said. As a result, the area has evolved, unlike downtown Idaho Falls that looks frozen in the 1970s, he said.
Without a vital downtown, a town loses something, Needham said; an identity, its soul.
“Downtown is the heart,” he said.
To learn more about the city’s downtown plan, go to
www.loganutah.org and click on the community development link, or call the Community Development Department at 716-9021
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