Downtown is about to become a mess, but ‘the sky is not going to fall,’ city says

There is a high level of excitement from downtown businesses with several construction projects either underway or set to begin. But there also is a measure of anxiety.

The last time a major improvement occurred along Old Main Street in downtown Bradenton was in the 1990s and long-time established businesses like Fav’s Italian Cucina and Robin’s Downtown Cafe struggled to survive the construction mess. With a lot more businesses than were back then now in operation, city officials have one clear message: All will be done to lessen the impact.

The Bradenton City Council, acting as the Community Redevelopment Agency, officially gave the green light this week to the city’s latest project, a major downtown streetscaping project. With that approval came a strong message of reassurance.

“Change scares everyone,” said Vice Mayor Patrick Roff. “But the more we involve the community, the more they will likely see the sky is not going to fall.”

Roff said there would have been real concern had it been necessary for the city to include a substantial infrastructure upgrade at the same time the streetscaping project is expected to begin after Jan. 1.

“When this first started, there were large scale thoughts on having to replace the utilities, but this has gone back to the beginning of just a streetscaping project,” Roff said.

Mayor Wayne Poston said the Downtown Merchants Association, “are all in favor of this. They are all saying it’s a good thing. There may be a temporary disruption of business, but it’s not going to close us down.”

Wednesday’s approval secured a $185,418 design contract with Kimley Horn. Construction costs won’t be tallied until the final design, which is likely to include improved lighting, public art, wider sidewalks and replacing a large portion of downtown’s brick pavers with uniquely designed concrete.

The work also could include the installation of downtown security cameras, providing more shading south of Manatee Avenue West, new connections between downtown and the Village of the Arts and potentially expanding the project from between 10th and 13th streets west to as far east as Mineral Springs Park.

“It’s not cheap and it is costly do this,” said Economic Development Director Carl Callahan. “But once we have a palete in place, then the concept can be moved anywhere in the city. The form or function of this concept doesn’t have to be limited to one or two streets.”

Callahan said the most important aspect right now is continued community engagement.

“There will be a lot of time spent with the stakeholders in the downtown area,” he said. “Kimley Horn will be at several upcoming events talking with people. It’s not a project that exists right here in city hall, it’s going to be taken out to the people and that’s a very significant piece of this.”

Councilman Gene Brown said how the project is timed is essential to ensure “we are not hurting businesses.”

Jim McLellan, public works director and a member of the steering committee that has been working with Kimley Horn, said it will be completely different than the project that tore up Old Main Street in the 1990s.

“We’ll work toward setting up this project in phases to minimize disruption,” said McLellan. “There will be some disruption. You can’t get around that, but we can do things to minimize it and that includes trying to do as much of the work as we can at night.”

This story was originally published April 13, 2017 at 11:38 AM with the headline "Downtown is about to become a mess, but ‘the sky is not going to fall,’ city says."