CBID ready to focus on plan to update Cisterna Plaza

Commissioners with the Fort Smith Central Business Improvement District (CBID) identified two projects to spruce up downtown and they should happen this summer. Now it’s time to look at what’s next. Could it be a revamp of Cisterna Plaza?

MAHG Architecture presented a blueprint for a better downtown in April 2024, explaining 10 projects that could ease mobility downtown while making the area more attractive to residents and visitors. The projects range in price from about $9,000 to $1.6 million, with the total combined cost for all the projects estimated to be $3.2 million.

After the plan was presented, CBID commissioners decided to take on two projects with a combined cost of $74,500 — the Garrison Crossing at Third Street project with a price tag of $9,208.31, and the Art Walk Connector with a cost of $65,362.36. The Art Walk Connector will have an entry plaza, art pedestals, string lights and an art walk lighted sign. It will be by the state office building and Prohibition Bar. Main Street Fort Smith — formerly 64.6 Downtown — is working on an alleyway installation between buildings for the Art Walk.

The CBID hit a snag with the Garrison Crossing at Third Street project when Arkansas Department of Transportation would not give approval for the a “pedestrian scramble,” a large crosswalk that allows for basic across-the-street crossings as well as diagonal crossings.

Commissioners opted in February to contribute $77,000 to the Garrison Courtyard project, which should be completed this summer. The project will increase sidewalk width, add light poles and string lights, and add a parking garage pedestrian entrance.

Joshua Robertson, director of Citizens Services, Sustainability, Fleet and Facilities for the City of Fort Smith said the city has made improvements to the property adjacent to Italian restaurant Prima Italia. They have installed lighting in the area between the restaurant and the city’s parking garage and made irrigation possible. The hope is to have the project completed in time for the Steel Horse Rally in May, Robertson said.

The new park will include five park benches and string lights, which will make it an inviting corridor between the city’s parking garage and Garrison Avenue, Robertson has noted in the past.

THE CISTERNA PROJECT
For the next project, CBID commissioners are wanting to tackle something that would make a big impact.

Commissioners discussed at their March meeting and their April 17 meeting that the next project should be the “Cisterna Plaza and Area Improvements” presented by MAHG in the Blueprint for a Better Downtown.

This was the most expensive project in the collection and calls for a Towson Avenue pedestrian promenade, a Cisterna open lawn area, Cisterna Plaza improvements and 10th Street pedestrian improvements. The total cost of the project was estimated at $1.644 million.

“We’ll have two smaller (projects) finished this summer. Let’s look at the biggest one. The one on Texas Corner – the Cisterna Promenade. It’s the biggest show. That would be my vote,” said Commissioner Phil White.

The board agreed that if they do not look at the work suggested for 10th and 11th streets in the proposed project, it would not become attached to ARDOT. It also would cut the cost to approximately $900,000, they guessed.

“We do it over two or three years and focus on how to break it down,” White said.

MOMENTUM
Galen Hunter with MAHG, and Rusty Myers, executive committee member of the Western Arkansas Planning and Development District Board of Directors, met with the board April 17 to offer advice on picking projects.

“You need to choose projects that will get the momentum going,” Hunter said. “You need to ask yourselves how you can leverage or pick a project that gets private funds coming downtown.”

Myers agreed, telling the group that they need to focus on a more strategic approach to how they can attract investors or spur private investment or “serious non-profit investment.”

“Ideally, you want to identify potential partners who can contribute to what you are trying to do on their dime. Their involvement, investment and continued investment can stay and help with what you are trying to do for years, decades,” Myers said.

Bill Hanna, chair of the CBID board, said he thinks the Cisterna project will do that but commissioners at the meeting agreed they need to put some thought into what to do next.

“I’m excited about this next one because it should spur on some of that,” Hanna said. “It will show what we can actually accomplish. It shows we are trying to do something.”