In 2001, when Jamie Gates had just started as director of the Conway Downtown Partnership, he was showing a group of people around Conway's city center on foot. Someone pulled his vehicle up next to the group at the corner of Front and North streets, rolled down the window and exclaimed, "Nice downtown."
The sarcasm was not lost on Gates. Now, six years later, as he stands on that same street corner, it's Gates - now assistant to Conway Mayor Tab Townsell - who is able to look back and joke about the strange occurrence.
Downtown Conway has undergone a rebirth, through an influx of public and private dollars, and the downtown is no longer the butt of jokes for passersby.
"We certainly have more work ahead of us," Gates said. "But it's drastically different than it was two years ago.
"It's 2007. Downtown is without a doubt the most vibrant real estate market in Faulkner County. Commercial construction is down in Conway but up in downtown Conway."
It's been a group effort to get downtown Conway back on its feet - a group including the city, business owners, private investors, the Conway Development Corporation and the Conway Downtown Partnership.
The CDP is a nonprofit economic development organization with the mission of improving downtown Conway, creating a focal point for residents and visitors to live, eat, shop and work. The CDP hired an architectural and urban design firm from Chicago to assist in creating Conway 2015: A Vision for Success, a blueprint for the development and redevelopment of downtown Conway.
The effort began in 2003 with improvements along Front Street, downtown's main thoroughfare to Hendrix College. Trees and planters were placed, sidewalks were redone with bricks, and classic-looking streetlights were added.
"The theory is, make the public investment, especially around unused property, and the private investment will follow," Gates said. "We really kind of started from scratch."
One of the first, new private investments was Mike's Place, a restaurant/private club in a downtown building constructed in 1907. In 2004, co-owner Mike Coats was asked to open a restaurant downtown. After receiving an alcohol permit in August 2004, Mike's Place (named after Coats and the other co-owner Mike Craft) opened in June 2005 next to the offices of American Management Corporation, a downtown stalwart.
"For the first six months, we were a little scared," Coats said. "I think people were taking bets on whether we would make it or not. But now we have 23,000 members."
With the success of Mike's Place, Coats, Craft and Limestone Partners (the management team behind Mike's Place) are in January 2008 opening Michelangelo's, an Italian restaurant just a few doors down from Mike's Place.
"Once we got down here there was a sense that Conway had a downtown that was on the move while in other locations downtowns were drying up as businesses move to the interstates," Coats said.
Michelangelo's will occupy the bottom floor of the historic Halter Building, at Oak and Front streets. The 34,000-square-foot, three-story building is undergoing a $4.5 million redevelopment and will continue to house Fletcher Smith Jewelers along with Michelangelo's, and office and residential spaces on the top two floors.
"We're reinvesting in these old downtown buildings," Gates said.
A couple of blocks over, the former Steele Chevrolet building is undergoing an approximately $3 million renovation and, when completed, will house a pizzeria and upscale steak restaurant.
All the restaurants are part of creating a downtown Conway that is vibrant even after the clock strikes 5 p.m. With a population of approximately 55,000 and an average age of about 27, along with being the home to three growing colleges, the hope is downtown Conway will include a cluster of about a half dozen or more restaurants, offering residents and students multiple dining opportunities.
"The restaurants are a big part of it," Gates said. "Downtowns are about connections, socializing and meeting with each other. The restaurants we have facilitate that."
But downtown Conway's rebirth is not limited to restaurants. The CDP purchased and renovated a building at Oak and Chester streets. What was once a vacant building is now the $1.5 million flagship store of EM Jeans, a top 10 denim retailer in the U.S. according to Teen Vogue.
Throughout downtown Conway's revival, several local businesses have remained as a downtown presence as other, newer businesses have entered the downtown market. The next step is introducing more residential units, as downtown has only a handful of lofts and apartments.
A few buildings already have been turned into or are in the process of being turned into lofts and apartments, but downtown needs more, Gates said.
"That's the next step," he said. "That's the mold. It's worked elsewhere and it will work here.
"We need it. There's a demand for it. Someone will do well with it in the coming years."
With the downtown Conway renewal, the city hopes to capitalize on its demographics, and give residents a reason to stay downtown after work and visit on the weekends.
"[The population is] young and it's educated," Gates said. "It's perfect for today's economy. We had the demographics and didn't have the downtown to meet those expectations. We're working on it."