TOP 10 OF 2018: Downtown revitalization full speed ahead

Published 6:07 pm Friday, December 28, 2018

Businesses opening, restoration happening across the downtown historic business district — Washington’s renaissance is one of the Top 10 stories of the year.

For the past three decades, downtown Washington’s revitalization has gone through stages: successes some years, with new businesses opening, followed by a slow periods where some businesses would close and new projects failed to materialize. The mainstays of downtown Washington business — Russell’s Men’s Shop, Stewart’s Jewelry Store, Big Bargain Furniture, The Meeting Place and more — have seen plenty of start-ups and non-start-ups come and go.

2018, however, just may have been the tipping point for revitalization in Washington, as properties, long abandoned, began to sell, and real renovation work started.

At 183 W. Main St., WIMCO president and 183 West Main LLC principal investor Kevin Rawls gutted the building that housed Washington Jewelers for more than five decades. Downstairs Copper Canyon Wellness, offering massages, spa treatments, yoga and other services opened earlier this month; upstairs, apartments are under construction.

Next door is the future home of Castle Island Brewery and its eight luxury apartments upstairs. Across the street, The Hackney is just days away from opening its restaurant. A fully restored old Bank of America building will be home to The Hackney restaurant, gin-distillery and boutique hotel — each to be rolled out in successive years.

Farther down Main Street, the former home of Tassels, is another renovation that will host commercial space downstairs and apartments upstairs, and the former Oasis building is slated to become an Irish pub in the not-so-distant future.

“It feels like it’s going to stick this time. And I think, primarily, the reason is that it’s individuals, entrepreneurial types, who are investing their own time, and their own money,” Scott Campbell, a local realtor and downtown dweller, said earlier this year.

Campbell attributed the 2018 wave of activity to synergy: in the past, out-of-towners interested in buying a home in Washington appeared unimpressed with how little rehabilitation was going on, he said. Not so anymore.

More visible investment means more people are drawn to invest in a place, as can be evidenced by the many businesses that have filled downtown storefronts, some of which had been empty for years. During the Dec. 8 Jingle and Mingle, a shopping event with receptions, samples and special discounts, 38 downtown businesses participated.

“I think it’s incredibly exciting to see what everyone’s doing and to have so many people participating in this,” Emily Rebert, the City of Washington’s community development planner, said earlier this year. “It’s not just, you know, the downtown, either. It’s also the residential district. Property owners are investing a lot of money in the district. … They’re taking on something bigger than themselves, and they are preserving Washington’s history and contributing to the economic development. There’s so much going on. It really is great. It’s wonderful to be a part of it and see this growth happening.”