‘Where I wanted to be’: New businesses see promise in city’s downtown core

“I think so. I really do. It is growing. More people want to come here. I looked everywhere for space and downtown was my prime location, that’s where I wanted to be,” she said.

Casa Amigos Cantina serves authentic Mexican food and they hope their restaurant and patio will bring even more vibrancy to the downtown core.

“We kind of want to have it a restaurant pub feel, you can walk the streets, and just hit each one,” she said.

Another business taking a chance on the downtown core is King Bagel. Christian Ellis is one of the owners.

“I’ve always liked downtown a lot when I was younger. Not a lot of shops survived for very long down here. But now that we are seeing a resurgence here we want to be downtown too,” he said.

King Bagel opened during Art Walk, one of the many events held in the city’s downtown core the past few months.

“It was a great way to open. It was trial by fire, probably our craziest day,” he said.

The past several years, the city has been working to promote the downtown core as a place to be. Most recently encouraging events like Art Walk to take place.

“Our thinking behind these events is if we can be the scaffolding for events we are hoping the small businesses can build on top of the events. Art in Motion was a great example where we did all of this fantastic programming with partners and businesses were able to open their doors and take advantage of all the people downtown,” said Aaron Nelson manager of cultural events and experiences.

It’s a strategy businesses like Casa Amigos, and King Bagel hope will help them stay in the downtown for years to come.

by Tiffany Goodwein

‘Where I wanted to be’: New businesses see promise in city’s downtown core

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