Resurgence: Downtown revitalization counts success, challenges

HARLINGEN — They say that in the 1980s you could roll a bowling ball at high noon down the middle of Jackson Avenue in the heart of downtown Harlingen and not hit a soul.

Like countless communities across America, the city’s residents — seduced by the lure of new malls and subdivisions — turned their backs on downtown beginning in the 1970s.

Eventually, some began to wonder whether this was such a smart move after all, and downtown revitalization efforts began to take shape, the theory being that downtowns — with their rich history, diversity and architecture — were not something to be thrown away but rather a gem worth preserving.

Today many formerly forgotten downtowns are thriving again. Others, such as Harlingen’s, are still getting there. So says Cheryl LaBerge, Harlingen’s downtown manager since 2006.

The organization she heads, Downtown Harlingen, is a city department that’s also affiliated with Texas Main Street, which is part of the national Main Street Project set up in 1977 by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Texas, LaBerge notes, was one of the first states to get on board the Main Street program. Harlingen joined Texas Main Street in the early 1980s, adopting its program and tenets and marking the beginning of the city’s downtown revitalization effort. LaBerge’s organization itself is headquartered in the 1917 Planters Bank building at West Jackson Avenue and South Commerce.

“We want the legacy of those that built these buildings 100 years ago to continue,” she said. “That’s what drives the program.”

Progress has been made. Harlingen’s downtown district today has an 87 percent occupancy rate, a mix of 160 different businesses and organizations. These include professional services, law offices, three banks and government offices. Retail represents 22 percent. You’ll find a few national chains: Bank of America, Remax and Subway.

Also in the mix are new entrepreneurs living the dream of business ownership, and some of Harlingen’s oldest businesses: Grimsell Seed Company, established in 1909; Roberts Jewelry, founded in 1922, and Army Surplus Supply, which opened in 1946, right after World War II.

“Those three businesses all that time have been in the same families, which is amazing,” LaBerge said.

Of the 13 percent of unoccupied buildings downtown, about half are in good repair and ready to lease. and the other half aren’t. Speaking of challenges, this is a problem, LaBerge said.

Most of downtown’s 84 property owners are good about keeping their properties in good shape for the overall benefit of the district, but not all. That translates into a shortage of space downtown that could be leased.

“We do have some property owners who are challenges,” LaBerge said. “We actually could have a higher occupancy if we could get a few of them to make improvements to their buildings, because tenants generally don’t want to have to put in air conditioning and fix the roof and replace windows. They want something ready to go. I’ve had a few conversations this week and last week with people looking for space downtown. They want to be downtown, but the buildings that are missing windows or air conditioning, they’re not interested in.”

Downtown Harlingen does offer several types of incentives to help property owners pay for signs, storefront improvement, fire safety and security enhancement. The grants, which require the grantee to put up an equal amount, are funded by a Public Improvement District Assessment. This is essentially an extra tax paid by property owners within the downtown district. Every five years property owners must petition the Harlingen City Commission to keep the assessment program in place.

Five times since the 1980s, downtown property owners have petitioned the commission accordingly. The point of the assessment is to help attract private investment downtown. It works, LaBerge said, though the commission has fiddled with the assessment rate over the years. It’s fluctuated between 1 cent and 50 cents per $100 of property valuation.

Commissioners recently lowered the assessment rate to 15 cents, meaning the program is currently raising only about $23,000 a year.

Still, incentives alone aren’t enough to resurrect a downtown, since any enterprise being attempted still has to make sense economically, LaBerge said. Just because a building was once a café or a hat shop doesn’t mean it will ever be again.

“My view of it is the way you repurpose these buildings … you have to make it viable in today’s marketplace,” she said “A building built like this (Planters Bank) in 1917 isn’t going to work as a bank today, but it makes a great office. Down the street we have a building built also in the ‘teens that was a mortuary. It’s now Tony Shaub’s Art Studio, and he has wonderful pop art. The building across the street was built as a pharmacy in 1909. It’s now an art gallery.”

Downtown Harlingen’s vision is to make the area thriving, vibrant and unique. While it might work for cities like McAllen, becoming a nightlife destination is not part of Harlingen’s vision because it’s not marketable, LaBerge said.

Also in the “challenges” category: Hurricane Dolly, which dealt the neighborhood a terrific blow and set revitalization efforts back. In terms of its impact on downtown, the restoration and reopening of the 1927 Reese Hotel by Jo Wagner was the opposite of Hurricane Dolly.

LaBerge said the Reese project is a catalyst for downtown redevelopment.

“It was a 73,000-square-foot white elephant,” she said. “When you see the transformation, and it’s on a very busy street and people notice it, it makes people say ‘wow.’ It makes them realize that there is serious investment going on.”

Meanwhile, Market Days, which takes place the first Saturday of each month, brings large numbers of people downtown. Harlingen Farmers Market, summer movies on the green, classic car shows and downtown tours are attracting people too. LaBerge stresses that none of these events would be possible without volunteers.

Another feather in Downtown Harlingen’s cap is that it’s hosting this year’s Texas Main Street winter training conference, a four-day event that starts Tuesday.

Inevitably, some critics will argue that Harlingen’s downtown is a lost cause, not worth the money, time and effort. LeBerge strongly disagrees.

“That’s just not true,” she said. “People like that just have a different view of the world.”

Not that it’s a walk in the park. Revitalization is hard, and in places like Harlingen, it’s far from complete. No more telling illustration exists in the city than the Blaschka Tower, a skinny, nine-story derelict at West Jackson and North A Street.

In 1927 when it was new, the Blaschka was the premiere address for doctors, lawyers and the like. It was the tallest building in the Valley for 50 years and is still the tallest building in Harlingen. Now nobody knows what to do with it. It sits on the market, with no signs of budging.

“It needs new elevators, new windows, all the mechanical,” LaBerge said. “You’re going to need somebody with deep pockets, because it would probably be $4 million to $6 million, I would say, to renovate it. But it’s doable. It’ll happen. I have no doubt that it will happen. It’s just a question of when. To me it’s the elephant in the room.”