Drake seeks solutions for region’s downtowns

TONY BROWN/DAILY FORUM
Downtown revitalization consultant Ron Drake, right, speaks with La Chic Salon & Spa owner Jennifer Gillespie Wednesday morning in the salon’s customer service area. During the discussion, which was attended by civic leaders from a half-dozen northwest Missouri communities, Gillespie talked about her efforts to have her building placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Downtown redevelopment expert Ron Drake, a Siloam Springs, Arkansas, developer and consultant — and author of the book “Flip This Town” — arrived in Maryville this week for three days of tours, interviews, and meetings with officials and civic leaders from across northwest Missouri.

Drake was hired by the Community Foundation of Northwest Missouri to evaluate redevelopment opportunities in Maryville — and by extension similar communities throughout the foundation’s 18-county region.

He spent Wednesday morning touring businesses and conducting interviews in Maryville’s central business district along with both local leaders and economic development professionals from Albany, Marceline, Brookfield, Trenton, Cameron, and St. Joseph.

Early stops on the tour included La Chic Salon & Spa and Cobbler Cottage on the north side of the square.

At La Chic, Drake spoke with owner Jennifer Gillespie, who described her efforts to have her building, located at 108 E. Third St., placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Gillespie said her application is based on the building’s connection with Dr. Perry Talbott, a 19th century physician and politician who published a newspaper in the structure prior to his murder in Arkoe in 1880.

During the stop, Drake commented on how other towns have capitalized on such history-related connections to boost tourism and talked about the availability of state and federal historical rehabilitation tax credits, which can be used to help finance restoration efforts and other improvements.

Following a catered lunch at the Nodaway County Administration Center, Drake was to meet with central business district property owners and renters before attending a session later in the afternoon with bankers and real estate professionals.

More meetings are scheduled for today after Drake tours Northwest Missouri State University prior to a luncheon at the A&G Restaurant with business and industry representatives, Northwest President John Jasinski, state Sen. Dan Hegeman, and state Rep. Allen Andrews.

The A&G session is to continue into the afternoon with input from service clubs and the Nodaway County Historical Society.

Drake’s visit to Maryville will conclude following a sold-out breakfast meeting Friday morning in the J.W. Jones Student Union Ballroom on the Northwest Campus, which is being hosted by the foundation.

At that time, Drake is expected to share thoughts gleaned over the first two days of his visit and to explore ideas for redevelopment both in Maryville and other northwest Missouri cities.

In his home community in northwest Arkansas, Drake, through various companies, bought and sold more than 45 homes, mostly in historic neighborhoods.

He later shifted his focus to downtown Siloam Springs, where he restored 17 historic buildings, revitalizing more than 75,000 square feet of space and transforming a declining retail area into a cultural center.

As a result of his efforts, the community was listed at No. 14 in Smithsonian Magazine’s Best Small Towns in America. In 2014, Parade Magazine listed Siloam Springs as the Fourth Best Main Street in America.

Before embarking on Wednesday’s tour, Drake said his plan was to “meet with as many people as I can and try to come up with some solutions” for moving downtowns in the foundation’s service area forward.

In addition to his experience in Siloam Springs, Drake said his consulting work has yielded results in such cities as Okmulgee, Oklahoma, a college town of 12,000.

Drake said he spent 22 months working with Okmulgee officials and businesspeople in an attempt to foster improved town-gown relations while helping assemble a $20 million package for proposed redevelopment.

He cautioned that there is no “one-size-fits-all solution” for revitalizing small, rural communities, and that his mission in Maryville is to look for “connections and opportunities” tied to resources that already exist.

“Everything Maryville needs to have a great downtown is already right here,” he said.

Specifically, Drake addressed the importance of establishing an effective “Main Street” agency, an effort already under way here in the form of the Maryville Downtown Improvement Organization.

Drake said while MDIO’s current volunteer leadership is likely capable of making a good start, such organizations usually founder without significant funding and a professional executive at the helm.

At a minimum, Drake said, MDIO should probably have a budget of between $50,000 and $100,000, but he added that there is nothing wrong with starting small.

He said Siloam Springs was spending around $16,000 a year on downtown revitalization before getting serious about renewal efforts, and that the annual “Main Street” budget there has increased to around $250,000.

Drake warned community leaders that even a model program of financing, bricks-and-mortar construction, business recruitment, and other forms of development can fail unless people are committed to making their town a nice place to live.

Without welcoming restaurants and shops, loft-style apartments, and attractive public gathering spaces — in a word the ambience of gracious living — merely rehabbing old buildings probably won’t do the trick, he said.

“It can get down to a personal level,” Drake said. “A lot of times it’s just the quality of life.”

The Community Foundation of Northwest Missouri is a regional non-profit with the stated goal of retaining accumulated wealth within an 18-county region through charitable giving, philanthropy, and economic revitalization.

Set up as a 501(c)(3) public charity, the organization administers more than 187 funds with about $21 million in assets. It is headquartered at 1006 W. St. Maartens Drive, Suite B, in St. Joseph.