While expansion projects on the south end of Marion near Indiana Wesleyan University continue to draw attention, Mayor Wayne Seybold and other city officials say the attention and care is still being paid to downtown.
Downtown’s importance
Aletha Dunston, the city’s advisory plan director, said the city views downtown as “the heart of your city,” and Marion’s downtown is more important than most because it’s also the county seat.
“Residents should feel a lot of pride in downtown because it’s the gateway to the city,” she said. “When people visit, they remember your downtown, not your business strips.”
She added that lots of money has been invested in downtown over the past five to 10 years, but it might not be as apparent to observers as in other downtowns.
In many downtowns, cities invest in one specific part, so the difference becomes noticeable, she said. In Marion, however, the city has spread investment “throughout the grid,” rather than in one place.
Challenges, plans, and possibilities
Some of the main challenges Dunston cited are what to do with the riverfront, how to proceed with the vast acreage near Ballard Field and trying to have more green space in pedestrian areas.
“You want pedestrians to have a pleasant experience, and green space is often the answer,” she said. “But, because of extended basements in many of the buildings, you can’t expand.”
She thinks the Ballard Field space “has a lot of possibilities,” but any development there is still in the budgeting phase.
Seybold said, “We have the potential for one of the best soccer complexes around, and a state-of-the-art soccer field where we could have tournaments would really help downtown.”
Mark Fauser, the city’s marketing director, planned to announce this weekend that a new dog park will be built across from Ballard Field. He said it has been “in the works for quite some time,” and it will be done through The Community Foundation.
Members of the park would need to have their dogs neutered and keep their dogs updated on their vaccinations, and pet owners would pay a to-be-determined yearly fee — probably about $75 — to obtain a card they’d then swipe for park access, he said.
“It’s for serious pet owners, and it’ll have an organized, structured format that will benefit pet owners,” he said.
The city’s parks department already owns the land, Fauser said, and he views the dog park as a chance for the community to take ownership of their city. People will also be able to donate to The Community Foundation and earmark their money specifically for the dog park, if they wish.
Dunston added that “activating the riverfront” remains a goal in developing downtown.
“It’s an asset, and the city owns the majority of the south bank, so it’s primed for development if we can find the funding,” she said. “The more we talk about it, the likelier it is to happen.”
Under her ideal situation, the city would also establish some sort of partnership with IWU to flood downtown with graduates and graduate students of IWU. They’d then stay in Marion long-term and help revitalize downtown.
“It’s about getting more people downtown, and seeing people on the streets feeling safe,” she said. “You can’t have retail without residents.”
Toward that end, the building formerly occupied by To Be Personalized has been remodeled to accommodate three loft spaces occupied by IWU students, she said, and Fauser added the residents are heavily involved in the arts and look forward to helping revitalize downtown.
Dunston would also like to see the Community School of the Arts continue to grow in size, scope and reach. In addition to the building they already occupy, they also own the property that was formerly occupied by Beatniks on Third and Adams.
“CSA is a huge regional asset, and a cornerstone of downtown,” she said. “I’d like to see an expanded campus.”
Seybold said the biggest problem downtown “is applying a thread that ties all the development together, and (the solution is) staring us right in the face: the arts.”
With CSA leading the charge, and other art-themed spots already operating downtown, he said he believes art should become the theme downtown.
“Those are already well-established properties, and we need to take that as a city and develop around that — tying it all together would change the feeling of downtown.”
Fauser, CSA’s executive director, said CSA has definite designs on expanding their downtown footprint.
“It used to be a ghost-town at night (downtown), but now it’s vibrant,” he said. “We’re going to need restaurants downtown, and that will draw people, too.”
Trace Paulson has been operating Beatnik’s on the downtown square in Marion for more than a decade, so he’s witnessed many of the changes, and he said “downtown was the place to be” when he was growing up in the 60s and 70s.
More than anything else, he’d like to see the empty buildings downtown filled, but he’s also like to see retail shops and a riverfront district, he said. For utilizing the riverfront, he cited Lafayette as a model to follow.
“I’d like to see more places like mine all around me to create a destination location,” he said. “We’ve done over 1,500 shows, but it would be nice to have more options for people.”